The novelist Jonathan Franzen discusses religion, the ethics of writing characters of a different race, and his deliberate evolution away from literary formalism and “po-mo hijinks.” As Broadway reopens, the theatre critics Vinson Cunningham and Alexandra Schwartz discuss whether the record-breaking number of plays by Black playwrights this season is a sign of things to come or a short-term response to the racial reckoning that began in 2020. Plus, the music critic Amanda Petrusich discusses three tracks from a playlist for a new baby.
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