A few months ago, an old school friend confessed that she’d been reading a lot of “AO3”—Archive of Our Own, the world’s most popular fan fiction website. I assured her that she wasn’t alone. Fan fiction—stories about fictional characters or real-life celebrities, written by the . . . . Continue Reading »
Vigen Guroian joins the podcast to discuss his book Tending the Heart of Virtue: How Classic Stories Awaken a Child's Moral Imagination.
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Flannery O’Connor argued that the separation of matter and spirit, nature and grace, was fatal to the art of fiction, which requires an interest in characters, stories, and concrete details rather than problems, issues, and abstract statements. Novel-writing, she insisted, is “so very much an . . . . Continue Reading »
For reasons I haven’t been able to figure out, friendship—deep, genuine friendship—gets short shrift in contemporary fiction. The Chet & Bernie books are wonderful exceptions, and I am immensely grateful for them. Continue Reading »
Cassandra Nelson’s “A Theology of Fiction” (April) is a welcome intervention and advance in an ongoing conversation that, as Nelson herself notes, I’ve been invested in for some time. Nelson’s attentiveness to the work of Sr. Mariella Gable—and her related readings of a series . . . . Continue Reading »
George Leef joins the podcast to discuss his recent novel, The Awakening of Jennifer Van Arsdale: A Political Fable For Our Time. Continue Reading »
In a new book, Jeremy Black challenges patronizing conceptions of Agatha Christie as a “cozy” writer, drawing out the Anglican sensibility that undergirds her work. Continue Reading »
Donald J. Devine’sThe Enduring Tension energetically defends liberal capitalism, less from critics hailing from the secular left than from religious and traditionalist commentators ranging from Rod Dreher and Patrick Deneen to Pope Francis. Devine makes challenging arguments concerning the . . . . Continue Reading »
Our editors reflect on Eugene Vodolazkin, detective fiction, Jonathan Franzen, Toshikazu Kawaguchi, and Flannery O’Connor. Continue Reading »
To seek publication is to seek to be judged. It is to learn, finally, what kind of writer one is (or is not) meant to be. Continue Reading »
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