Jennifer Wilson
Jennifer Wilson is a contributing writer at The New Yorker. Previously, she was a contributing essayist at the New York Times Book Review covering trends in contemporary fiction. In 2022, she received the Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing from the National Book Critics Circle. In 2024, she was awarded the Robert B. Silvers Prize for Literary Criticism. She has a Ph.D. in Slavic languages and literatures and frequently writes about books by writers from Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus, as well as the relationship between culture and political economy. She regularly teaches cultural reporting and criticism at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY.
Elizabeth Banks Likes Makeup That Smells Like Her Grandma
The actress (“The Hunger Games,” “Pitch Perfect”), director (“Cocaine Bear”), and producer (“Bottoms”) talks facials and lipstick in honor of her role in the new thriller “Skincare.”
Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s Scabrous Satire of the Super-Rich
In “Long Island Compromise,” wealth is a curse. Or is that just what we’d like to think?
The Unfiltered Charm of Jet’s Beauties of the Week
Decades before Instagram, the magazine’s legendary column democratized the thirst trap.
Malika Andrews Plays Through the Pressure
The ESPN star’s reporting on divisive subjects, including allegations of violence against women, has been as risky as it is refreshing.
Claire Messud’s New Novel Maps the Search for a Home That Never Was
“This Strange Eventful History” traces three generations of an itinerant French family with roots in colonial Algeria.
Breaking a Ramadan Fast with Ramy Youssef
A gaggle of creative types—David Byrne, Cynthia Nixon, Debra Winger—gather in Bushwick for a lavish bridge-building Eid.
How Stories About Human-Robot Relationships Push Our Buttons
Two new novels, “Annie Bot” and “Loneliness & Company,” reflect anxieties about A.I. coming for our hearts as well as for our jobs.
Helen Oyeyemi Thinks We Should Read More and Stay in Touch Less
The author talks about travel, letters you shouldn’t open, and how she chose Prague as the setting for her latest novel.
“The Curse” and the Magical Thinking of the Speculative Economy
The Nathan Fielder–Emma Stone series is about whose predictions about the future go unchallenged and whose fates are decided as consequence.
The Shareable Feast of Jeremy Allen White’s Calvin Klein Ad
The frenzy surrounding the “Bear” star’s beefcake ad harks back to the brand’s heyday in the eighties and nineties.
How Did Polyamory Become So Popular?
Once the province of utopian free-love communities, consensual non-monogamy is now the stuff of Park Slope marriages and prestige television.
Marie NDiaye’s Drama of Exclusion and Revenge
“Vengeance Is Mine” is a story of class conflict in the guise of a psychological thriller.
J. M. Coetzee’s Interlingual Romance
“The Pole” is a love story that unfolds across a language barrier and a novel about language that can be told only through a love plot.
The Real Message of “The Real Housewives”
Since the show’s rise during the Great Recession, it has fulfilled a pedagogical role in women’s media. The lesson it imparts is: you better work, bitch.
The Cacophonous Miracle of “The Brothers Karamazov”
In Dostoyevsky’s final novel, narrative unfurls at the mad and authentic pace of human emotion.
John le Carré’s Search for a Vocation
The writer’s collected letters reveal the high value he placed upon honorable work.
The Editor Who Moves Theory Into the Mainstream
Under Ken Wissoker, Duke University Press is one of the few academic publishers with crossover appeal.
A Poet Reflects on Europe’s Last Dictatorship
Valzhyna Mort’s new book is part of the protest movement in Belarus. It captures, through language, the contours of dissent.
Elizabeth Banks Likes Makeup That Smells Like Her Grandma
The actress (“The Hunger Games,” “Pitch Perfect”), director (“Cocaine Bear”), and producer (“Bottoms”) talks facials and lipstick in honor of her role in the new thriller “Skincare.”
Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s Scabrous Satire of the Super-Rich
In “Long Island Compromise,” wealth is a curse. Or is that just what we’d like to think?
The Unfiltered Charm of Jet’s Beauties of the Week
Decades before Instagram, the magazine’s legendary column democratized the thirst trap.
Malika Andrews Plays Through the Pressure
The ESPN star’s reporting on divisive subjects, including allegations of violence against women, has been as risky as it is refreshing.
Claire Messud’s New Novel Maps the Search for a Home That Never Was
“This Strange Eventful History” traces three generations of an itinerant French family with roots in colonial Algeria.
Breaking a Ramadan Fast with Ramy Youssef
A gaggle of creative types—David Byrne, Cynthia Nixon, Debra Winger—gather in Bushwick for a lavish bridge-building Eid.
How Stories About Human-Robot Relationships Push Our Buttons
Two new novels, “Annie Bot” and “Loneliness & Company,” reflect anxieties about A.I. coming for our hearts as well as for our jobs.
Helen Oyeyemi Thinks We Should Read More and Stay in Touch Less
The author talks about travel, letters you shouldn’t open, and how she chose Prague as the setting for her latest novel.
“The Curse” and the Magical Thinking of the Speculative Economy
The Nathan Fielder–Emma Stone series is about whose predictions about the future go unchallenged and whose fates are decided as consequence.
The Shareable Feast of Jeremy Allen White’s Calvin Klein Ad
The frenzy surrounding the “Bear” star’s beefcake ad harks back to the brand’s heyday in the eighties and nineties.
How Did Polyamory Become So Popular?
Once the province of utopian free-love communities, consensual non-monogamy is now the stuff of Park Slope marriages and prestige television.
Marie NDiaye’s Drama of Exclusion and Revenge
“Vengeance Is Mine” is a story of class conflict in the guise of a psychological thriller.
J. M. Coetzee’s Interlingual Romance
“The Pole” is a love story that unfolds across a language barrier and a novel about language that can be told only through a love plot.
The Real Message of “The Real Housewives”
Since the show’s rise during the Great Recession, it has fulfilled a pedagogical role in women’s media. The lesson it imparts is: you better work, bitch.
The Cacophonous Miracle of “The Brothers Karamazov”
In Dostoyevsky’s final novel, narrative unfurls at the mad and authentic pace of human emotion.
John le Carré’s Search for a Vocation
The writer’s collected letters reveal the high value he placed upon honorable work.
The Editor Who Moves Theory Into the Mainstream
Under Ken Wissoker, Duke University Press is one of the few academic publishers with crossover appeal.
A Poet Reflects on Europe’s Last Dictatorship
Valzhyna Mort’s new book is part of the protest movement in Belarus. It captures, through language, the contours of dissent.