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Close Reading
Can writing ability be absorbed by reading the great works of others? Share your thoughts.

Notes on the History of Fiction
Is there a danger in "animating" the giants of history? Or is E.L. Doctorow right that "the public figure of historical consequence makes a fiction of himself long before the novelist gets to him"?

Whitmore, 1969 Back from Vietnam, seeking salvation in Bob Dylan
by Dominic Smith

Horseman “Oh, you’ll succeed just fine,” he told her. “You’ll just never be any good.”
by Richard Russo

Night Bus The treacherous route to Lagos
by Ada Udechukwu

INTERVIEWS Out of the Darkness Ada Udechukwu on art, writing, and the politics of her troubled homeland [Web only]

L. Debard and Aliette A love story
by Lauren Groff

What Happened to the Baby? Uncle Simon was crazy about words. Really crazy
by Cynthia Ozick

The Safe A junkyard mystery
by Tim Gautreaux

Close Reading
Learning to write by learning to read
by Francine Prose

INTERVIEWS Reading and Writing Novelist and critic Francine Prose talks about creativity, literary craftsmanship, and her new book, Reading Like a Writer [Web only]

FLASHBACKS So You Want to Be a Writer Wallace Stegner, Francine Prose, John Kenneth Galbraith, and others offer advice to aspiring wordsmiths

Academic Discourse and Adulterous Intercourse
What campus novels can teach us
by Megan Marshall

Notes on the History of Fiction
Who would give up the Iliad for the “real” historical record?
by E. L. Doctorow

Arts and Letters 150 years of The Atlantic

Datura
by Brooks Haxton

A Mile Down the Road from Home
[with audio]
by Brendan Galvin

Bright Shadow
by Linda Gregerson

Nightfall
by Brad Leithauser

Lottery
[with audio]
by John Skoyles

Rue Family
by Christina Pugh

Sing-Along Messiah, Disney Hall
by Adam Kirsch

Squeezebox
[with audio]
by James Reiss

COMING SOON Poet in Residence David Barber, The Atlantic’s poetry editor, talks about the writing and teaching of poetry, and about his new collection of poems, Wonder Cabinet [Web only]

ALSO SEE Fiction Issue 2005 Joyce Carol Oates, "*BD* 11 1 86"; Charles Baxter, "Poor Devil"; Adam Haslett, "City Visit"; Shira Nayman, "The House on Kronenstrasse"; George Singleton, "Director's Cut"; Curtis Sittenfeld, "The Perils of Literary Success"; Rick Moody, "Writers and Mentors"; Mary Gordon, "Moral Fiction"; and much more.

Literary Interviews An index of Atlantic Unbound interviews with fiction writers, poets, and critics from Chinua Achebe to Tobias Wolff.