How Tucson’s wounds belong to a larger American story.

Francine Prose talks with Jessica Anya Blau about books, teaching, writing, driving, and why a second marriage is so much better than a first marriage.

National Book Award nominee Madison Smartt Bell talks about his latest book, one he calls “the most vicious and appalling story ever to pass through my hand to the page.”

Two dumb-ass gringo tourists navigate a protest march in Mexico City and are once again saved by their bowels.

Eric Beeny reconsiders the meaning of ‘the human spirit’.

Please explain what just happened.

I just finished the film and moved to Berlin. I have citizenship because my grandparents were German Jews that fled during WWII.

What is your earliest memory?

Being in the womb. What are all those bubbles mommy?

If you weren’t a filmmaker, what other profession would you choose?

Zoologist. Animals are a lot nicer to deal with than humans. When I was a kid I wanted to be a garbage man or junk man.

The author tries to reconcile her four year old son’s interest in guns, an interest that she herself may have sparked.

I clawed at the unforgiving cushions of the back seat of our rental Camry, sweat pouring from my brow and running down the sides of my neck to pool unpleasantly around my shirt collar, my back arched as my muscles clenched and spasmed. I don’t know how long the drive was, only that the minutes [...]

Uche’s emphatic love letter to the squirrel in his attic.