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Aunt Maisie had packed his suitcase the night before and left it near the front door, and so he dressed himself without turning on the light and came out and dropped the pajamas on top of the suitcase. She was in the kitchen, banging the pans around.
—From Brawler, an electric short story collection by Lauren Groff (Riverhead Books, 2026). These sentences are from the beginning of "To Sunland," which appeared in The New Yorker in 2022. This is the third story in Brawler (51-78); it's one of my favorites and also one of several that I had already read prior to picking up this collection. Lauren Groff narrated her own audiobook, which was excellent. The other notable thing about this collection is the physical book itself. Jaya Miceli's jacket design, which features art by Vladimir Dunjić, is stunning. It's worth buying the hardcover of Brawler for the dust jacket and endpapers alone.
When M was a child, her mother told her that a long time ago the signs on the doors of the metro stations in her native city had the terrifying words There is No Way Out etched into the glass, as if passengers were being advised to abandon all hope. By the time M had grown up enough to travel on the metro herself, the same prohibition was phrased more usually as No Exit or Closed, and although it meant much the same, the sense of frightening hopelessness had disappeared—that's how much the choice of words matters.
—From The Disappearing Act, a slim novel by Maria Stepanova, translated from the Russian by Sasha Dugdale (New Directions, 2026). It is also available in English from Fitzcarraldo Editions. These wonderful lines are from page 83 of the New Directions paperback.
I have met someone who remembers. . . . His name is Henry Dale, and I don't need to tell him that time has ground to a halt. He already knows.
—From On the Calculation of Volume III, a novel by Solvej Balle, translated from the Danish by Sophia Hersi Smith and Jennifer Russell (New Directions, 2025). This is the third book in the series of seven and has been published by arrangement with Copenhagen Literary Agency. Originally published as Om udregning af rumfang III (Pelagraf, 2022).
I have a brand-new spine
built from an Erector Set,
the surgeon’s favorite tool kit.
—From "Home from the Hospital," a poem by Stephen Ruffus, New World Writing Quarterly (April 19, 2026).
I was born in Seoul, South Korea, and I grew up in the Netherlands.
—From Between Goodbyes, a documentary directed by Jota Mun, airing on season 38 of the show POV on PBS. This documentary is about adoption more generally and these relationships more specifically, but it is also about language, culture, communication, and miscommunication.