Funny women are bringing serious subjects to the stage and revolutionizing comedy—and creative nonfiction—in the process

Celebrity funerals, social media condolences, roadside memorials, and more: tracing the history of how we experience loss—and how we share it.

Year-End Lists!

The lyric essay escapes its hermit crab shell to wander free

On what's missing from most anthologies, how shared texts create soulmates, and why we need more editors of color

How cooperation sparks creative adaptation and creates a stronger literary ecosystem

Kira Compton learns how to write outside of a bar

Sheila Regan conducts a not-very-scientific investigation into the effects of drugs on writing

The challenges of translating flashes of insight to the page

Finding solace in memoirs of loss