The Point Magazine

02/04/2025

Chicago friends—join us TOMORROW, April 3, for our one-day Public Thinking conference, “The End of the University and the Future of Criticism.” This public event will bring together scholars, novelists, critics, and funders to discuss the consequences for literary criticism and literary institutions as academic jobs dry up and the university comes under a new set of attacks. Featuring speakers including Sophie Pinkham, Jesse McCarthy, Brandon Taylor, Jordan Castro, Merve Emre, and more. ( )

We will consider how today’s universities can better support critical culture while also exploring both the challenges and the opportunities that have arisen with a new crop of small magazines, digital book reviews, arts nonprofits, and independent presses. Who is literary criticism for? Where do we find grounds for optimism about the next generation of literary institutions? And what pathways remain available to students and other young people who wish to pursue careers as critics?

Register at the link in bio!

26/02/2025

From Issue 34, .jstevens on Rortian irony and the value of "sidestep[ping] ideological certainty without ever condoning political complacence... turning a rigorous attention on the world and on others' experience; expanding our imagination for what it's like to be alive." Link in bio. 🎭

Art credit: .milunovic 🎨

05/02/2025

01/02/2025

Issue 34 is almost here! Swipe to see the table of contents and subscribe to get it delivered straight to your mailbox. 💌 Link in our bio for a sneak peek of what's inside 🔗📚

25/01/2025

"The candidate wanted to shake off the present as a record of the past. Her party was embarrassed of what came before, of all that brought us here. But the problem with taking leave of history is that you lose the good stuff, too."

In a preview from our new issue, Lauren Michele Jackson looks back at the DNC in Chicago:

We didn’t know her. What an opportunity. She could have said, been, anything.

17/01/2025

New on Forms of Life, on the destruction of California: "Building and caring for infrastructure, living within limits—this entails sacrificing both social capital and private profit." Link in bio. 🔗

27/12/2024

Our most-read essays and interviews of 2024, featuring hits from , , , , , and more! Link in bio 🔗

07/12/2024

Last month, Point editor Becca Rothfeld () and cultural critic Sam Kahn used their respective Substacks to debate… the merits of Substack. They continue their conversation here, touching on broader questions about the value of the “institutional model” of legacy media, the importance of platforms for outsider writing, and whether the medium really is the message.

Read the first part of this conversation at the link in our bio. 🔗 Read parts 2 and 3 on the website.

06/12/2024

Introducing The Point's Substack—a new way to engage with The Point 🔖 Join the conversation at the link in our bio! 🔗

From editor : "Especially in the wake of the election, I’ve been struck by how much closer to the world the things I read on Substack seem to be, in comparison with what is being published in mainstream publications. ...  Accordingly we plan to use this Substack in several ways that we hope will complement, rather than be a substitute for, the print magazine. One will be to post thoughtful dialogues between writers with different perspectives on controversial issues, which is a continuation of a genre we’ve long encouraged in the magazine but that seems especially well-suited for Substack. Another will be to let our editors comment on wider trends in media and intellectual culture, in a shorter and more casual form than we would usually do on The Point’s website. A third will be to preview articles and events related to the magazine. If you are already a Point subscriber or reader, we hope you will find a new way to engage here with the things we publish (finally a comments section!). If you’re new to the magazine, we hope you’ll like what you discover here."

20/11/2024

New on Forms of Life: .dolan on the Democratic Party's "empty promises of a return to 'normalcy'" and Generation Z's swing to the right. Link in bio.

07/11/2024

New online: Benjamin R. Teitelbaum (.teitelbaum) on the perils of post-populism, and what happens when a revolutionary becomes the establishment. Link in bio 🔗

06/11/2024

New online: Ken Silverstein () and J.M. Colón () discuss honest and independent journalism in a political landscape dominated by moneyed interests. Link in bio.