Public Books
@publicbooks.bsky.social
Public Books is an online magazine of ideas, arts, and scholarship. www.publicbooks.org
“Suddenly, my eyes filled with tears: that was mi gente, whaling away on an absurd circus drum, electrifying the space with energy that could lift the dead.” New at PB: Lily Balloffet reflects on Hispanic Heritage Month and latinidad. www.publicbooks.org/hispanic-her...
“Hispanic Heritage” Is Hemispheric Sovereignty - Public Books
≈ples represented in the United States' “Hispanic Heritage Month”? And what should we be celebrating?
publicbooks.org
“You have a lot of really amazing people who have been completely left out of the equation for far too long. And that equation includes them as readers with the books that they are offered.” @willevans.bsky.social on how independent presses are diversifying the publishing landscape:
Indie Presses and the Literary Ecosystem: Meg Reid and Will Evans - Public Books
“The literary ecosystem is for every reader of every age. It is for every writer of every style. It is for translators. It is for everyone who works in the production and dissemination of books as…
publicbooks.org
New at PB: Raffaele Sindoni describes how Native communities in Ecuador, New Zealand, and the US have advanced decolonial projects by advocating for the legal rights of natural resources. www.publicbooks.org/can-the-rive...
Can the River Debate the Suburb? - Public Books
Firms like Philip Morris hold rights that exceed those of most humans. Estates speak for the dead. Trusts speak for the unborn. Legally, we can devise new ways for nature to be legally represented…
publicbooks.org
“I will not be breaking any new ground when I say that the novel has hemorrhaged prestige even among educated people. But not enough people are able to go a step further and wonder how the reduced importance of the novel might damage writers’ very ability to produce new texts.”
The Golden Age of TV - Public Books
“Danielewski, it seems, is not acting as a writer here, but as a hoarder of phrases, the more redolent of a vanished “Western” mode of living, the better.”
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“Hub City's role, because we operate in all these different spaces, is moving between that editorial side and the civic side of the literary ecosystem.” For Novel Dialogue, @megireid.bsky.social shares her experiences at @hubcitypress.bsky.social: www.publicbooks.org/indie-presse...
Indie Presses and the Literary Ecosystem: Meg Reid and Will Evans - Public Books
“The literary ecosystem is for every reader of every age. It is for every writer of every style. It is for translators. It is for everyone who works in the production and dissemination of books as…
publicbooks.org
New at PB: Nathan Motulsky considers the history of empire and the state of nature in a review of Gabriela Cabezón Cámara’s We Are Green and Trembling and Greg Grandin’s America, América. www.publicbooks.org/american-met...
American Metamorphoses - Public Books
“That rivers and wild rice can now become legal persons discloses the precarity of previously entrenched definitions of nature, personhood, property, and law: that is, the terms that constitute a…
publicbooks.org
“The question was never whether the nonhuman could be represented. Rather, it has always been about who gets to decide which nonhumans are worth representing. And, more importantly, who profits from the answer.” www.publicbooks.org/can-the-rive...
Can the River Debate the Suburb? - Public Books
Firms like Philip Morris hold rights that exceed those of most humans. Estates speak for the dead. Trusts speak for the unborn. Legally, we can devise new ways for nature to be legally represented…
publicbooks.org
“Danielewski, it seems, is not acting as a writer here, but as a hoarder of phrases, the more redolent of a vanished “Western” mode of living, the better. The prose doesn’t even bother to be handsome. Instead, it is content to be jaggedly busy.” www.publicbooks.org/the-golden-a...
The Golden Age of TV - Public Books
“Danielewski, it seems, is not acting as a writer here, but as a hoarder of phrases, the more redolent of a vanished “Western” mode of living, the better.”
publicbooks.org
“The literary ecosystem is for every reader of every age. It is for every writer of every style. It is for translators. It is for everyone who works in the production and dissemination of books as objects. … It's the life of the mind broadly.” @willevans.bsky.social on literary ecosystems:
Indie Presses and the Literary Ecosystem: Meg Reid and Will Evans - Public Books
“The literary ecosystem is for every reader of every age. It is for every writer of every style. It is for translators. It is for everyone who works in the production and dissemination of books as…
publicbooks.org
“Human representation for the nonhuman is not a fantasy. It has been commonplace for centuries and still is today as a centuries-old legal tradition.” Raffaele Sindoni on nature rights advocacy. www.publicbooks.org/can-the-rive...
Can the River Debate the Suburb? - Public Books
Firms like Philip Morris hold rights that exceed those of most humans. Estates speak for the dead. Trusts speak for the unborn. Legally, we can devise new ways for nature to be legally represented…
publicbooks.org
“Outside of prison, Ozon juxtaposes Meursault with his surroundings to demonstrate that a settler status, while elite, brands Meursault and his relations strangers in Algiers.” New at PB: Viviana Freyer reviews François Ozon’s The Stranger (2025). www.publicbooks.org/pied-noir-ho...
Pied Noir Homesick Blues - Public Books
Camus opens the book with Meursault’s life, but François Ozon opens the new film adaptation with Meursault’s specific moment in history: the brutal French colonization of Algeria.
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“Cámara’s novel and Grandin’s history prompt us to reimagine the forms of politics and ethics that are possible if we teach and understand more capacious accounts of where we’ve been.” Nathan Motulsky on Gabriela Cabezón Cámara’s We Are Green and Trembling and Greg Grandin’s America, América.
American Metamorphoses - Public Books
“That rivers and wild rice can now become legal persons discloses the precarity of previously entrenched definitions of nature, personhood, property, and law: that is, the terms that constitute a…
publicbooks.org
“Danielewski stretches and extends himself, the postmodern tics and tropes becoming a form of aesthetic striving. He is not reining himself in, the difficulty of his subject matter demanding the style of his text.” New at PB: Max Lawton grapples with Mark Z. Danielewski’s cumbersome Tom’s Crossing.
The Golden Age of TV - Public Books
“Danielewski, it seems, is not acting as a writer here, but as a hoarder of phrases, the more redolent of a vanished “Western” mode of living, the better.”
publicbooks.org
Ever wonder why you can’t go look at a Big 5 press and figure out who works there? In conversation Mesha Maren for Novel Dialogue, @megireid.bsky.social dissects the structure of conglomerate publishing—and how it compares to indie presses.
Indie Presses and the Literary Ecosystem: Meg Reid and Will Evans - Public Books
“The literary ecosystem is for every reader of every age. It is for every writer of every style. It is for translators. It is for everyone who works in the production and dissemination of books as…
publicbooks.org
New at PB: Viviana Freyer explores questions of alienation, estrangement, and belonging in François Ozon’s 2025 adaptation of The Stranger. www.publicbooks.org/pied-noir-ho...
Pied Noir Homesick Blues - Public Books
Camus opens the book with Meursault’s life, but François Ozon opens the new film adaptation with Meursault’s specific moment in history: the brutal French colonization of Algeria.
publicbooks.org
“Epistle, picaresque, theological dialogue, confession, and Mbyá Guaraní creation story: These and other forms weave a text in which ‘extraordinary metamorphoses’ of bodies, kinships, and epistemologies abound.” www.publicbooks.org/american-met...
American Metamorphoses - Public Books
“That rivers and wild rice can now become legal persons discloses the precarity of previously entrenched definitions of nature, personhood, property, and law: that is, the terms that constitute a…
publicbooks.org
“It's hard to get reviewed. It's hard to get influencers on you. It's hard to get whatever it may take for a book to achieve the exit velocity that could have happened before.” In a new episode of Novel Dialogue, @willevans.bsky.social discusses challenges writers face in the publishing industry.
Indie Presses and the Literary Ecosystem: Meg Reid and Will Evans - Public Books
“The literary ecosystem is for every reader of every age. It is for every writer of every style. It is for translators. It is for everyone who works in the production and dissemination of books as…
publicbooks.org
“The Western myth of technocratic modernity asserts that humans have risen above nature through reason and control. … But in reality, a genuinely modern society … would have built systems that acknowledge the fundamental entanglement between humans, nonhumans, technologies, and environments.”
Can the River Debate the Suburb? - Public Books
Firms like Philip Morris hold rights that exceed those of most humans. Estates speak for the dead. Trusts speak for the unborn. Legally, we can devise new ways for nature to be legally represented…
publicbooks.org
New at PB: In the premiere of a special season of Novel Dialogue, @megireid.bsky.social of @hubcitypress.bsky.social and @willevans.bsky.social of @deepvellum.bsky.social join Mesha Maren to consider what makes up our literary ecosystems. www.publicbooks.org/indie-presse...
Indie Presses and the Literary Ecosystem: Meg Reid and Will Evans - Public Books
“The literary ecosystem is for every reader of every age. It is for every writer of every style. It is for translators. It is for everyone who works in the production and dissemination of books as…
publicbooks.org
“If we inhabit a post-empire era of no Great American Novels, then is a little entertainment too much to ask for? Long Live the Golden Age of TV.” New at PB: Max Lawton presents a scathing criticism of contemporary fiction in a review of “Tom’s Crossing” by Mark Z. Danielewski.
The Golden Age of TV - Public Books
“Danielewski, it seems, is not acting as a writer here, but as a hoarder of phrases, the more redolent of a vanished “Western” mode of living, the better.”
publicbooks.org
“The book is an empty carapace, an enormous eggshell miraculously deprived of white and yolk.” Max Lawton on Mark Z. Danielewski’s “Tom’s Crossing.” www.publicbooks.org/the-golden-a...
The Golden Age of TV - Public Books
“Danielewski, it seems, is not acting as a writer here, but as a hoarder of phrases, the more redolent of a vanished “Western” mode of living, the better.”
publicbooks.org
“By depicting Meursault’s steady decline and showing how he is responsible for his own reversal of fortune, Ozon complicates Meursault’s strangeness and proves that being a stranger worked to his benefit until he refuses to assimilate with his own.”
Pied Noir Homesick Blues - Public Books
Camus opens the book with Meursault’s life, but François Ozon opens the new film adaptation with Meursault’s specific moment in history: the brutal French colonization of Algeria.
publicbooks.org
“Over more than 600 pages, Grandin illuminates in captivating terms many competing theologies and politics that have shaped the Americas since Columbus’s voyages.” New at PB: Nathan Motulsky reviews Greg Grandin’s America, América and Gabriela Cabezón Cámara’s We Are Green and Trembling.
American Metamorphoses - Public Books
“That rivers and wild rice can now become legal persons discloses the precarity of previously entrenched definitions of nature, personhood, property, and law: that is, the terms that constitute a…
publicbooks.org
“The cardinal sin of ‘Tom’s Crossing’ is that it is more interesting as a conceptual object than as a text that must actually be read and experienced by the reader.” New at PB: Max Lawton takes a skeptical eye to Mark Z. Danielewski’s “Tom’s Crossing.” www.publicbooks.org/the-golden-a...
The Golden Age of TV - Public Books
“Danielewski, it seems, is not acting as a writer here, but as a hoarder of phrases, the more redolent of a vanished “Western” mode of living, the better.”
publicbooks.org
New at PB: Raffaele Sindoni asks what would it mean for a forest or a river to have the same rights as people. What if the law recognized the undeniable connection between humanity and nature? www.publicbooks.org/can-the-rive...
Can the River Debate the Suburb? - Public Books
Firms like Philip Morris hold rights that exceed those of most humans. Estates speak for the dead. Trusts speak for the unborn. Legally, we can devise new ways for nature to be legally represented…
publicbooks.org
“A Sega Genesis. A Sega Saturn and Dreamcast. A Nintendo 64 and a DS. PlayStation 2. A few ancient handheld games, and a Gameboy that still turned on, its tinted screen ghostly green, faded with age.” New at PB: Janet Vertesi reflects on the rebelliousness of retro gaming.
Retro Gaming: It’s Not Nostalgia, It’s Resistance - Public Books
"If we want to resist the enshittified paradigms around us, we can’t just shake a fist at the sky: We have to show them a better way."
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“Chaparral, mostly greasewood and manzanita. … This was nature—a small, shriveled thing … hidden and replaced by green lawns, hot asphalt, and sweet-tasting hose water during the hot summer.” New at PB: Raffaele Sindoni considers the rights of nature. www.publicbooks.org/can-the-rive...
Can the River Debate the Suburb? - Public Books
Firms like Philip Morris hold rights that exceed those of most humans. Estates speak for the dead. Trusts speak for the unborn. Legally, we can devise new ways for nature to be legally represented…
publicbooks.org
“Rather than saying that he killed a man, the fact that Meursault also specifies, in French, that he killed ‘an Arab’ establishes a separation between him and the other inmates. Even in custody, Meursault is a Pied Noir before he is a prisoner.”
Pied Noir Homesick Blues - Public Books
Camus opens the book with Meursault’s life, but François Ozon opens the new film adaptation with Meursault’s specific moment in history: the brutal French colonization of Algeria.
publicbooks.org
In 2018, the White Earth Band of the Ojibwe nation established a law recognizing the legal personhood of Manoomin (wild rice). In a new essay for PB, Raffaele Sindoni explores the broader movement for “rights of nature.” www.publicbooks.org/can-the-rive...
Can the River Debate the Suburb? - Public Books
Firms like Philip Morris hold rights that exceed those of most humans. Estates speak for the dead. Trusts speak for the unborn. Legally, we can devise new ways for nature to be legally represented…
publicbooks.org
New at PB: Nathan Motulsky reflects on Greg Grandin and Gabriela Cabezón Cámara’s “timely intervention[s] into debates over the New World’s founding mythology” in We Are Green and Trembling and America, América. www.publicbooks.org/american-met...
American Metamorphoses - Public Books
“That rivers and wild rice can now become legal persons discloses the precarity of previously entrenched definitions of nature, personhood, property, and law: that is, the terms that constitute a…
publicbooks.org