Expertise matters. But lane-policing is counterproductive.

The Russian writer Maxim Osipov was best known as a medical doctor, until he began to publish arresting, empathetic stories of sickness and treatment.

Out of the trauma of war, Wolfe found redemption in Catholicism and his voice in futuristic, philosophical novels.

How Virginia Woolf’s diaries chronicle the push and pull of her private and public lives.

Criticized as cruel and self-centered, V.S. Naipaul insisted on confronting the hard realities of post-colonial life.

How did literary scholarship take a leftward turn during the 1970s, when neoliberalism and austerity were ascendant?

The prize has undergone a distinct change in recent years, opting for best-selling writers and rock stars.

How Angela Carter escaped a puritanical childhood and stifling marriage, and reimagined sexuality.

Sarah Manguso's aphorisms feel powerful in our age of alternative facts.

Money taints everything, why not writing too?

Not Bob Dylan, that's for sure.

What Lionel Shriver got right—and wrong—in her controversial speech about political correctness in literature.

Nobel laureate Svetlana Alexievich crafts myths, not histories.

Donald Trump's eerie likeness to Thomas Mann's Mussolini parable.

For more than thirty years, Ozick has led the way in affirming the role and responsibility of the critic.

Lit Hub's new ratings site exposes the flaws in the wider culture.