“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness…”
— Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities
Literary criticism for the serious reader
This Week’s Picks

The Covenant of Water
★★★★★
“A multigenerational saga of breathtaking scope—Verghese writes about love and loss with the precision of a surgeon and the heart of a poet.”

Crying in H Mart
★★★★★
“A devastating, gorgeous memoir about grief, identity, and the way food holds memory. Every sentence feels earned.”

The Silk Roads
★★★★☆
“A dazzling reorientation of history that places the East at the center of world civilization where it has always belonged.”
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Inaugural Edition · A Decade of Literary Excellence
Ten years of independent literary review, distilled into a single prize. The Writers Review Meridian Award honors the books and authors that defined a decade of extraordinary reading—and the critics bold enough to champion them.
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Meet Our Editors
M. Chen
Fiction · Literary Fiction
“Every great novel is a conversation across time. My job is to introduce you to the other side.”
D. Okafor
Memoir · Biography
“The best memoirs teach us something about ourselves we didn’t know we needed to learn.”
S. Park
Poetry · Essays
“Poetry refuses to be rushed. I give it the time and silence it deserves.”
