FIRST He wants to show you his office, then his desk, then his bedroom, then his neatly organized papers, then his college thesis, then his degree in history, then his dick. “Just don’t write about me,” he says. You laugh. “Why? You gonna sue me?” “Yeah, maybe,” he says. After that he wants to show you his feelings and he ...

22 I’m in a bar on a date in the West Village. I’m twenty-two. It’s not that long ago. It’s my fifth, maybe sixth date with Molly. Far enough along, anyway, that I don’t even think to dress fancy, just a nice T-shirt and a skirt. After our second pitcher, I go to the men’s bathroom. I do ...

In his Gakwer post, "'Writer of Our Time’ George Saunders Needs to Write a Goddamn Novel Already,” Adrian Chen argues that, "Fairly or not, the novel is the Super Bowl of fiction writing, and any fiction writer who hasn't written one is going to be relegated to runner-up in the annals of literary history." Chen, who ...

When the dog started following me, it was still early in the journey, before we’d all gotten rid of everything. At the shelter, as everyone started getting in their sleeping bags, I tried to figure out what I was going to do with the dog. I considered letting him sleep in the shelter with me, ...

Vanessa Caroline is the first person I interviewed for my project “Learn People Better.” I figured if I wanted to learn people better, I would interview someone quite different from me. The first person who came to mind was Vanessa, who I met through a mutual friend. Vanessa had worked as a receptionist at a ...

I am in Egypt, in a cab, looking out. Then, I am at a restaurant. Then, I am inside a tomb, trying not to breathe on the ancient walls, because my breath contributes to their degradation. My favorite kind of wall carving is the kind depicting the Pharoah smiting enemies. He grabs his tiny foes ...

The other night I watched a movie about two lovers who can't be together, aren't together, but come together. Who weren't even supposed to be lovers. Who don't start out that way. Who start off having sex. It's a long story why. But sex is a threshold. Through sex these two people cross over into love. ...

I wouldn’t be an ideas person if I didn’t have ideas about how people should talk about the weather, and I’ll be honest: I love talking about the weather provided it’s done right. And of course there are right ways and wrong ways to talk about everything. This book is a book for people like ...

My father George was killed in a car accident when I was 16. My mother Anita died from complications related to alcoholism in February 2010, when I was 32. I’m not sure how I feel about my parents, or about their deaths. I know don’t feel very sad, and I know that’s not how I’m ...