Subscribe
Sign in
Home
Podcast
Feature Essays
Poetry Analysis
The Poetry Vault
Buy Me a Coffee
1:1 Consultation
Archive
About
Leave Literature Alone
On Literature's Political Entanglement
Oct 7, 2024
•
Liza Libes
2,053
303
280
Why Contemporary Publishing Is Broken
What a Decade in the Query Trenches Taught Me About Modern Literature
Jun 15
•
Liza Libes
161
38
34
The Russian Word English Can't Translate
There's a Russian word that appears six times in the first four chapters of Crime and Punishment. No English translator has ever understood it…
Jun 8
•
Liza Libes
117
36
17
How I Became a Russian Jew
The story my parents never told me about why we came to America
Jun 4
•
Liza Libes
98
26
10
How English Departments Destroyed Literature
I got an A+ for calling Shakespeare transgender. But the problem is so much worse in English departments across the Western world.
Jun 1
•
Liza Libes
71
4
9
Most Popular
View all
The Definitive List of 100 Classic Novels to Read Before You Die
Feb 25, 2025
•
Liza Libes
1,332
377
177
I Thought I Was Going to Study Literature at Columbia. I Was Wrong.
May 4
•
Liza Libes
725
143
98
The Strange Death of Literary Men
Dec 10, 2024
•
Liza Libes
554
233
113
The Rise of the Soulless Novel
Jan 19
•
Liza Libes
389
94
78
Latest
Top
Discussions
Why I Left Marxist Academia
Watch the full interview with Andrew Klavan
May 27
•
Liza Libes
59
13
7
English Departments Have a Karl Marx Problem
How ideological extremism is shaping—and endangering—the humanities
May 25
•
Liza Libes
130
28
17
Top 10 Books of All Time
Most contemporary fiction will be forgotten. These books survived for a reason.
May 18
•
Liza Libes
132
43
5
Why College Turns People Into Socialists
The modern university mirrors the very economic system its graduates are taught to defend.
May 14
•
Liza Libes
141
42
20
Which Dostoyevsky Translation Should You Read? (A Brutally Honest Guide)
I Studied Translation Theory at Columbia. Here’s why it’s difficult to translate Dostoyevsky—and why you shouldn’t read Pevear and Volokhonsky.
May 11
•
Liza Libes
150
43
20
Columbia Taught Me Socialism. These Books Taught Me the Truth.
Here are the 7 books that destroyed everything I learned at Columbia
May 7
•
Liza Libes
159
40
28
I Thought I Was Going to Study Literature at Columbia. I Was Wrong.
English departments teach ideology rather than literature
May 4
•
Liza Libes
725
143
98
See all
Pens and Poison
Pens and Poison is the literary project of author Liza Libes. Enter a world of literary analyses, cultural critiques, and other hot takes.
Subscribe
Recommendations
View all 49
Beyond the Music
Matt Austerklein
THE NEW JERUSALEM
Andrew Klavan
How To Subvert Subversion with Yuri Bezmenov
Yuri Bezmenov
The usual palm tree
Kat Rosenfield
Contra
Pedro L. Gonzalez
Links
https://pensandpoison.bio/
Pens and Poison
Subscribe
About
Archive
Recommendations
Sitemap
This site requires JavaScript to run correctly. Please
turn on JavaScript
or unblock scripts