Bookforum

29/08/2023

The Summer 2023 issue of Bookforum is out now!

When the magazine was shuttered late last year, we weren’t sure we’d ever be able to make Bookforum again, and the essays in our summer 2023 issue reflect our own preoccupations with death, rebirth, money, belonging, and the place of art in society. Read Sarah Nicole Prickett on Jacqueline Rose, Moira Donegan on trauma and justice, Jane Hu on Emma Cline, Harmony Holiday on Christina Sharpe, and so much more . . .

Follow the link in our bio to read the issue now! And if you don’t already, consider subscribing, or gifting a subscription, or donating to keep Bookforum going. On the cover: Pavlina Alea, Pretty in Blue (detail), 2022, acrylic on linen, 80 × 60". © Pavlina Alea.

22/08/2023

PAPER TRAIL: at The New York Review of Books, read Namwali Serpell on how Toni Morrison can teach us how to remember her; filmmaker Anna Biller discusses her debut novel at Screen Slate; a new Vauhini Vara story in BOMB Magazine; former Motherboard staff launch 404 Media.

paper trail Former Motherboard staff launch 404 Media; filmmaker Anna Biller on slasher films and her debut novel August 22, 2023 Anna Biller in Viva For the New York Review of Books, Namwali Serpell reflects on her visit this spring to Princeton’s exhibit on Nobel laureate Toni Morrison, who died...

15/08/2023

PAPER TRAIL: Maya Binyam at Skylight Books on Thursday, new online seminar from Parapraxis magazine, ​​an excerpt from Naomi Klein's new book, Adam Shatz interviewed by J. Howard Rosier, and more in our regular news and reviews roundup.

paper trail Becca Rothfeld on feminism today; Maya Binyam discusses her novel “Hangman” at Skylight Books August 15, 2023 Maya Binyam. Photo: Tonje Thilesen At the Paris Review, Jaqueline Feldman looks into how Parisian bookshops are preparing for next summer’s Olympics. “With a diving suit ...

08/08/2023

Paper Trail is back today! With a preview of what's to come in Bookforum's summer issue . . .

paper trail A sneak peek at Bookforum’s summer issue; Paper Trail returns August 08, 2023 ­Edvard Munch, Todeskuss (The Kiss of Death), 1899, lithograph, 173⁄4 x 241⁄2". Bookforum’s summer issue is being shipped to subscribers and hitting newsstands soon! This marks our first issue produced...

26/06/2023

Thank you to all our new subscribers! To tide you over until our first issue back, access our print archive here: https://bookforum.com/print/archive

26/06/2023

The magazine relaunches today in partnership with The Nation

23/06/2023

We’re no longer in the past tense. Bookforum lives, and you can get our forthcoming summer issue by subscribing now for only $30:

Start your subscription to Bookforum today.

22/06/2023

Help us spread the word: Bookforum is back!

The literary magazine will be back in print in August, with a new publishing partner: The Nation.

22/06/2023

Bookforum is back! We’re thrilled to announce the magazine’s return, in partnership with . We need your support to stick around for the long haul. Follow this link to subscribe for only $30 per year: https://subscriptions.bookforum.com/

30/12/2022

This is our last day at Bookforum. Thank you to our writers and readers, and everyone else over the years who made the magazine what it is. Farewell, The Editors

06/12/2022

If you've been reading Bookforum's winter issue online, consider subscribing or gifting a subscription to our print edition! It's less than $20 / year with our holiday discount.

Subscribe today and save 50% off the newsstand price! All subscriptions include full access to our digital archive and bookforum.com.

06/12/2022

"Part of the trajectory of that story was me thinking, Hey, I’m actually not making fun of anybody. I’m describing a great love affair, maybe!"

George Saunders discusses his story collection LIBERATION DAY (Random House) with Angelo Hernandez-Sias:

George Saunders on revision, the subconscious, and staying mystified – Angelo Hernandez-Sias

06/12/2022

"Hannaham hits his full Joycean stride, taking inspiration from Molly Bloom’s soliloquy and giving Carlotta free rein to let loose, at full volume, her own stream of consciousness."

Read Omari Weekes on James Hannaham’s latest novel (Little, Brown and Company):

A Black trans ex-convict returns to gentrified Brooklyn – Omari Weekes

06/12/2022

"Since he didn’t leave behind a vast series of artifacts, books like this may be how GMC 'happens' more than he happens in any gallery."

Sasha Frere-Jones considers Gwendolyn Owens and Philip Ursprung’s GORDON MATTA-CLARK: AN ARCHIVAL SOURCEBOOK (University of California Press):

The art of Gordon Matta-Clark – Sasha Frere-Jones

06/12/2022

BORN IN 1902, Pierre Verger became a successful photojournalist in his native France, lived mainly in Brazil and was fascinated by Yoruba culture in the New World. "He was initiated into the Candomblé religion, and after studying in Benin, he became a Babalaô or high priest of the Ifá oracle, and was accorded the new name Fatumbi, 'the one who was reborn for Ifá.'"⁠
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In North America, curator Alex Baradel writes, Verger "remains a mystery.…"⁠
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In this month's writes: Verger "explored Harlem with a depth and nuance unrivaled by other white photographers of the era—and it’s true that he generally comes closer to his African American subjects than to whites, wanting not just to see them and situate them but also to know them. Mostly unpublished during Verger’s lifetime, these images fill some gaps in the visual record left by American photographers (Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, et al.) in a period when that art flourished in this country. And it begins to introduce us to a fascinating and unexpected figure of consequence for what would later be called the Black Atlantic."⁠
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Read the full review via linkinbio.⁠
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'Pierre Fatumbi Verger: United States of America 1934 & 1937' is published by ⁠
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Edited with introduction by Javier Escudero Rodríguez. Text by Alex Baradel, & Nancy de Souza.⁠
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06/12/2022

Deep time and the Anthropocene in Kurt Vonnegut’s Galápagos – Christina Jarvis

06/12/2022

Exploring the outer fringes of music – Sasha Frere-Jones

06/12/2022

A new history of a legendary Chicago record label – J. C. Gabel

06/12/2022

PAPER TRAIL: the New York Times Guild says a walkout this week is likely; Margo Jefferson and other Windham-Campbell Prizes winners in the winter issue of The Yale Review; new issues of n+1 and The Paris Review out now; Sarah Chihaya on Kathy Acker at Vulture.

paper trail Margo Jefferson on questioning her writing self; New York Times Guild says a work stoppage is likely December 06, 2022 Margo Jefferson. Photo: Claire Holt A work stoppage on Thursday from members of the New York Times Guild is likely. Last week, over 1,000 union members pledged to walk o...

05/12/2022

"The more Jack worries about being two decades late to the party, the clearer it becomes that simulation and anachronism are the point."

Read Lisa Borst on NO ONE LEFT TO COME LOOKING FOR YOU (Simon & Schuster), Sam Lipsyte’s 1990s neopunk noir:

Sam Lipsyte reinvents the detective novel for the last days of punk – Lisa Borst

05/12/2022

"I’m a big believer that you have to create a mess before you create order."

Online now, Emma Grove discusses THE THIRD PERSON (Drawn and Quarterly), her graphic memoir of living with dissociative identity disorder, with Karen Schechner:

Bookforum talks with graphic memoirist Emma Grove – Karen Schechner

05/12/2022

"Only two ages are available to women: infantile—and too old. No one understood the injustice of the girlish imperative better than the French writer and provocateur Colette."

Becca Rothfeld considers CHÉRI and THE END OF CHÉRI (New York Review Books):

Colette’s classic novels of a pr******te and her young ex-lover – Becca Rothfeld

05/12/2022

"Surely no other pandemic book will cite Faulkner, Stephen King, Robert W. Service, and the Gnostic Gospels."

For Bookforum's winter issue, Michael Robbins reviews BREATHLESS (Simon & Schuster), David Quammen’s book on COVID-19:

A science writer investigates COVID and its origins – Michael Robbins

05/12/2022

"Prince is loved, lusted after, and objectified like a pinup because his presence and his music compel us to overcome ourselves."

In the new issue of Bookforum, read Harmony Holiday on Hilton Als’s MY PINUP (New Directions):

Hilton Als’s conflicted love letter to Prince – Harmony Holiday

05/12/2022

PAPER TRAIL: poet and artist Bernadette Mayer has died at the age of seventy-seven; Australian magazine The Monthly has published a new story by J. M. Coetzee; Astra Taylor gives a PBS NewsHour talk on abolishing debt; submissions to The Feminist Press are open now.

paper trail Bernadette Mayer, 1945-2022 December 05, 2022 Memory by Bernadette Mayer. Courtesy of Siglio Press Author and filmmaker Astra Taylor gives a short talk on student loans and how we can rethink debt. The Feminist Press is currently accepting submissions. Michael Schaffer writes about why n...

02/12/2022

The winter issue of Bookforum is online! You can read it here now, and consider subscribing or gifting a subscription with our holiday discount:

– Bookforum editors

01/12/2022

“If there was something I didn’t want to put in the book, it was a good indicator that it had to go in.”

New online, Emma Grove discusses her graphic memoir THE THIRD PERSON (Drawn and Quarterly) with Karen Schechner:

Bookforum talks with graphic memoirist Emma Grove – Karen Schechner

01/12/2022

“What saves THE WORLD WE MAKE from feeling like a product of the tourist board? For one thing, it’s so much fun.”

Stephanie Burt considers N. K. Jemisin’s new novel (Orbit Books US):

N. K. Jemisin’s NYC-set fantasy series – Stephanie Burt