Readings

The Broken Promise Pt. 1

David Harwood lost everything when his wife passed away. But as he adjusts to life back in his childhood home, he uncovers clues to a devastating family secret.

From Steinbeck to Cervantes: Confessing Our Literary Gaps

Eleven authors, journalists, and assorted literary stalwarts tell us why they've missed the famous books they've missed.

'Why Can't You Behave?': Revisiting the Case of Alice Crimmins

Fifty years ago, Alice Crimmins's children died, and she was the prime suspect. The trials that followed ensured we'd never know who murdered them—only that a woman's life could be used against her.

Why Do We Remember Scout But Not Tom?

A series of letters between editors from Melville House and Hazlitt about classic novels they may or may not have read growing up. The first installment: To Kill A Mockingbird.

Is Journalism Bad?

Are you locked in an endless power struggle? From conflicts and confrontations both institutional and personal, to managing your own privilege without being a dick, Scaach-22 is here to help.

Inside Scharpling & Wurster's 'Power Pop Pop Pop'

Why the story of a detestable "power pop dictator" may be The Best Show's quintessential bit (or one of them, at least).

The Cult of Work

What is lost to our love of labour?

'Totalitarian Terror Isn't Operating On Your Schedule': An Interview with Jim Shepard

The Book of Aron author on the challenges of implicating Jews in a story about their suffering and the point of fictionalizing the Holocaust. 

a painting
Dreams Are Boring

We attribute divine inspiration to madness, but escaping the cycle of mania for the comfort of a calmer mind doesn't mean abandoning artistic greatness.

What's the Point of Handwriting?

Maybe handwriting is neither a lost art nor an anachronism; perhaps new technology will show there is some useful alchemy left in the way language, the body, and our sense of identity intertwine.