10 Writers Remaking African Literature in 2026
The writers demanding our attention in 2026 interrogate power, dissect masculinity, and insist on joy in their works of satire, sorcery, and secrets from Africa and the Diaspora.
childrens literature
Nancy Drew’s Forever American Girlhood
Will the iconic Nancy Drew character created 95 years ago be left in the past, or will she make her place in today’s ideal of American girlhood?
Harry Potter’s Ultimate Übermensch
While Nietzschean themes haunt the Harry Potter series, J.K. Rowling conveys her morality tale of the Übermensch.
More Than a Nose That Grows: A New Translation of ‘Pinocchio’
Pinocchio author Carlo Collodi was a socially concerned writer who wanted his fellow Italians (especially children) to avoid becoming ensnared in a life of penury.
Jack Halberstam’s ‘Wild Things: The Disorder of Desire’ (excerpt)
Enjoy this excerpt of Wild Things: The Disorder of Desire, wherein Jack Halberstam offers an alternative history of sexuality by tracing the ways in which wildness has been associated with queerness and queer bodies throughout the 20th century.
The Kids Might Be Alright: Progress as Virtue in Contemporary Children’s Literature
Dave Eggers and Colin Meloy take on the antagonistic and nativist rhetoric in American politics and culture with children’s literature that is intent on generating empathy.
Family Bonding, Poverty and Vagrancy in Children’s Literature
Three European classics, Seacrow Island, An Episode of Sparrows and Krabat and the Sorcerer’s Mill explore difficult topics with profundity and sincerity.
‘Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’: Past and Present, Space and Time
Though pasts and futures are undone and redone in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, by the end we are left where we began.
I Was Poisoned by Arnold Lobel’s Children’s Fable, ‘Frog and Toad’
Arnold Lobel could have done his little gay readers an immeasurable and unparalleled service. Instead, he set us up for perpetual disappointment.