“I had made a bargain with myself that if I lived, I would give a book of what I learned back to the world in return—an act of gratitude and sometimes vengeance—and I made it.” —Anne Boyer, author of The Undying

“Nearly everything about writing a book is hard. The hope is that it’s harder, in some way, not to.” —Oliver Baez Bendorf, author of Advantages of Being Evergreen

The first lines of a dozen noteworthy books, including Everything Inside by Edwidge Danticat and Make It Scream, Make It Burn by Leslie Jamison. 

We return to certain novels not only to be enchanted and inspired, to be transported out of ourselves, but also to know ourselves more deeply.

The Merwin Conservancy will become the official owner and steward of the garden that poet W. S. Merwin nurtured for more than forty years.