Essays

Near the end of her life when she was apparently thinking about doing some autobiographical writing, Lillian Smith told a friend that “to tell the truth I have so many selves that I wonder sometimes how I’d do an autobiography.”

Smiles and politeness, the mollifying oils of Asia, flow as freely in Vietnam as in China, but beneath the civilities, life in Vietnam seems comparatively violent. Instructions on the door of our fancy Saigon hotel, The Rex, after some...

Lawrence Weschler on his role in the decades-old disagreement between two giants of art.

Hayden Carruth, a frequent contributor to VQR, passed away at 87.

Charlotte Kohler, the sixth and longest serving editor of VQR, passed away this week at the age of 99.

Wired is chronicling their entire idea-to-print publishing process via blog.

Democrats are on an upward glissando.

The unofficial Palestinian national poet has died.

By now making fun of hipsters is far too easy for anyone to bother, so the Canadian magazine Adbusters has taken things a step further. The current issue’s cover story, “Hipsters: The Dead End of Western Civilization,” (over-)written by one...