The New Yorker

Lauren Collins (“Pins and Needles,” p. 32) became a staff writer in 2008. She is the author of “When in French: Love in a Second Language.” Mary Gaitskill (Fiction, p. 52) has written several novels and short-story collections. “This Is Pleasure,” a novella that first appeared in The New Yorker, was released as a book in 2019. Diane di Prima (Poem, p. 24), who died in 2020, was the author of “Revolutionary Letters” and “Spring and Autumn Annals,” among many books of poetry and prose. Hua Hsu (Books, p. 66), a staff writer, is the author of the memoir “Stay True.” Sarula Bao (Cover) is an artist and graphic novelist based in Brooklyn, where she manages a small press, Endless Editions. Giles Harvey (Books, p. 72), a contributing writer at the Times Magazine, has written…

WHY STUDY ENGLISH? Nathan Heller documents what may be the demise of the traditional English major as it once thrived in the wood-panelled seminar rooms of élite universities (“The End of the English Major,” March 6th). But schools of that kind make up less than five per cent of the country’s institutions of higher learning. At the other ninety-five per cent, the humanities are already combining traditional pedagogy with newer approaches. At my private, midsize university in lower Manhattan, enrollment in our English department has grown by forty-seven per cent in the past two years, to about a hundred and fifty majors. Our courses incorporate archival research and community collaboration. This academic year, one section of our introductory literature course worked with the Bowery Residents’ Committee to organize a book drive…

MARCH 22 – 28, 2023 Scattered whispers that the dramatic Norwegian soprano Lise Davidsen is the real deal have grown into a roar of consensus almost as powerful as her molten high notes. But Davidsen is still building her repertoire intentionally on the international stage; she makes her role début as the Marschallin in Richard Strauss’s “Der Rosenkavalier,” at the Metropolitan Opera, on March 27. It’s a relatively subtle assignment that derives meaning from intimacy, leading to the part’s big payoff, in the final trio, which closes the opera in a fit of rapture. As ever, it’s advisable to check in advance to confirm engagements. ART Uta Barth The best way to approach Barth’s two-part show is to start upstairs, where an arresting group of images, made between the mid-nineties and 2017, gracefully map the…

A heartening experiment is under way at Rockefeller Center, where new restaurants are sprouting up from thoughtful local chefs at the top of their game. A stroll through the labyrinthine subterranean concourse reveals, alongside the predictable Sweetgreen and Starbucks, grab-and-go branches of such New York City gems as the nirvana of Italian sandwiches Alidoro, which originated in SoHo more than thirty years ago, and J. J. Johnson’s Harlem-based rice-bowl enterprise, Fieldtrip. Anchoring these are a set of sophisticated new restaurants, including the elegant all-day Italian café Lodi, from Ignacio Mattos; the Art Deco palace Le Rock, from the chefs behind Frenchette; the brainy Korean tasting-menu den Naro, from the owners of Atomix and Atoboy; and Five Acres, from the chef Greg Baxtrom, of the beloved Prospect Heights spot Olmsted. Among…

Contested elections can have unexpected legacies. After the recount of the 2000 Presidential election results in Palm Beach County, Florida, a Canadian electrical engineer named John Poulos was struck, like most people, by what a mess it was. These were the days of the so-called Brooks Brothers riot and a Supreme Court fight that awarded Florida’s electoral votes to George W. Bush. Poulos was unimpressed by the voting technology, which featured poorly designed punch-card ballots that yielded hanging and dimpled chads, and overcounts and undercounts. During the next couple of years, he worked on building a better voting machine. He founded a company and, looking for a name, turned to the Dominion Elections Act of 1920, which had enfranchised many Canadian women. “We thought that would be a nice homage…

The New York Young Republican Club traditionally has its hands full—Antifa, crime, the godless city. Two weeks ago, the group held a panel on drag queens in which a speaker declared, “This is a war. You can’t rest on these demons. They’re after our kids!” But that doesn’t mean a conservative can’t cut loose. There are galas, parties, soirées. “A by-product of the club is several romances have blossomed between members, some even leading to marriage,” the Epoch Times, the newspaper of the Falun Gong spiritual movement, reported recently. The other day, an invitation arrived announcing the latest social, at a speakeasy in Little Italy. “Martinis with Roger Stone!” it read. The Republican operative and ex-con (Trump pardoned him in 2020) would be divulging Richard Nixon’s secret recipe. It went…