The Delacorte Review

What do you do with what a loved one leaves #unpublished? “A manuscript never quite ready, even posthumously,” can teach us, beyond the sadness and frustration, that “the unfinished has its own beauty, in what remains and what someone makes of it.” thedelacortereview.substack.…

We #writers aren't what anyone would call chill. We worry about everything. Now, however, there is a new worry: will AI make us obsolete? Yet, what differentiates us from it? According to ourselves, and to the #AI itself... thedelacortereview.substack.…

#Writing vexes and exhausts us. It can leave us vulnerable to doubt and to the fear that we are doomed to be blocked tomorrow. As our worst self-critics, we find ways to blame ourselves for the #fatigue that can overwhelm us. But is it really our fault? thedelacortereview.substack.…

Michael Scherer covers the White House for The Atlantic. On this episode of Writerland, he discusses working on an administration without precedent in what it does and how it goes about it. thedelacortereview.substack.…

What is the importance of place, in writing? How do we best look up from our notes and take notice? Place anchors a story. It places characters and the things they do and what happens to them in a setting to which they are inexorably bound. thedelacortereview.substack.…

Today marks the twentieth anniversary of the assassination of #journalist Anna #Politkovskaya in Moscow. Decades on from her coverage of Russia, when her judgments have been proven tragically right, it is well worth rereading her. thedelacortereview.substack.…

#Sports are a gift for #writers. It offers stories that come with the narrative spine baked in. And yet, in trying to understand athletes, writers too often ask them to talk not in their own language, with their own vocabulary, but in ours. thedelacortereview.substack.…

Early encounters in a journalism career leave a mark; lessons learned about what we wouldn’t do as much as what we would repeat in a heartbeat. In this chapter, the author recalls visiting an inmate at the Penitentiary over half a century ago. thedelacortereview.substack.…

What does sporting joy inspire us to write? What does joy compel us to say? Plenty. The spirit of such moments and the prose it inspires remind us all how wonderful writing can be when it comes from a full and happy heart. #Knicks thedelacortereview.substack.…

We each seek #validation even as we embrace #creative risk. These two impulses are, however, often incompatible. The first can subordinate you to authority. The second says, in effect, that you do not care what others think. thedelacortereview.substack.…

We long for #publishers to say yes, to grant us their approval, a longing that places writers in a subordinate position. But lately, more writers are reassessing their unhealthy relationship with publishers. This #writer took matters into his own hands. thedelacortereview.substack.…

At the end of every semester, I ask my students to bring a song that sounds the way they’d like their writing to sound. It is an illuminating ritual, because no two students have ever chosen the same music. So many voices. So many songs. Which is yours? thedelacortereview.substack.…

Grief takes many forms, but what can make it feel so much worse is loneliness, the sense that no one understands my grief, or worse still, appreciates why I feel it. How do we report on it? thedelacortereview.substack.…

Our latest story, "Breastfeeding Grief," on an intimate loss and finding you're not alone in experiencing it. By @MiriamWasser. "Of all the unexpected things I experienced as a first-time mom, not being able to breastfeed was the biggest surprise." delacortereview.org/2026/05/…

Our family histories can tell us about ourselves in ways that few other stories can. So time and again, we ascend to the metaphorical attic and begin sifting through the detritus of lives that might hold the key to insight and illumination. tinyurl.com/3kkcjjaa

This week, we covered the life and work of Mohamed Choukri (1935-2000), perhaps the most renowned Moroccan writer, a uniquely visceral narrator, and the great voice of Tangier. Read the full piece here: thedelacortereview.substack.… #Tanger #literature

“We writers may not necessarily be nuts, but it must appear that what we do with our working lives is crazy. Day in and day out, we fill empty canvases with words that, we hope, will succeed in getting people to see and feel what we have seen and learned.” thedelacortereview.substack.…

Writing is an endeavor that comes with great risk. Not the physical risks of other professions, but a different sort of risk – one that cuts to who we are and, through our work, how we hope the world will see us. thedelacortereview.substack.…

We spoke to @LuisAlbertoUrr3 about his novel Good Night, Irene, the story of the 250 women who, in #WWII, volunteered to join a branch of the Red Cross and were known as the Clubmobile Corps. “The point of this book, for me, was about creating a monument.” tinyurl.com/92c6v96c