The TLS
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The Times Literary Supplement. Subscribe here: https://www.the-tls.co.uk/buy
'I came upon a small boy jumping rope / in an ecstasy of concentration, mouthing // one trillion two, one trillion three. / I knew him for my five-year-old self ...'
Ars Poetica by D. Nurkse
Ars Poetica by D. Nurkse
Ars Poetica
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November 24, 2025 at 1:36 AM
'I came upon a small boy jumping rope / in an ecstasy of concentration, mouthing // one trillion two, one trillion three. / I knew him for my five-year-old self ...'
Ars Poetica by D. Nurkse
Ars Poetica by D. Nurkse
Austin Spendlowe on the long shadow of Paradise Lost
Led into temptation
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November 23, 2025 at 1:13 PM
Austin Spendlowe on the long shadow of Paradise Lost
'This book seems determined, by a kind of fatal perversity, to nullify his gifts.'
Daniel Karlin on a history of English literary studies that refuses to be relevant
Daniel Karlin on a history of English literary studies that refuses to be relevant
A history of English literary studies that refuses to be relevant
www.the-tls.com
November 23, 2025 at 6:35 AM
'This book seems determined, by a kind of fatal perversity, to nullify his gifts.'
Daniel Karlin on a history of English literary studies that refuses to be relevant
Daniel Karlin on a history of English literary studies that refuses to be relevant
Helen Anne Curry: Reckoning with the fact of extinction
Once obscured the sun
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November 23, 2025 at 12:02 AM
Helen Anne Curry: Reckoning with the fact of extinction
'Winterson’s verbal exuberance is both playful and deadly serious; she has the intensity of someone who is demolishing you at chess while maintaining that it’s only a game.'
Suzi Feay: A riff on One Thousand and One Nights
Suzi Feay: A riff on One Thousand and One Nights
Twenty-first-century genie
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November 22, 2025 at 6:22 AM
'Winterson’s verbal exuberance is both playful and deadly serious; she has the intensity of someone who is demolishing you at chess while maintaining that it’s only a game.'
Suzi Feay: A riff on One Thousand and One Nights
Suzi Feay: A riff on One Thousand and One Nights
Francesca Tiana on the wanderings and meanderings of an eclectic ensemble
One night in Berlin
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November 22, 2025 at 4:32 AM
Francesca Tiana on the wanderings and meanderings of an eclectic ensemble
Sophie Oliver on an investigation of the canon
Making modernism new
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November 22, 2025 at 2:51 AM
Sophie Oliver on an investigation of the canon
'Her trilogy has the easy, charmed implausibility of a picture book or a Saturday-morning cartoon.'
Becca Rothfeld: A happy band of travellers goes in search of a lost Japan
Becca Rothfeld: A happy band of travellers goes in search of a lost Japan
Adventures in a foreign tongue
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November 21, 2025 at 6:10 PM
'Her trilogy has the easy, charmed implausibility of a picture book or a Saturday-morning cartoon.'
Becca Rothfeld: A happy band of travellers goes in search of a lost Japan
Becca Rothfeld: A happy band of travellers goes in search of a lost Japan
Anna Aslanyan: Revisiting a novel that marched towards modernity
A love-hate relationship
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November 21, 2025 at 9:47 AM
Anna Aslanyan: Revisiting a novel that marched towards modernity
Grace Moore on Anthony Trollope's compulsions to write and to earn money
Dashing off short stories
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November 21, 2025 at 2:14 AM
Grace Moore on Anthony Trollope's compulsions to write and to earn money
'The cultural software that used to run on instinct is just no longer working – it’s no longer supported.'
Ian Sansom on failing to keep up
Ian Sansom on failing to keep up
On failing to keep up
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November 20, 2025 at 2:07 PM
'The cultural software that used to run on instinct is just no longer working – it’s no longer supported.'
Ian Sansom on failing to keep up
Ian Sansom on failing to keep up
'The Book Against Death is inevitably also a book against the twentieth century.'
Read Daniel Johnson on The Book Against Death, longlisted for the Freudenheim Translation Prize @jewishliteraryfoundation.co.uk
Read Daniel Johnson on The Book Against Death, longlisted for the Freudenheim Translation Prize @jewishliteraryfoundation.co.uk
Elias Canetti’s one-man war on mortality
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November 20, 2025 at 12:48 PM
'The Book Against Death is inevitably also a book against the twentieth century.'
Read Daniel Johnson on The Book Against Death, longlisted for the Freudenheim Translation Prize @jewishliteraryfoundation.co.uk
Read Daniel Johnson on The Book Against Death, longlisted for the Freudenheim Translation Prize @jewishliteraryfoundation.co.uk
Which foods or meals trigger your memory? ‘Homemade jiaozi — dumplings — and the fun of making them as a family will always summon up my childhood.’
Twenty Questions with Gish Jen
Twenty Questions with Gish Jen
Twenty Questions with Gish Jen
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November 20, 2025 at 9:38 AM
Which foods or meals trigger your memory? ‘Homemade jiaozi — dumplings — and the fun of making them as a family will always summon up my childhood.’
Twenty Questions with Gish Jen
Twenty Questions with Gish Jen
Letters to the Editor: Deliverology, MPs of Indian heritage, Lore Segal revisited, etc
Deliverology
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November 20, 2025 at 8:10 AM
Letters to the Editor: Deliverology, MPs of Indian heritage, Lore Segal revisited, etc
More British Library blues, Proliferating prizes, Cover art
Demolition jobs
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November 20, 2025 at 12:08 AM
More British Library blues, Proliferating prizes, Cover art
Reposted by The TLS
Time to explore the longlist for our inaugural Freudenheim Translation Prize!
Celebrating excellence in translated fiction and non-fiction, the prize is our most ambitious award yet, highlighting the power of Jewish literature to engage readers worldwide.
shorturl.at/vUltg
Celebrating excellence in translated fiction and non-fiction, the prize is our most ambitious award yet, highlighting the power of Jewish literature to engage readers worldwide.
shorturl.at/vUltg
November 19, 2025 at 2:15 PM
Time to explore the longlist for our inaugural Freudenheim Translation Prize!
Celebrating excellence in translated fiction and non-fiction, the prize is our most ambitious award yet, highlighting the power of Jewish literature to engage readers worldwide.
shorturl.at/vUltg
Celebrating excellence in translated fiction and non-fiction, the prize is our most ambitious award yet, highlighting the power of Jewish literature to engage readers worldwide.
shorturl.at/vUltg
'In the south of England, 3,000 people died in the heatwave of July 2021, but this failed to register in the public consciousness.'
Emily Jones on the tension between economic and environmental policy
Emily Jones on the tension between economic and environmental policy
The tension between economic and environmental policy
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November 19, 2025 at 12:55 PM
'In the south of England, 3,000 people died in the heatwave of July 2021, but this failed to register in the public consciousness.'
Emily Jones on the tension between economic and environmental policy
Emily Jones on the tension between economic and environmental policy
'The hard-charging city that obliterated the historic trails and waterways claims to be the source of many notable features of the modern world.'
Edward Platt: Geopolitics past and present
Edward Platt: Geopolitics past and present
Geopolitics past and present
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November 19, 2025 at 7:02 AM
'The hard-charging city that obliterated the historic trails and waterways claims to be the source of many notable features of the modern world.'
Edward Platt: Geopolitics past and present
Edward Platt: Geopolitics past and present
'The cemetery was known as the mange-chair, the flesh-eater. The smell must have been obscene.'
Guy Stagg on a literary guide to cemeteries around the world
Guy Stagg on a literary guide to cemeteries around the world
A literary guide to cemeteries around the world
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November 19, 2025 at 5:25 AM
'The cemetery was known as the mange-chair, the flesh-eater. The smell must have been obscene.'
Guy Stagg on a literary guide to cemeteries around the world
Guy Stagg on a literary guide to cemeteries around the world
'Both had monumental egos and worldwide reputations. Both struggled, according to Carvill, to disentangle their sense of self from the public’s mythological view of them.'
Phillip Lopate on two self-destructive cultural heavyweights
Phillip Lopate on two self-destructive cultural heavyweights
Two self-destructive cultural heavyweights
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November 18, 2025 at 7:41 PM
'Both had monumental egos and worldwide reputations. Both struggled, according to Carvill, to disentangle their sense of self from the public’s mythological view of them.'
Phillip Lopate on two self-destructive cultural heavyweights
Phillip Lopate on two self-destructive cultural heavyweights
'Wittkop is much possessed by death, but the Wittkopiens recognize that she loves life, too – the beauty of art, architecture and nature, friendships, fine food and wine.'
Louise Rogers Lalaurie on a transgressive French novelist
Louise Rogers Lalaurie on a transgressive French novelist
Necrophilia, poisoning and murder: a transgressive French novelist
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November 18, 2025 at 12:27 PM
'Wittkop is much possessed by death, but the Wittkopiens recognize that she loves life, too – the beauty of art, architecture and nature, friendships, fine food and wine.'
Louise Rogers Lalaurie on a transgressive French novelist
Louise Rogers Lalaurie on a transgressive French novelist
'Foucault and Beckett shared a common interest – the devolution of the European aristocratic order into madness and carceral institutions in modernity.'
Eva Kenny on an author famously protective of his text
Eva Kenny on an author famously protective of his text
An author famously protective of his text
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November 18, 2025 at 4:58 AM
'Foucault and Beckett shared a common interest – the devolution of the European aristocratic order into madness and carceral institutions in modernity.'
Eva Kenny on an author famously protective of his text
Eva Kenny on an author famously protective of his text
'Nationalism, now promoted by chauvinistic men, is a creed from which she distances herself.'
Stephen Henighan: Margaret Atwood’s lives in memoir
Stephen Henighan: Margaret Atwood’s lives in memoir
Margaret Atwood’s lives in memoir
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November 17, 2025 at 4:48 PM
'Nationalism, now promoted by chauvinistic men, is a creed from which she distances herself.'
Stephen Henighan: Margaret Atwood’s lives in memoir
Stephen Henighan: Margaret Atwood’s lives in memoir
'Many of his present moments consisted of slithering along narrow paths at 14,000ft (think of Britain’s highest peak, then multiply by three), sometimes on hands and knees.'
James Campbell on Peter Matthiessen, novelist, naturalist, spy
James Campbell on Peter Matthiessen, novelist, naturalist, spy
Peter Matthiessen, novelist, naturalist, spy
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November 17, 2025 at 9:02 AM
'Many of his present moments consisted of slithering along narrow paths at 14,000ft (think of Britain’s highest peak, then multiply by three), sometimes on hands and knees.'
James Campbell on Peter Matthiessen, novelist, naturalist, spy
James Campbell on Peter Matthiessen, novelist, naturalist, spy
'The Wax Child is narrated by a seventeenth-century poppet: “a lump of beeswax shaped in the image of a newborn”; a vessel of spellcraft.'
Beejay Silcox: A novel of a seventeenth-century witch trial, for the era of AI
Beejay Silcox: A novel of a seventeenth-century witch trial, for the era of AI
Shapeshifter
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November 17, 2025 at 1:30 AM
'The Wax Child is narrated by a seventeenth-century poppet: “a lump of beeswax shaped in the image of a newborn”; a vessel of spellcraft.'
Beejay Silcox: A novel of a seventeenth-century witch trial, for the era of AI
Beejay Silcox: A novel of a seventeenth-century witch trial, for the era of AI