Finally, I published a profile of the great Nuyorican salsero Eddie Palmieri The New Yorker: "There's a sonic slippage, in Spanish, between sabor and saber, suggesting the sensual dimension of knowledge, how whole mythologies get transmitted as muscle memory." newyorker.com/culture/person…

Our 4/24 issue is now online, with Fintan O'Toole on Trump’s destructive European policy, Vivian Gornick on City College, @ErinMaglaque on sex with Christians, Merve Emre on Tom Wolfe, Peter Singer on morality, Omer Bartov عومر بَرتوف עמר ברטוב on Israel’s genocide, and much more. go.nybooks.com/4iWlwCb

I wrote about Vincent O. Carter’s lost novel Such Sweet Thunder for the New York Review of Books nybooks.com/articles/2025/…

A very sad day. Professor V.Y. Mudimbe passed away this morning. He was 83 years old. A giant has moved on and an irreplaceable library has been burnt down. Rest well my friend and mentor. Yours was a life that was well lived.

RIP, Prof. V.-Y. Mudimbe! Son immense oeuvre continuera à nous former et nous inspirer.

Thrilled to reveal the cover for my forthcoming book, ON MORRISON, out from Hogarth Books January 27, 2026! Thank you to @People Magazine for the announcement (link in thread).

Today is publication day for my translation of Mathias Énard's THE DESERTERS! Out today from New Directions and Fitzcarraldo Editions 🔥

In the new @harpers: John Jeremiah Sullivan on Mark Twain harpers.org/archive/2025/0…

Honored to have had the chance to spend time and share words with this literary genius and revolutionary before his passing. theparisreview.org/interviews/788…

The Ballad of Suzanne Césaire | An actress and new mother (Zita Hanrot) is haunted by voices as she attempts to inhabit the role of surrealist writer Suzanne Césaire in Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich’s bold debut feature. Opens June 6. Select screenings on 35mm. bam.org/film/2025/the-…

"The Moroccan writer’s works are a bracing corrective to the myth of his city as a glamorous, bohemian playground.": nybooks.com/articles/2025/…

I wrote like 6000 words on the new season of THE REHEARSAL for The Point Magazine: thepointmag.com/examined-life/…

Clarice Lispector sunbathing in the 1950s.

Life changing

Marguerite Duras...

I wrote about the lack of administrative support for the liberal arts in The New York Times. The standard story we hear is that students don't want it. But a darker reality is that even when it wins big with students and donors it loses with those in power. nytimes.com/2025/07/17/opi…

Joshua Rasmussen Every single study on AI use has pretty much shown that even when we think it’s helping us learn, it is not.

So even the greats consider their craft as always in progress even after decades of accolades…. After 50 Years of Writing, Jamaica Kincaid Insists She’s Still an Amateur nytimes.com/2025/08/05/mag…

Ha fallecido 𝗘𝗱𝗱𝗶𝗲 𝗣𝗮𝗹𝗺𝗶𝗲𝗿𝗶, leyenda e ídolo de la salsa, maestro del piano y uno de los máximos exponentes de la música latina; tenía 88 años.

My new piece in The Chronicle of Higher Education focuses on the ways in which university administrators knowingly undercut the humanities. Take a look! chronicle.com/article/theyre…