Part Monster News Today

The Mary Sue's best non-fiction of 2023 list includes titles across various genres, arranged chronologically by publish date, not ranked.

Perception and reality collide when a mother and daughter are compelled to live in the shadow of a monstrous artist.

Sinéad Gleeson reviews impressive new books on art by Lauren Elkin and Laura Cumming

Seán Rocks’s adventurous Arena arts show is is a welcome diversion in an earlier time slot that nudges it into prime time

Featuring the work of Kathy Acker, Ana Mendieta, Carolee Schneemann and more, Lauren Elkin’s new book Art Monsters is a daring meditation on artists and writers whose work speaks from the body. Here, she talks about excess and monstrosity

Elkin’s capacious survey of female artists who focused on the body might have worked better as a collection of essays

“By her life within the home, woman gives to the state a support without which the common good cannot be achieved.” It is perhaps with this fraught context in mind that we should read Nicole Flattery’s debut novel, a coming-of-age chronicle about the past and present, mothers and daughters—and Andy Warhol.

In “Yellowface,” R.F. Kuang satirizes the publishing industry with a tale of a struggling writer who passes off her recently deceased friend’s book as her own.

For your distraction as election results loom.

Parenting advice on messy spouses, drawing boundaries, and pregnancy.