Author Archive

The Importance of Writing About Art

Author: | Categories: Critical Essays No comments
In the face of urgent calls for social action, Olivia Laing’s 2020 collection of criticism makes a case for art’s slow, subtle efficacy. And in her acuity as a critic, she demonstrates that not only art, but writing about art, can be a powerful agent of social change.

Augustine as Literary Companion in Motherhood: A Confession

Author: | Categories: Critical Essays No comments
Imitating the voice, form, and tone of St. Augustine, Natalie Carnes invokes him as interlocutor, honoring his text’s merits while challenging the blind spots inherent in its masculine perspective. In so doing, she enriches our understanding of human nature and the nature of the divine, revealed in the intimacy

The Maternal Vision of Leslie Jamison and Marilynne Robinson

Author: | Categories: Critical Essays No comments
In the earliest years of parenting, the tensions between motherhood and artistic practice can feel insurmountable. Yet there are ways in which motherhood and the writing life are uniquely compatible.