UPDATE: Julia Lovell, author of Maoism: A Global History, has been declared the winner of the 2019 Cundill Prize. Alan Taylor, Chair of the Jury, praised Lovell: “Her book will dazzle readers with lucid and vivid insights into the power of a protean, and often deadly, ideology – and its enduring impact on our world

The Testaments, Margaret Atwood’s sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale, has been called the most anticipated novel of the year. Gilead and the world of the handmaids have inspired a successful TV adaptation, as well as protests against U.S. healthcare restrictions and the controversial confirmation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Awarded the 2019 Booker Prize, The Testaments has

In recent years, corporate profits have skyrocketed in the United States. Workers often haven’t seen the same good fortune as their employers, with wages on average remaining stagnate or seeing only slight increases after inflation. In this excerpt from Beaten Down, Worked Up, reporter Steven Greenhouse shares the struggles faced by many Americans, their stories

Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad received glowing critical reception upon its publication, earning him the National Book Award and the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. His highly anticipated follow-up novel The Nickel Boys faced the threat of being overshadowed by its predecessor, but has quickly earned a spotlight of its own. We’ve put together a

Journalist, novelist, and short story writer—no matter the medium, master storyteller Gabriel García Márquez knew how to transport readers from around the world to Latin America. With his signature mix of realism and the fantastic, García Márquez’s words brought to life the history and culture of an entire continent. As a way to celebrate the

Seaweed is a sustainable, easy-to-produce ocean vegetable that has a positive impact on climate change and our environment. Why then is it not a staple ingredient used in American kitchens? In his recently published memoir, fisherman-turned-ocean farmer Bren Smith aims to change that through his tales of ocean-bound adventure and culinary re-imagination. In the following

Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am profiles the Nobel and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of international acclaim, featuring interviews with Morrison herself, Robert Gottlieb, Oprah Winfrey, Angela Davis, Walter Mosley, and more. The documentary portrays Morrison in an intimate, human light: examining her life, works, and the philosophies woven throughout the stories she tells. In the video

Immigration Heritage Month serves as a reminder to  celebrate individual stories of immigration, and the shared diversity that makes up the United States. This year at the 38th annual conference on The First-Year Experience, author Abdi Nor Iftin shared his journey from war-torn Somalia to the United States—first by way of American movies, and years later

Season 3 of The Handmaid’s Tale kicks off on Wednesday, June 05, with Hulu releasing new episodes each week. Hulu has described the new season as being “driven by June’s resistance to the dystopian regime of Gilead and her struggle to strike back against overwhelming odds.” Just in time for the season premiere, Nan A. Talese

There There is a multivoiced novel that features twelve Native American characters of different backgrounds and generations all traveling to the Big Oakland Powwow. Together, this chorus of voices tells of the plight of the urban Native American, grappling with a complex and painful history. In an interview with The New Yorker, Tommy Orange explained

Washington Black follows “Wash” Black, an eleven-year-old field slave on a sugar plantation in Barbados. When Wash’s old master dies, the plantation’s already dire living conditions immediately worsen. Wash is then selected to become a manservant to his new master’s brother, a man who, as it turns out, is not only an abolitionist, but an inventor,

According to an analysis by the Williams Institute in 2016, 1.4 million adults in the United States identify as transgender, with young adults (ages 18 to 24) most likely to say they are transgender. Sociologist Arlene Stein spent a year following the lives of four transgender young adults, capturing their experiences as they transitioned from