A New Open Letters Monthly Is Up! Again!

A monthly schedule really is relentless, isn’t it? And yet somehow, every month, we pull it off and present to the world another brand spanking new issue. As usual, I hope you’ll be tempted to go browse and read in it directly, but here are a couple of teasers:

Once again we wrap up the year with our special “Year in Reading” feature, in which the Open Letters editorial team picks favorites read, not (or not necessarily) published, in 2015. I always enjoy reading through everyone’s contributions: we are all avid readers, but we all read differently, and different things, so you can never predict what will turn up there. There was some competition for my own top spot this year; I’ll get a chance to revisit more of my own personal bests when I do my year-end post.

My review of Adam Johnson’s Fortune Smiles is up. I thought The Orphan Master’s Son was an extraordinary novel — gripping, sad, funny, and really original — and I thought the same of this collection of stories, though they certainly take us to some disturbing places.

Jane Schmidt reviews what sounds like a really interesting book on the history and ideology of makeup. Is it oppressive or expressive? Read the review and find out!

Also in this month’s issue: Steve Donoghue on a new book about atheism, Luciana Magniafico on the art and legacy of Edward Gibbon, new poetry, and more.