Ludmila Ulitskaya is a badass. She is a Russian short story writer, playwright, and novelist who was born in the Ural Mountains and became a genetic scientist. Fired from the Vavilov Institute of General Genetics in 1970 for distributing underground literature, she began her literary career several years later at the Hebrew Theatre of Moscow ..read more

I was a ballet dancer for about ten years, from age 5 to 15, when my feet rebelled against the strictures of pointe shoes and I had to give it up. I wasn’t ever particularly serious about it—I didn’t want to take more than two classes a week; no ballet teacher ever said I had it, whatever indefinable thing makes a ballerina a ballerina; and I certainly am not genetically predisposed toward the tall, willowy slimness of a Balanchine girl ..read more

RW-REPLACE-TOKEN The Exvangelicals: Loving, Living, and Leaving the White Evangelical ChurchBy Sarah McCammonSt. Martin’s ..read more

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RW-REPLACE-TOKEN In the provinces of the Philippines, my grandpa, a tenant farmer and peasant, is walking home when he is mugged by distant family members. They stab him multiple times, steal his money, and leave him to die ..read more

To receive these posts by email each Monday, sign up. For more commentary on this week's readings, see the Reflections on the Lectionary page. For full-text access to all articles, subscribe to the Century ..read more

I have written the awful poem to rescue nature, a poem that starts: Alaska’s melting.  The poem walks like a toddler wielding an axe. It exaggerates. After which our houses will burn ..read more

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