“A great contrast to the usual magazine.” —Virginia Woolf Quarterly in print, weekly online. Join a conversation 200 years in the making. Read the latest: https://yalereview.org/ Subscribe: https://shop.yalereview.org/https://bsky.app/profile/yalereview.bsky.socialhttps://bsky.app/profile/yalereview.bsky.social/post/3mlrbkhjhjs2v"To inhabit an altered, fractured, and mystical space on a sentence level requires a kind of playfulness, and a willingness to acknowledge the unsayable." —Aria Aber https://backmatter.yalereview.org/p/behind-the-essay-aria-aber13 May 2026 21:44 +0000at://did:plc:wlxlfog44srgfaarnm7ttolj/app.bsky.feed.post/3mlrbkhjhjs2vhttps://bsky.app/profile/yalereview.bsky.social/post/3mlqvemnopf2a"The novel reclaims the magic of life and death from evolution and pathology while insisting that this magic can be a learned art." Merve Emre on Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain. https://yalereview.org/article/merve-emre-thomas-mann13 May 2026 18:06 +0000at://did:plc:wlxlfog44srgfaarnm7ttolj/app.bsky.feed.post/3mlqvemnopf2ahttps://bsky.app/profile/yalereview.bsky.social/post/3mlqp2l65bo2r"Spielberg makes precision-crafted films to flatter dadly sensibilities; he also makes movies for children, warning them that, one day, those dads might choose to disappear." Phillip Maciak on Steven Spielberg. https://yalereview.org/article/phillip-maciak-steven-spielberg13 May 2026 16:13 +0000at://did:plc:wlxlfog44srgfaarnm7ttolj/app.bsky.feed.post/3mlqp2l65bo2rhttps://bsky.app/profile/yalereview.bsky.social/post/3mlqgdm5tfh27Join us on Substack for behind-the-scenes conversations with our writers. https://backmatter.yalereview.org13 May 2026 13:37 +0000at://did:plc:wlxlfog44srgfaarnm7ttolj/app.bsky.feed.post/3mlqgdm5tfh27https://bsky.app/profile/yalereview.bsky.social/post/3mlqaqsgosh2n"She is a writer who can write into the darkness, who sometimes feels like a friend, and who always meets your eye." Isabella Hammad on Etel Adnan. https://yalereview.org/article/isabella-hammad-etel-adnan13 May 2026 11:57 +0000at://did:plc:wlxlfog44srgfaarnm7ttolj/app.bsky.feed.post/3mlqaqsgosh2nhttps://bsky.app/profile/yalereview.bsky.social/post/3mlq7zj2tpk27"there is a land of the living and a land of the lost, and the bridge is fine as a child’s ribbon, and the river is dark as the face of God" "The Day the Night Terrors Finally Stopped" by Jessica Nordell, TYR's Poem of the Week: https://yalereview.org/article/nordell-the-day-the-night-terrors-finally-stopped13 May 2026 11:44 +0000at://did:plc:wlxlfog44srgfaarnm7ttolj/app.bsky.feed.post/3mlq7zj2tpk27https://bsky.app/profile/yalereview.bsky.social/post/3mlontryqur2y"When I first saw the sculptures of Louise Bourgeois in the mid-nineties, I felt not only addressed but summoned, pulled by my hair into a dialogue both intimate and difficult." Madhu H. Kaza on Louise Bourgeois. https://yalereview.org/article/kaza-bourgeois-subject-pain12 May 2026 20:46 +0000at://did:plc:wlxlfog44srgfaarnm7ttolj/app.bsky.feed.post/3mlontryqur2yhttps://bsky.app/profile/yalereview.bsky.social/post/3mlodfg3f7o2r"A poem seemed a space to store a secret, and I had plenty of secrets." Carl Phillips on writing his first book. https://yalereview.org/article/carl-phillips-in-the-blood12 May 2026 17:39 +0000at://did:plc:wlxlfog44srgfaarnm7ttolj/app.bsky.feed.post/3mlodfg3f7o2rhttps://bsky.app/profile/yalereview.bsky.social/post/3mlnzkpih762b"If stone was not inert matter, I thought, but a happening, or a process, perhaps a tomb could embody a similarly vibrant state." Edmée Lepercq on grief and geological time. https://yalereview.org/article/edmee-lepercq-tombstones12 May 2026 14:43 +0000at://did:plc:wlxlfog44srgfaarnm7ttolj/app.bsky.feed.post/3mlnzkpih762bhttps://bsky.app/profile/yalereview.bsky.social/post/3mlnofjx2bo27"Rather than reading Dictee as a riddle to be solved, we must look for its pleasures, the foremost of which is love." Ken Chen on Theresa Hak Kyung Cha. https://yalereview.org/article/chen-dictee-introduction-cha12 May 2026 11:23 +0000at://did:plc:wlxlfog44srgfaarnm7ttolj/app.bsky.feed.post/3mlnofjx2bo27https://bsky.app/profile/yalereview.bsky.social/post/3mlmfsvk4mo2p"It’s not an event but a feeling that forces me to write or make something. And that feeling is almost always unendurable pain and confusion." —Miranda July https://yalereview.org/article/miranda-july-interview11 May 2026 23:17 +0000at://did:plc:wlxlfog44srgfaarnm7ttolj/app.bsky.feed.post/3mlmfsvk4mo2phttps://bsky.app/profile/yalereview.bsky.social/post/3mlmbnh55u427"To give a purely psychological explanation is to subsume social facts into biology in a way that makes politics vanish." Hari Kunzru on evolutionary psychology and the culture wars. https://yalereview.org/article/evolutionary-psychology-culture-wars11 May 2026 22:02 +0000at://did:plc:wlxlfog44srgfaarnm7ttolj/app.bsky.feed.post/3mlmbnh55u427https://bsky.app/profile/yalereview.bsky.social/post/3mlm25abenf2o"He was a magician who defended against too much feeling, which sometimes threatened to overwhelm him, and so he surprised you with his tricks." Edward Hirsch on John Ashbery. https://yalereview.org/article/the-brink-of-destruction11 May 2026 19:48 +0000at://did:plc:wlxlfog44srgfaarnm7ttolj/app.bsky.feed.post/3mlm25abenf2ohttps://bsky.app/profile/yalereview.bsky.social/post/3mllrsrponw2l"Writers dig deeply to put their words to paper, but only the act of reading—quivering movements of the eyes across the page—can bring those fixed marks to life." Jhumpa Lahiri on Thomas Hardy. https://yalereview.org/article/jhumpa-lahiri-quiver-and-fixity11 May 2026 17:19 +0000at://did:plc:wlxlfog44srgfaarnm7ttolj/app.bsky.feed.post/3mllrsrponw2lhttps://bsky.app/profile/yalereview.bsky.social/post/3mllp6payt22nLast chance: subscribe by today to receive our Summer issue, featuring Annie Ernaux, Namwali Serpell, Lauren Oyler, Sheila Heti, Patricia Lockwood, and more. https://shop.yalereview.org/products/the-yale-review-print-subscription11 May 2026 16:32 +0000at://did:plc:wlxlfog44srgfaarnm7ttolj/app.bsky.feed.post/3mllp6payt22nhttps://bsky.app/profile/yalereview.bsky.social/post/3mliwwera7f2y"She was my shelter and my storm." Arundhati Roy on how her mother made her a writer. https://yalereview.org/article/shakespeare-and-company-interview-arundhati-roy10 May 2026 14:12 +0000at://did:plc:wlxlfog44srgfaarnm7ttolj/app.bsky.feed.post/3mliwwera7f2yhttps://bsky.app/profile/yalereview.bsky.social/post/3mlh23wwbzg2vWhat Was AI? Our Summer issue features Annie Ernaux, Namwali Serpell, Samuel Moyn, Lauren Oyler, Sheila Heti, and more. Subscribe by May 11 to get your copy. https://shop.yalereview.org/products/the-yale-review-print-subscription09 May 2026 20:04 +0000at://did:plc:wlxlfog44srgfaarnm7ttolj/app.bsky.feed.post/3mlh23wwbzg2vhttps://bsky.app/profile/yalereview.bsky.social/post/3mlgfloputt2v"One detects a writer who has finally lost patience with Americans’ persistent failure to understand the obvious consequences of their own country’s actions." —Richard Beck on Thomas Pynchon https://yalereview.org/article/richard-beck-thomas-pynchon09 May 2026 13:57 +0000at://did:plc:wlxlfog44srgfaarnm7ttolj/app.bsky.feed.post/3mlgfloputt2vhttps://bsky.app/profile/yalereview.bsky.social/post/3mlg2zq3u522v"Somehow, my fact-checking job had slipped me into the envelope of another human’s most personal realm." —Susan Choi https://yalereview.org/article/susan-choi-new-yorker-fact-checking09 May 2026 10:48 +0000at://did:plc:wlxlfog44srgfaarnm7ttolj/app.bsky.feed.post/3mlg2zq3u522vhttps://bsky.app/profile/yalereview.bsky.social/post/3mlekskrte32n"My mind slid down toward youth, and distilled tonic drinks, by which I mean you, that morning we sat by the canal after I had embarrassed myself at a party again." —Aria Aber, "Church" https://yalereview.org/article/aria-aber-church08 May 2026 20:25 +0000at://did:plc:wlxlfog44srgfaarnm7ttolj/app.bsky.feed.post/3mlekskrte32nhttps://bsky.app/profile/yalereview.bsky.social/post/3mlejlbcebd2n"Our task is not to condemn literary and historical figures but to think deeply and imaginatively about them." Tiana Reid on Zora Neale Hurston. https://yalereview.org/article/tiana-reid-zora-neale-hurston08 May 2026 20:03 +0000at://did:plc:wlxlfog44srgfaarnm7ttolj/app.bsky.feed.post/3mlejlbcebd2nhttps://bsky.app/profile/yalereview.bsky.social/post/3mleda564hr2p"The watch is self-winding and needs to be worn to stay wound—I still remember when I put it on and it began to tick again, as if I had brought it back to life." Alexander Chee on his father’s watch. https://yalereview.org/article/alexander-chee-omega-constellation08 May 2026 18:09 +0000at://did:plc:wlxlfog44srgfaarnm7ttolj/app.bsky.feed.post/3mleda564hr2phttps://bsky.app/profile/yalereview.bsky.social/post/3mldxqud5ad2rElena Gosalvez Blanco remembers her months as Patricia Highsmith’s assistant—a role that became unexpectedly intimate and unsettling. https://yalereview.org/article/working-for-patricia-highsmith08 May 2026 14:44 +0000at://did:plc:wlxlfog44srgfaarnm7ttolj/app.bsky.feed.post/3mldxqud5ad2rhttps://bsky.app/profile/yalereview.bsky.social/post/3mldmjf4i5s2n"My peak salary was $498,141. That’s not a misprint—$498,141, or more than $166,000 per story." Bryan Burrough on Vanity Fair’s golden age. https://yalereview.org/article/burrough-vanity-fair-graydon-carter08 May 2026 11:23 +0000at://did:plc:wlxlfog44srgfaarnm7ttolj/app.bsky.feed.post/3mldmjf4i5s2nhttps://bsky.app/profile/yalereview.bsky.social/post/3mlbykgcr4n2b"I sensed in the painting immense determination—to have no self-pity, to be vital..." —Rachel Cohen https://yalereview.org/article/rachel-cohen-joan-mitchell07 May 2026 19:53 +0000at://did:plc:wlxlfog44srgfaarnm7ttolj/app.bsky.feed.post/3mlbykgcr4n2bhttps://bsky.app/profile/yalereview.bsky.social/post/3mlbssdzkl42i"Collecting books was an ambition in and of itself; their assemblage a work of art one lived with, almost lived in." —Violaine Huisman on her father’s library https://yalereview.org/article/violaine-huisman-father-library07 May 2026 18:10 +0000at://did:plc:wlxlfog44srgfaarnm7ttolj/app.bsky.feed.post/3mlbssdzkl42ihttps://bsky.app/profile/yalereview.bsky.social/post/3mlbi2ysikq2v"The marvelous archive of Woolf’s pieces for The Yale Review makes clear that each essay forms part of a cohesive whole: a radical vision of the literary process." —Claire Messud https://yalereview.org/article/claire-messud-virginia-woolf07 May 2026 14:58 +0000at://did:plc:wlxlfog44srgfaarnm7ttolj/app.bsky.feed.post/3mlbi2ysikq2vhttps://bsky.app/profile/yalereview.bsky.social/post/3mlb4is73l62yAnnie Ernaux’s unpublished journals—plus a print-exclusive essay available nowhere else—in our Summer issue. Subscribe by May 11. https://shop.yalereview.org/products/the-yale-review-print-subscription07 May 2026 11:31 +0000at://did:plc:wlxlfog44srgfaarnm7ttolj/app.bsky.feed.post/3mlb4is73l62yhttps://bsky.app/profile/yalereview.bsky.social/post/3mlayllwpoy2o"This is church! you liked to say about the nights we spent tweaking at the kitchen table." —Aria Aber, "Church" https://yalereview.org/article/aria-aber-church07 May 2026 10:21 +0000at://did:plc:wlxlfog44srgfaarnm7ttolj/app.bsky.feed.post/3mlayllwpoy2ohttps://bsky.app/profile/yalereview.bsky.social/post/3ml7pdj5rbc2bJoin us on Substack for behind-the-scenes conversations with our writers. https://backmatter.yalereview.org06 May 2026 22:02 +0000at://did:plc:wlxlfog44srgfaarnm7ttolj/app.bsky.feed.post/3ml7pdj5rbc2b