At Beckomberga, the patients have too much time on their hands—and yet live somehow outside of it. @rhiansasseen.bsky.social writes on Sara Stridsberg’s melancholy novel of one family’s experience of mental illness.

For @thebaffler.com, I wrote about Sara Stridsberg’s novel Beckomberga, and how it looks at the history of institutionalization, the abstraction of time, and one family’s experience with mental illness. thebaffler.com/latest/corri...

tonight!

For MUBI Notebook, I wrote about Christian Marclay’s follow up to “The Clock”—“Doors”—and the doorway as possibility, transformation, and crossroads. mubi.com/en/notebook/...

Tomorrow, November 18 — come by Bar Jade in Bushwick at 7 p.m. for the latest Wish You Were Here reading series I help co-curate! Tomorrow’s will feature Elvia Wilk, Jack Sheehan, Colleen Grablick, Kate Peters, and myself! RSVP: partiful.com/e/q8CbHkPnTT...

Oops, I didn't realize until now this was live — but last month, for the @washingtonpost.com, I reviewed the Bulgarian writer Georgi Gospodinov’s new novel about the death of a parent, Death and the Gardener: www.washingtonpost.com/books/2025/1...

For @thenation.com , I wrote about Ron Padgett’s latest poetry collection, Pink Dust, and life as a continual act of reading. www.thenation.com/article/cult...

For The Atlantic, I wrote about Claire-Louise Bennett’s latest novel, Big Kiss, Bye-Bye, and what it has to say about the internet’s favorite topic—the relationship between heterosexual women and men: www.theatlantic.com/books/2025/1...

I have a short story, “The Pessimist”—following a woman as she stalks her apartment building’s halls at night—in the dreamy new issue of @angelfoodmag.bsky.social: angelfoodmag.com/the-pessimist

Tonight!!

Tomorrow! I’ll be asking Eimear McBride some questions about her wonderful new novel, The City Changes Its Face, at McNally Jackson Seaport starting at 7 p.m.—hope to see you there! www.mcnallyjackson.com/eimear-mcbri...

For the fall issue of Kinfolk, I interviewed Vincenzo Latronico about the process of writing Perfection, the influence of Georges Perec on his work, what it’s like to be translated as a translator, and more: www.kinfolk.com/stories/on-t...

For the Poetry Foundation, I wrote about the Chinese poet Zheng Xiaoqiong’s incredible collection In the Roar of the Machine, translated by Eleanor Goodman and published by @nyrb-imprints.bsky.social, and the work of Chinese migrant worker poets. www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/172...

For @clereviewbooks.bsky.social, I wrote about Lara Mimosa Montes’s excellent ‘The Time of the Novel,’ and the book’s porous boundary between reality and fiction: clereviewofbooks.com/inside-out-o...

For @electricliterature.com, I interviewed Rosalind Belben in anticipation of the rerelease of her seductively strange 1979 novel ‘Dreaming of Dead People’ this month from @andotherstories.bsky.social: electricliterature.com/rosalind-bel...

Wrote a bit about Marlen Haushofer’s ecofeminist classic The Wall on my newsletter phrasebooks.substack.com/p/returning-...

Wrote briefly about the crowds I’ve been surrounded by the last few weeks—political crowds, crowds of tourists, parties— phrasebooks.substack.com/p/the-crowd

For the @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social, I wrote about Caleb Femi’s panoramic poetry collection from earlier this year, The Wickedest, and writing about parties: lareviewofbooks.org/article/my-d...

Next Wednesday, May 28th! Come by Bar Jade in Bushwick at 7 p.m. for another reading organized by Kate Peters and me! Featuring work by: - Jenna Klorfein - Ismail Muhammad - Alex Wolfe - Rob Rubsam (@robrubsam.bsky.social) See you there!! partiful.com/e/LhcoSXdMXe...?

This was just posted by @tbretc.bsky.social on another platform. The Chicago Sun-Times obviously gets ChatGPT to write a ‘summer reads’ feature almost entirely made up of real authors but completely fake books. What are we coming to?

For @thebaffler.com, I wrote about Mathias Énard’s incredible new novel, The Deserters, the end of the twentieth century, and time repeating itself both in fiction and in real life: thebaffler.com/latest/the-t...

I will be reading from the new novel at Bushwick's Bar Jade on Wednesday, May 28th. Many thanks to @rhiansasseen.bsky.social for inviting me to read alongside some truly fantastic people, and to try out what I've been writing these past months.

I wrote a newsletter about the Portuguese artist Helena Almeida, her use of the color blue, and the words “listen to me” phrasebooks.substack.com/p/i-turn-mys...

For @theatlantic.com, I wrote about Claire Baglin’s new novel On the Clock, a book that dares to take mundane work seriously www.theatlantic.com/books/archiv...

Got the inaugural issue of @fallowmedia.bsky.social in the mail a few days ago, and it’s beautiful — plus, I’ve got an essay in it on the work of the Polish photographer Joanna Piotrowska in it

Announcing issue 1 of fallow, a new literary journal, featuring new work by @evagriff.bsky.social @waynekoestenbaum.bsky.social @greggerkesocrates.bsky.social Oisin Fagan, Ellen Dillon, Gabriel Josipivici, Helen Charman, Chris Beausang, Pascale Sardin @rhiansasseen.bsky.social & Patrick Nathan

Some of you might recall that I used to have a newsletter called phrase books, mostly about literature and art mostly in translation. After ignoring it for, oh, two or three years, I'm bringing it back. This new one is about Christian Marclay's The Clock and more: open.substack.com/pub/phrasebo...

Rereading Georgi Gospodinov’s excellent, relevant Time Shelter (translated by Angela Rodel)

“It Is March,” W. S. Merwin

Edith Wharton's TWILIGHT SLEEP returns to the THE ATLANTIC in all her glory. 🥂 Thank you @rhiansasseen.bsky.social! www.theatlantic.com/books/archiv...

Solvej Balle! Anne Serre! They are so, so good. I wrote about On the Calculation of Volume for @theatlantic.com: www.theatlantic.com/books/archiv... And for @thepointmag.bsky.social I once wrote about some earlier works of Anne Serre’s translated into English: thepointmag.com/criticism/a-...

Wrote a fun round-up for @theatlantic.com of reissues that deserve to be rediscovered, with work by Hermann Ungar, Nettie Jones, Jacqueline Harpman, and more www.theatlantic.com/books/archiv...

TONIGHT!! WISH YOU WERE HERE reading series 7pm at Bar Jade in Bushwick! Featuring: Elina Alter Kate Peters Walker Rutter-Bowman Noor Qasim And me! See you there!!

One week from today!! Come by!

Dubravka Ugresic, from her last book before her death, A Muzzle for Witches (translated by Ellen Elias-Bursic)

My friend Kate and I have another evening of our WISH YOU WERE HERE reading series coming up on Wednesday, January 29, at 7 pm at Bar Jade in Bushwick! Featuring: Elina Alter Kate Peters Walker Rutter-Bowman Noor Qasim And me! See you there??

My favorite piece of my writing that was published this year was this short story, “Pornography,” with the @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social, in which a woman crawls through a phone screen to try to have a conversation with the man watching her on the other side lareviewofbooks.org/article/porn...

For @TheAtlantic, I wrote about the first two volumes of the Danish writer Solvej Balle’s seven-part novel On the Calculation of Volume, and how fiction allows us to start and stop time: www.theatlantic.com/books/archiv...

In the Danish writer Solvej Balle’s new series of novels, the concept of a time loop is more than a gimmick; it’s a way of rethinking human existence, writes Rhian Sasseen:

For @TheAtlantic, I wrote about the first two volumes of the Danish writer Solvej Balle’s seven-part novel On the Calculation of Volume, and how fiction allows us to start and stop time: www.theatlantic.com/books/archiv...

The new Hong Sang-soo movie is ninety minutes of Isabelle Huppert charming her way through Seoul and being the worst French teacher of all time…pure bliss

Photos by Joanna Piotrowska at the ICA In Philadelphia

I’m a little over two hundred pages into The Magic Mountain and this scene with the x-rays is just incredible

We've added lots of great translation and global lit-centric presses and mags to this list since last week! If you think we've missed something, let us know! go.bsky.app/RPkPdAM

Begrudgingly firing up this thing again

A review I wrote for @thenation.com on Ange Mlinko’s collection Venice—with its poems about cities, ruin, and humanity’s capacity for self-destruction—is now up online: www.thenation.com/article/cult...

Adania Shibli: “...language is not merely a tool for communication. It often hides rather than articulates, holding between its silence endless possibilities not concerned with expression. Language can be attacked, abused.” www.theguardian.com/books/2023/n...

I have a review in the new issue of BOMB magazine of Mónica Ojeda’s nightmarish, excellent new novel about a twisted video game, ‘Nefando’: bombmagazine.org/articles/mon...

Really enjoying Christine Lai’s Landscapes

Something very comforting to a void