Arts & Letters
A selection of recent articles on this topic
Letters—May 2026
Gratitude to Samuel D. James for his nuanced retrospective on purity culture, and especially for his closing…
The Myth of the Independent Girlboss
Is the independent girlboss dead? Maybe she never existed to begin with. The release of Lindy West’s…
The Sexual Abuse Crisis Is a Law Crisis (ft. Michael Mazza)
In this episode, Michael J. Mazza joins R. R. Reno on The Editor’s Desk to talk about…
Portico Launch Party
Join us at the Union League Club in New York to celebrate the first issue of Portico.…
Pitch for a Catholic Novel
Imagine a middle-aged white man in good clothes waiting for a morning train at a station of…
Disclosure in Modern Poetry (ft. Glenn Arbery)
In this episode, Glenn C. Arbery joins R. R. Reno on The Editor’s Desk to talk about…
Timothée Chalamet Is Right About Art (ft. Suzy Weiss)
In this episode, co-founder and reporter for the Free Press, Suzy Weiss, joins Virginia and Germán to…
Helene Schjerfbeck’s Defiant Paintbrush
Helene Schjerfbeck (1862–1946) did not go gentle into that good night. In 1944, war still raging, the…
How Kanye Went Nazi
Last year, Kanye West—sometimes known as Ye—released a song titled “Nigga Heil Hitler.” The music video featured…
Trump Brings the West to the West Wing
It’s hard to think of a sport that embodies the American spirit better than rodeo. But while…
The Art of Arguing Well
A major problem facing classical education is that there are too many books. Imagine yourself as the…
The Qur’an’s Christians
Hollywood released quite a few movies about Jesus in the 1960s and ’70s. Not all got rave…
The Slow Death of Publishing (ft. Justin Lee)
In the latest installment of the ongoing interview series with contributing editor Mark Bauerlein, First Things Associate…
The Women Joining the New Right
According to “The Women Leaving the New Right,” a viral piece by Sam Adler-Bell in New York…
Living with Wittgenstein
In the autumn of 1944, Ludwig Wittgenstein noticed a young doctoral student in attendance at his lectures…
