Luke O'Neil Thinks The World Is Going To Hell And He's Not Afraid To Tell Us

O'Neil's most high-profile work has taken a more political direction, spurred by an increasing sense of urgency behind his leftist views and a perspective on media dynamics that sometimes complicates...

Brown University Is Archiving Gay Pulp Fiction To Preserve A Moment Of LGBTQ History

The archive preserves one way LGBTQ people made art, explored their identities and shared in community before it was accepted in the mainstream.

'Undreaming The Bauhaus' Explores György Kepes' Career In Context Of Our Modern Artwashing Woes

John R. Blakinger’s comprehensive and lushly illustrated analysis of Kepes’ years at MIT resonates with current debates about corporate entities funneling money into art as a distraction from products of...

Input/Output Magazine Makes Space For Experimental Music And Women/Non-Binary Artists

“A lot of the musicians that I listened to weren’t actually showing up in any of these publications, and the history of jazz and experimental music is a history that’s...

Ocean Vuong's Debut Novel 'On Earth We Are Briefly Gorgeous' Contemplates Family, Love And Beauty

What To Read From New England Authors This Summer

Wherever you’ll be reading this summer, we at The ARTery have suggestions of some books by New England-connected authors that will be at home on a Cape Cod beach, Squam...

Final Book In 'Trainspotting' Series Remains A Window Into Transgression And Misogyny

Grim as it was, the first novel was also laugh-out-loud funny, as was the 1996 movie directed by Danny Boyle, starring Ewan MacGregor and Robert Carlyle. The same goes for...

W.E.B. Du Bois Created These Infographics In 1900 To Humanize The African-American Experience

Du Bois wanted these infographics, displayed at the Paris Exposition, to change ideas about how people of color were operating in the world at the turn of the century and...

Valeria Luiselli’s ‘Lost Children Archive’ Maps A Family's Journey Through The America Of The Child Refugee Crisis

A multi-voiced novel in probing, elegant prose, it maps one family’s road trip over and through the literal, historical and cultural geography from New York City to the U.S.-Mexico borderlands.

National Book Award Winner Elizabeth Acevedo Owns Her Voice More Than Ever

If Elizabeth Acevedo had been a different kind of person, some of the subtle messaging she received about what (and who) makes literature might have shut her down. Her writing...

In A Memoir About Friendship, Eva Hagberg Fisher Shows Us 'How To Be Loved'

“I always thought I’d have more time to figure out how to be truly intimate with people. But once the pain arrived, I didn’t have time anymore. I felt this...

WBUR’s Most Downloaded Podcast Episodes Of 2018

Here’s a breakdown of our most downloaded episodes of 2018 (by podcast) to help you kick off your new year just right.

Nakia Hill Wants Women's Stories To Have A Place In The Fabric Of Boston

This year has been a busy one for the Boston-based writer and educator, and it has also crystallized her mission.

Porsha Olayiwola Named Boston's Next Poet Laureate

Olayiwola is well known in the spoken word circuits and as poet laureate plans to "establish a youth Poet Laureate program, develop residential and workspace for writers and weave poetry...

In A Harry Potter Podcast, A Search For Meaning In The Secular Through The Sacred

In the "Harry Potter and the Sacred Text" podcast, the hosts apply traditional religious reading practices to "Harry Potter" chapters in pursuit of larger meaning and life lessons.

15 Books That Ask What It Means To Be Free In 2018

In looking at her favorite books of the year, critic Annalisa Quinn found a recurring theme: freedom -- whether to live without fear, to tell your own story, or to...