Here’s what’s making us happy this week.

By Brittany AllenAugust 21, 2026

Summer isn’t over—in fact, we rue the hater who throws in the beach towel before Labor Day. But there is a definite wind down spirit to late August. Afternoon storms gather steam on a dime, scuttling picnic plans. In New

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Literature & Essays

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Christelle Dabos on Empathy, Doing Good, and How We Fill Ourselves Up

It’s Sunday morning, September 18, 2016. I spent the previous day signing books in Lille, in northern France. My head is still foggy. I am making myself a cup of hot chocolate when, at the exact moment the microwave dings,

Christelle DabosAug 24, 2026

Literary Hub

5 Book Reviews You Need to Read This Week

Our feast of fabulous reviews this week includes Becca Rothfeld on Rachel Cusk’s Life of M, Emmet Fraizer on Jordy Rosenberg’s Night Night Fawn, Charlotte Wood on Dorthe Nors’s Range, Walton Muyumba on John Edgar Wideman’s Languages of Home, and Elizabeth Harper on

Book MarksAug 20, 2026

Public Books

Literature in the Time of Suicide

“In both these Spanish-language novels, thinking about suicide is not only to grapple with someone else’s decision to die, but also inevitably with one’s own decision to go on living.” The post Literature in the Time of Suicide appeared first on Public Books.

Megan CumminsAug 19, 2026

The Paris Review

If You Build It, Will They Come? On the Sperm Racing World Cup

Onto Sperm Racing’s elegantly vulgar premise, the company has grafted a lame higher purpose intended to justify and temper the joyful stupidity of the enterprise.

Paul McAdoryAug 21, 2026

Public Books

“Our Guns Make the Violence That People Are Fleeing”: Ieva Jusionyte on Guns & Violence in Mexico

“I was already there, and I was already an ethnographer. I was interested in borders as sites of state violence. I became very curious and I thought I would like to follow the guns south.” The post “Our Guns Make the Violence That People Are Fleeing”: Ieva Jusionyte on Guns & Violence in Mexico appeared first on Public Books.

Megan CumminsAug 20, 2026

The Conversation

Australian poetry classics: Francis Webb, the 20th century’s ‘most unjustly neglected poet’, is our best kept literary secret

Francis Webb was the first Australian poet to openly discuss mental health crises and the stigmatisation of mental patients.

Toby Davidson, Senior Lecturer in Literary Studies, Macquarie UniversityAug 20, 2026