How did a demure jazz-club owner become a global literary sensation and a perennial Nobel Prize contender? We’re taking you inside the unlikely rise of Japan’s greatest contemporary writer. esquire.com/entertainment/…

For Esquire I had the immense privilege of profiling Haruki Murakami and exploring his international acclaim, his recurring themes, and a midnight release party in Columbus, Ohio. esquire.com/entertainment/…

How did a demure jazz-club owner become a global literary sensation and a perennial Nobel Prize contender? We’re taking you inside the unlikely rise of Japan’s greatest contemporary writer. Jonathan Russell Clark writes: esquire.com/entertainment/…

After nearly nine years at Esquire, I’ve been laid off from my role as Books and Fiction Editor. I’m looking for a new full-time role where I can use my storytelling skills, in the book world or beyond it. If you know of anything, I’m at [email protected]. (🧵1/10)

always satisfying when an article about some stupid assholes includes a photo that’s like “yep that’s them, the stupid assholes”

this is really a shame, Adrienne built an incredible section at Esquire and published great, rare reporting on the book industry

Imagine being dumb enough to lay off Adrienne, the smartest, hardest working person at esquire! Wild choice on their part, but fantastic news for whoever gets her next.

Working with Adrienne Westenfeld on 10 Esquire features has been the highlight of my journalism career. She is brilliant, discerning, and collaborative in all the ways an editor who brings out the best in her writers should be. We need her back in Book World immediately.

What the fuck is happening in publishing? Adrienne is such an incredible editor and person. And this happens on the same day those chucklefucks announce they’re going to publish AI bullshit books. Everything is going in the wrong direction.

Adrienne is one of the best editors in the world. This is such a massive loss for Esquire and its readers, but a huge win for whoever hires her next. Writing for her has been one of the highlights of my career.

My final act at Esquire is a fitting one: I hand-modeled my way into the role of "woman with knife" in a Chuck Palahniuk story. So proud to launch my fifth Napkin Project, featuring Chuck, Jacqueline Woodson, Daniel M. Lavery, Meg Wolitzer, and Weike Wang. esquire.com/entertainment/…

realclearbooks.com Tuesday reads: Stephen G. Adubato for Law & Liberty, Pierre d'Alancaisez (is) Verdurin for The Critic, Jonathan Russell Clark for Esquire, Cole Stangler for The Nation, jakekerridge for Air Mail, and many others.

Could a moment at a baseball game kickstart a literary transformation? For Haruki Murakami, it did. From jazz cafés to talking cats, underground realms to magical realism, his fiction explores the mysteries of consciousness and connection: tinyurl.com/3mtnk9sd

obsessed with this painting by Hélène Delmaire, which inspired this ekphrastic poem from We Contain Landscapes (Tin House, 2025). it’s a sonnet that breaks off, with fewer syllables at the last line, bc the speaker is crying . WCL is out in March 🌀

In honor of my new book, The Shutouts, which comes out today, I wrote about why queer sex belongs in climate fiction for Literary Hub lithub.com/why-we-need-mo…

Read @mervatim on Texas: The Great Theft and the literary nature of gossip. lithub.com/merve-emre-on-…

Merry Community Christmas to all those who don’t celebrate

I believe I said I wasn’t done playing with this form yet 😬 ty to Black Warrior Review for indulging this latest fragmerotic weirdness!!

My latest for The Washington Post, a review of Ava Shade’s excellent Y2K

We are ten years old and still somehow going strong. lithub.com/happy-birthday…