fiction

Immortal Machine: Vauhini Vara Processes Death Through A.I.

Headshot of Vauhini Vara, an Indian woman with long, black hair. She smiles at the camera in front of a blue background.
by Jenna Mahale
April 1, 2022 at 10:25am
Jenna Mahale interviews writer Vauhini Vara about her work with GPT-3, an A.I. writing program that she collaborated with on a recent essay about her loss of her sister.
Laynie Rose

This TikTokker Has Your Next Queer Rom Com Reading Rec

by Sarah Stark
February 25, 2022 at 9:43am
“It’s Gay and It Slaps”  Read more »
Photos of Najmieh Batmanglij, Madeleine Kamman, and Marcella Hazan vertically spliced together

Rethinking Legacy: "Tastemakers" is a Starting Point for the Problematic History of Recipes and Food Media

by Aditi Kini
January 14, 2022 at 10:32am
The James Beard award winner Mayukh Sen’s first book invites trouble, but more questions come up in the process. Read more »
Author Juhea Kim in a bright red shirt in front of an orange background. To her right is a picture of the cover for Beasts of a Little Land

Juhea Kim Talks Korean History and Why Books Should Break Us Open

by Edi Kim
December 13, 2021 at 2:34pm
A new book explores the power of artistic imagery from Venus to Beyoncé. Read more »
An image of the book cover of A Snake Falls to Earth. On the cover, a Native American femme wears a yellow shirt and headphones. Her red clay colored skirt turns into a snake at the bottom.

“A Snake Falls to Earth” Gives YA Readers a Vivid Coming-of-Age Story

by Amanda Gokee
December 8, 2021 at 12:11pm
Darcie Little Badger’s second novel follows an unlikely pair: Nina, a young Lipan Apache girl, and Oli, a cottonmouth snake. Read more »
Photo of author Morgan Jerkins

“Caul Baby” Meditates on the Birthing of Black Women’s Lives

by Jordan Taliha McDonald
April 6, 2021 at 9:17am
The caul bearer is often featured as a prominent figure within mystical and spiritual lore around the world.  Read more »
A collage of four books: Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo, Hurricane Child by Kacen Callender, Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas, Wild Beauty by Anna Marie McLemore.

Safe and Seen: Leave Potter Nostalgia behind in Favor of Trans Authors

by Alaina Leary
June 10, 2020 at 3:15pm
It’s heartbreaking to learn that one of your icons is transphobic. Read more »
Amanda Leduc, a white woman with wavy dark brown hair, looks at the camera. She has a soft smile and appears to be outdoors.

Amanda Leduc and Fantasy Authors Challenge the Trope of “Broken” Disabled People

by Alaina Leary
March 9, 2020 at 1:54pm
Fairy tales and their contemporary counterparts—superhero tales, science fiction, fantasy—shape our collective ideas about what it means to be powerful and beautiful.  Read more »
Party of Two, a blue book cover that features an illustration of a couple sitting together at a table

BitchReads: 27 Novels Feminists Should Read in 2020

by Evette Dionne
February 3, 2020 at 5:04pm
We’ve already published our most-anticipated lists of nonfiction and young-adult books, but this one, featuring 27 adult novels, is special. Read more »
Close up images from three books, including an image of a white nonbinary person leaning their head on a brown boy's shoulder; a Black girl in pajamas with natural hair; a pair of queer girls standing close to each other, one's hand on the other's neck.

The Best Queer YA Novels of 2019

by Rachel Charlene Lewis
December 10, 2019 at 12:13pm
It’s been a stunning year for queer young-adult novels. Read more »
The cover of The Music of What Happens by Bill Konigsberg, which features the two main characters, Max, a gay biracial Mexican baseball player, and Jordan, a gay poet.

A Queerer World: 2019 Is the Year of the LGBTQ YA Novel

by Rachel Charlene Lewis
June 26, 2019 at 2:12pm
This year, LGBTQ young adult novels have finally diversified the queer experience. Read more »

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Hot Under the Bonnet: The Cooptation of Amish Culture in Mass-Market Fiction

a blue and white illustration of a woman in Amish attire standing next to a fan and a chicken
by Audrey deCoursey
Spring 2014 • Maps & Legends
Dubbed “Amish romance novels,” “Amish fiction,” or the more waggish “bonnet rippers,” these novels just one entry point into the varying images of Amish communities in U.S. popular culture. Read more »