Literary Collections - Essays

The humane yet devastating critique of how modern society is organized with the brutal few clinging onto their wealth and privileges at the expense of the many Peter Kropotkin's anarchist texts had a fundamental impact on 19th and 20th century radicals of all kinds....

A stunning, unclassifiable work by one of the twentieth century's greatest thinkers and writers, this book is an inspiring amalgam of letters, poetry, and profound musings on everything from Caravaggio to the nature of time itself. And Our Faces, My Heart, Brief as Photos...

A Time Must-Read Book of 2022 A Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2022 Aster(ix) Journal's 12 Best Nonfiction Books of 2022An invigorating, continuously surprising book about the serious nature of laughter. Laughter shakes us out of our deadness. An outburst of spontaneous laughter is...

Contagiously curious essays on reading, art, and the life of the mind, from the acclaimed author of The Unreality of Memory. Who are we when we read? When we journal? Are we more ourselves alone or with friends? Right now or in memory? How...

A memoir of growing up in Florida interwoven with cultural reflections of the state from The X-Files to Emerson--revealing the complex truths of life as a FloridianFlorida and pop culture are a magnetic, viral match. From true crimes on social media to spring break...

In these ten intertwined essays, one of our most provocative young novelists proves that she is just as stylish and outrageous an art critic. For when Jeanette Winterson looks at works as diverse as the Mona Lisa and Virginia Woolf's The Waves, she frees...

Join a literary insider for a behind-the-scenes tour of art heists, opera icons, and the golden age of publishing. From the author of Scribners: Five Generations in Publishing comes this new collection of personal essays reflecting on the past fifty years of his pursuits...

"George Singleton is a very funny man. He could write about a tootsie roll and keep me reading," says Abigail Thomas, author of Safekeeping and A Three Dog Life, about Singleton's new collection of personal essays. Readers of his celebrated short story collections (The...

An essential collection of Dwight Macdonald's prophetic essays on politics, art, and violence in twentieth-century America. What does extreme violence do to human values? Does the concept of collective guilt make sense in assessing responsibility for genocide? Has modern mechanized society forever destroyed the...

Lucas Mann turns his attention, tenderness, self-reflection, and humor to contemporary fatherhood. He looks closely at all the joys, frustrations, subtleties, and contradictions within an experience that often goes under-discussed. At once intimate and expansive, Mann chronicles his own life with his young daughter,...

For thirty years Anne Enright--one of our greatest living novelists (Times)--has been paying attention: casting her lucid and distinctive gaze across the world, literature, and her own life, and gifting us with her precise insights. These essays, collated from across Enright's career, take us...

Longlisted for the 2026 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction - Finalist for the 2025 Governor General's Literary Award in Translation - Finalist for the 2025 John Glassco Translation PrizeAn unlikely literary friendship from the past sheds light on the radicalization of public...

An occult history that grounds the sacred yearning for magic in real life. In these essays by scholar and self-initiated witch Brooke Palmieri, occult history, the eternal now, and our magickal queer futures align, connecting us to an enchantment both contemporary and classic. Drawing...

Wise, visceral essays on navigating pain, sex, trauma, spirituality, addiction, recovery, and grief from queer, neurodivergent trauma-resolution guide Jessica Graham In an unapologetic look at living well with trauma and chronic illness, writer and meditation teacher Jessica Graham offers smart, funny, raw, and mindful...

"Wade Davis is a true wayfinder, and these essays offer new insight into his visionary approach to culture, landscape, and the planet he loves as fiercely as any writer working today."--John Vaillant, author of Fire Weather A timely and eclectic collection from one of...

The great Irish humorist and writer Flann O'Brien, aka Brian O'Nolan, aka Myles na Gopaleen, also wrote a newspaper column called "Cruiskeen Lawn." The Best of Myles collects the best and funniest, covering such subjects as plumbers, the justice system, and improbable inventions.Author: Flann...

Like most progressive Southerners, Hal Crowther is decidedly angry about current social and political events, but few writers are more able than he to articulate the problems, the issues, and even the bitter humor of our present situation.Hal Crowther is a writer who has...

In her legendary career, artist and activist Nikki Giovanni has established herself as a writer who can entertain and challenge, and a voice for social justice who can inform and inspire in times of national crisis. Controversial, revolutionary, ethereal, or illuminating, her poems about...

In his great triptych "The Millennium," Bosch used oranges and other fruits to symbolize the delights of Paradise. Whence Henry Miller's title for this, one of his most appealing books; first published in 1957, it tells the story of Miller's life on the Big...

Winner of the 2024 Autumn House Nonfiction Prize, this large-hearted personal essay collection by Ren Cedar Fuller invites us to imagine a more generous way of being in the world, drawing on Fuller's experiences as a daughter, sister, mother, teacher, and patient. A father's...