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Benjamin Moser

Author Website

  • Bio
  • Books & Translations
    • The Upside-Down World
    • Sontag: Her Life and Work
    • Why This World: A Biography of Clarice Lispector
    • The Works of Clarice Lispector in English Translation
      • Near to the Wild Heart
      • The Chandelier
      • The Besieged City
      • The Passion According to G.H.
      • Agua Viva
      • The Hour of the Star
      • A Breath of Life
      • Complete Stories
  • Selected Writings
  • Substack
  • News
  • Appearances
  • Nederlands
  • Português
    • Sontag: Vida e obra
    • Clarice, uma biografia
    • Autoimperialismo: três ensaios sobre o Brasil
  • Contact

Selected Writings

The New York Review

Desperately Not Seeking Susan
Sarajevo Revisited
Sontag in Sarajevo
Read more of Benjamin Moser’s writing in The New York Review

The New Yorker

He’s One of Brazil’s Greatest Writers. Why Isn’t Machado de Assis More Widely Read?
The True Glamour of Clarice Lispector
In the Sontag Archives
Elizabeth Bishop’s Misunderstood “Brazil”
Postscript: Mexico’s Majestic Lesbian Chanteuse, Chavela Vargas

The New York Review of Books

Not Rembrandt, But…
Rembrandt—The Jewish Connection?
Pioneers
Small Wonder
Dutch Treat
Saboteur in Texas
Llansol, Poet of the Posthumous
Dreaming Up Rio

Harpers

Appellation Texas Contra´lae
Mammonomania
Art is

The New York Times

Do Grants, Professorships and Other Forms of Institutional Support Help Writers but Hurt Writing?
Can Writers Still ‘Make It New’?
Whatever Happened to the Novel of Ideas?
When It Comes to Reading, Is Pleasure Suspect?
Do We Romanticize Writers Who Die Young?
Should There Be a Minimum Age for Writing a Memoir?
What Makes the Russian Literature of the 19th Century So Distinctive?
Is This a Golden Age for Women Essayists?
Which Canonical Work is Frequently and Frustratingly Misread?
Is Being a Writer a Job or a Calling?
Which Books Have Been Unfairly Maligned?
Are There Any Unforgivable Sins in Literature?
Why Do We Always Proclaim That the Novel Is Dead?
Kingdom of Shadows
Found in Translation
Patriarch and Pariah
Did He Really Say That? On the Perils and Pitfalls of Translation
Living in a Dutch Town House

The 2020 Pulitzer Prize Winner in Biography

Sontag: Her Life and Work wins the 2020 Pulitzer Prize in Biography An authoritatively constructed work told with pathos and grace, that captures the writer’s genius and humanity alongside her addictions, sexual ambiguities and volatile enthusiasms…learn more

Houston Chronicle interview with Benjamin Moser

Houston-born author Benjamin Moser dives deep into the life of ‘the coolest woman you ever met’ Benjamin Moser grew up around books. Admittedly, plenty of kids with bookish parents ensure their children are surrounded by shelves and piles of books. But Moser’s mother ran Stop, Look & Learn, a book and toy shop in Rice…

Interview with Benjamin Moser on KHOU-11

Benjamin Moser discusses his new book about writer and activist Susan Sontag. Watch on KHOU.com

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