Fiction Archives - Public Books https://www.publicbooks.org/tag/fiction/ a magazine of ideas, arts, and scholarship Sat, 17 Jan 2026 02:10:42 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 https://www.publicbooks.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/cropped-favicon-2-300x300.png Fiction Archives - Public Books https://www.publicbooks.org/tag/fiction/ 32 32 Our Golden Age of Reading (Online) https://www.publicbooks.org/our-golden-age-of-reading-online/ Thu, 14 Aug 2025 15:00:23 +0000 https://www.publicbooks.org/?p=60440 There is an urgent need for new, more affirmative ways to participate in culture, especially against the ongoing systematic whiteness of publishing and the exclusivity of elite institutions.

The post Our Golden Age of Reading (Online) appeared first on Public Books.

]]> Once upon a Time in Tenoxtitlan https://www.publicbooks.org/once-upon-a-time-in-tenoxtitlan/ Wed, 30 Jul 2025 15:00:00 +0000 https://www.publicbooks.org/?p=60312 Two novels published in 2024 return to some of the best-known, canonical figures and episodes from Mexico’s past.

The post Once upon a Time in Tenoxtitlan appeared first on Public Books.

]]> The Scenery of the Crime https://www.publicbooks.org/the-scenery-of-the-crime/ Wed, 02 Jul 2025 15:00:15 +0000 https://www.publicbooks.org/?p=60049 Opera demands a generous sense of the preposterous. So too does the mystery novel.

The post The Scenery of the Crime appeared first on Public Books.

]]> “The Door’s Still Locked”: Fiction after Fascism https://www.publicbooks.org/the-doors-still-locked-fiction-after-fascism/ Wed, 11 Jun 2025 15:00:30 +0000 https://www.publicbooks.org/?p=59896 “Labor” forces us to ask: Who has power? “Horror” forces us to ask: Who is the monster? And the combination of the two, “Labor-as-Horror,” tells us to beware the uncomfortable fractures in our otherwise ordinary work.

The post “The Door’s Still Locked”: Fiction after Fascism appeared first on Public Books.

]]> “Foolishness on the Page”: Talking with Zahid Rafiq https://www.publicbooks.org/foolishness-on-the-page-talking-with-zahid-rafiq/ Thu, 08 May 2025 15:00:46 +0000 https://www.publicbooks.org/?p=59639 “What ends up in the writing is what the characters see, and what they see is determined by how they feel.”

The post “Foolishness on the Page”: Talking with Zahid Rafiq appeared first on Public Books.

]]> Planetary Boundaries are Non-Negotiable: Kim Stanley Robinson and Elizabeth Carolyn Miller https://www.publicbooks.org/planetary-boundaries-are-non-negotiable-kim-stanley-robinson-and-elizabeth-carolyn-miller/ Fri, 25 Apr 2025 15:00:33 +0000 https://www.publicbooks.org/?p=59569 Our partner podcast Novel Dialogue invites a novelist and a literary critic to talk about novels from every angle: how we read them, write them, publish them, and remember them. This season’s signature question is: If you could spend a year anywhere, where, when, and how would you spend it? In Season 9, Novel Dialogue set […]

The post Planetary Boundaries are Non-Negotiable: Kim Stanley Robinson and Elizabeth Carolyn Miller appeared first on Public Books.

]]> Marie Arana on “LatinoLand” https://www.publicbooks.org/marie-arana-on-latinoland/ Wed, 02 Apr 2025 15:00:00 +0000 https://www.publicbooks.org/?p=59420 “The United States is not idea. We are human beings and nobody represents that more in my book than latinos.”

The post Marie Arana on “LatinoLand” appeared first on Public Books.

]]> All of Our Stories Were War Stories: Jamil Jan Kochai and Kalyan Nadiminti https://www.publicbooks.org/all-of-our-stories-were-war-stories-jamil-jan-kochai-and-kalyan-nadiminti/ Fri, 22 Nov 2024 16:00:02 +0000 https://www.publicbooks.org/?p=58358 “I had an innate sense as a child that the war was a deep part of who my parents were, so tied up in how they told stories and how they understood reality and existed in the world.”

The post All of Our Stories Were War Stories: Jamil Jan Kochai and Kalyan Nadiminti appeared first on Public Books.

]]> Dirt Bag Novels: Lydia Kiesling in Conversation with Megan Ward https://www.publicbooks.org/dirt-bag-novels-lydia-kiesling-in-conversation-with-megan-ward/ Fri, 11 Oct 2024 15:00:30 +0000 https://www.publicbooks.org/?p=57713 “When I think about the novels that sort of shaped me as a younger reader, they're often books that I call the dirt bag novel, which is sort of a reformulation of the bildungsroman.”

The post Dirt Bag Novels: Lydia Kiesling in Conversation with Megan Ward appeared first on Public Books.

]]> Karla Cornejo Villavicencio on “Catalina” https://www.publicbooks.org/karla-cornejo-villavicencio-on-catalina/ Wed, 24 Jul 2024 15:00:09 +0000 https://www.publicbooks.org/?p=56956 “I find human behavior fascinating. I find it interesting. I find all of it confusing, every single aspect of it.”

The post Karla Cornejo Villavicencio on “Catalina” appeared first on Public Books.

]]>