1. For your pleasure, the Criterion Collection has rounded up its Tenenbaum (and Co.) publication covers. 

    For your pleasure, the Criterion Collection has rounded up its Tenenbaum (and Co.) publication covers. 

  2.

    Ron Hogan talks to Cris Beam about publishing her memoir, Mother, Stranger. 

  3. Listen to Cris Beam read from 'Mother, Stranger' →

  5. Watch a trailer for our new story Mother, Stranger by Cris Beam. 

  6. Last night, The Atavist convened an all-star panel—featuring David Dobbs, Cris Beam, and Clive Thompson—to discuss what future, if any, memoir has in the digital age. Look at the photos here. 

    Last night, The Atavist convened an all-star panel—featuring David Dobbs, Cris Beam, and Clive Thompson—to discuss what future, if any, memoir has in the digital age. Look at the photos here. 

  7. Read an excerpt from David Dobbs’s best-selling memoir My Mother’s Lover and then come to Brooklyn to see him in person at Melville House! The February after my mother died, my brother, Allen, left his New Mexico home and boarded a plane for Honolulu. He carried a backpack that carried a rosewood box that carried our mother’s ashes. The next day, on Maui, he bought six leis and rented a sea kayak. With the leis in a shopping bag and our mother’s ashes in his pack, he paddled into the Pacific. That day nine years ago was the sort one hopes for in the tropics: warm and balmy, with a breeze that pushed cat’s paws over the water. Beyond the mouth of the bay he could see rising plumes, the spouts of humpback whales gathered to breed. He paddled toward them. When he was closer to the whales than to the shore, he shipped his oar and opened his pack. He pulled out the box and sat with it on his lap, letting the boat drift. He watched the distant spouts. Without any prelude, a whale suddenly but gently surfaced about 30 yards in the distance and released a gush of air. It bobbed, noisily breathed, and dove. Read more

    Read an excerpt from David Dobbs’s best-selling memoir My Mother’s Lover and then come to Brooklyn to see him in person at Melville House!

    The February after my mother died, my brother, Allen, left his New Mexico home and boarded a plane for Honolulu. He carried a backpack that carried a rosewood box that carried our mother’s ashes. The next day, on Maui, he bought six leis and rented a sea kayak. With the leis in a shopping bag and our mother’s ashes in his pack, he paddled into the Pacific.

    That day nine years ago was the sort one hopes for in the tropics: warm and balmy, with a breeze that pushed cat’s paws over the water. Beyond the mouth of the bay he could see rising plumes, the spouts of humpback whales gathered to breed. He paddled toward them. When he was closer to the whales than to the shore, he shipped his oar and opened his pack. He pulled out the box and sat with it on his lap, letting the boat drift. He watched the distant spouts. Without any prelude, a whale suddenly but gently surfaced about 30 yards in the distance and released a gush of air. It bobbed, noisily breathed, and dove.

    Read more

  8. RSVP for our free Valentine’s Day event!

    Two of our bestselling authors will discuss their memoirs about their mothers, and the role of memoir writing in the digital age. 

    Drinks and dessert will be served.

    6:30 p.m. at Brooklyn’s Melville House. RSVP here. 

  9. Sadie Magazine reviews Cris Beam’s Mother, Stranger:

    “She writes so deeply, exposing her rawest of emotions, that goose bumps cover your arms before you’ve had time to fully take in what she’s saying.”