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Sarah and the shipmates

Vowell on the Puritans and the founding of Rhode Island
Humorist, historian, superhero. Sarah Vowell is a woman of letters and voices.

By: MICHAEL ATCHISON | October 22, 2009

Graphic Traffic

A sweet crop of graphic narratives
Comics. Graphic novels. Sequential-art books. Call them what you will, but there are more of them than ever.

By: MIKE MILIARD | October 16, 2009

Whatchamacallit

Jack Pendarvis's not quite mot juste
John Gardner, the great teacher and novelist who wrote approximately 413 books before annihilating himself on a motorcycle in 1982, was very big on vocabulary.

By: JAMES PARKER | October 15, 2009

Slideshow: Inside today's graphic novels

An exclusive look into a collection of graphic novels
Images from graphic novels like World War 3 , Drunk , Asterios Polyp , and more.

By: PHOENIX STAFF | October 14, 2009

Nick Cave’s bad Bunny
When I interviewed Nick Cave for the Phoenix three years ago and he told me — drolly, languidly, literarily — that his next writing project was about “a sexually incontinent hand-cream salesman” on the south coast of England, I assumed he was taking the piss.

By: JAMES PARKER | October 06, 2009

It's hip to be icosahedral

In a new book, Ethan Gilsdorf tracks his global quest to visit the holiest nerd-world sites
Be they beer geeks, comic-book geeks, or music geeks, nowadays people flout their geekdom proudly, even wearing it like a badge.

By: MIKE MILIARD | October 05, 2009

Hans Rickheit versus the novel

Exploding Cow Dept.
In high-school English class, we're taught that literature features three basic types of conflict: man versus man, man versus environment, and man versus himself.

By: MIKE MILIARD | September 30, 2009

Loss leader

Jill McCorkle's joyful sorrow
The stories in Jill McCorkle's new collection are about the battle to stay conscious and be truthful with yourself — to live beyond illusion.

By: SUSAN CHAMANDY | September 30, 2009

Interview: Jane Goodall

Jane Goodall on her new book, North Korea, and Bible-thumping conservatives
If only there were more trees to be torn down, we could utilize them . . . to fill newspapers with the endless depressing stories out there about the environment and all its hapless inhabitants.

By: LANCE GOULD | September 23, 2009

Photos: Harvard Square 1950s and beyond

Harvard Square through the years
Photos from H arvard Square: An Illustrated History Since 1950 by Mo Lotman

By: MO LOTMAN | September 28, 2009

Plain talk

Jesse Sheidlower gives the f-word its due
Jesse Sheidlower, an editor-at-large of the Oxford English Dictionary , an expert in slang, and the author of The F-Word , can't stop talking about fuck.

By: JUSTINE ELIAS | September 15, 2009

Tall tales

Novelists and poets set fancies flying
This fall brings fiction and poetry lovers new treats from old friends.

By: BARBARA HOFFERT | September 14, 2009

The whole truth

Tomes from the 'fact' department
It's the economy, stupid. Or maybe politics or literature. Fall non-fiction goes wide and deep, so plan for some marathon reading.

By: BARBARA HOFFERT | September 14, 2009

Have a nice future

Blake Butler rains gravel and glass
Blake Butler rains gravel and glass

By: NINA MACLAUGHLIN | September 09, 2009

Victorian jewel

A fictional setting that never fades
What price beauty? That's the question lovely Grace Hammer has to answer as her world begins to fall apart.

By: CLEA SIMON | September 09, 2009

Not so elementary

Barbara Bradley Hagerty goes looking for God
On June 14, 1995, around two in the afternoon, I lowered my guard. I opened myself up just barely to the notion that there might be a God who cares about me in the same way that Jesus cared about, say, his friend Mary.

By: JEFFREY GANTZ | September 02, 2009