# The Literary Times

> a modern literary culture platform for writers


## Posts

- [Nobody/Outis: Odysseus, Bloom, and the Art of Absent Identity](https://literarytimesmag.com/nobody-outis-odysseus-bloom-and-the-art-of-absent-identity/): On June 16, 1904, Leopold Bloom is making his way along the Liffey, and what carries him there is not his will but his feet. James Joyce’s original phrasing is, in a sense, devastating: “His slow feet walked him riverward.” Here, the feet do the walking, and he purely follows. Such tiny grammatical inversion between subject and verb carries the entire epistemological premise of “Lestrygonians” in Ulysses. Indeed, consciousness is a latecomer. It is a witness arriving after the fact, while something older and deeper has already been moving in the dark. The sentence calls to mind a lie, in the […]
- [The Phenomenology of Staying: Notes Toward a Discipline of Attention](https://literarytimesmag.com/the-phenomenology-of-staying-notes-toward-a-discipline-of-attention/): My grandmother would kneel in the garden for hours. She had a way of looking at things that made them seem more themselves—more real, more present, more full of meaning. She would pick up a single seed and hold it in her palm, turning it over, examining its shape, its colour, the tiny ridges on its surface. “A seed is not just a seed,” she would say. “It is a promise that has not yet been spoken.” Every seed had a story, a history, a future. You only had to attend long enough to see it. The understanding did not come […]
- [Portrait of My Heart](https://literarytimesmag.com/portrait-of-my-heart/): In my favorite memory of my Heart, she is making me tea in glass jars in her house with white white walls, lots of air and plants in glass jars on walls in Zanzibar. She flutters around in her kitchen grating ginger into a jar, throwing in dry hibiscus/rozela petals, some lemon, some honey. She hands it to me and the tips of my fingers burn – tea in glass jars looks pretty, but you pay for this price with the skin on the tips of your fingers.  We sit outside on her porch, smoke cigarettes and chat shit. This becomes […]
- [To Live Like Gods: What We Devour for Gold Wealth, Desire and Moral Corruption in The Secret History and All That Glitters](https://literarytimesmag.com/to-live-like-gods-what-we-devour-for-gold/): The sun bounced off the dark blue water and the wind rustled the leaves of the palm trees – the day Inigo Philbrick was placed into handcuffs and taken to New York to face prosecution for fraud. Inigo, the swashbuckling and charming art dealer/ fraudster, happy to pay his penance for living the high-life for many years without consequence. When faced with consequence, Philbrick remarked “I’d feel more guilt if someone had died”. The flippancy of the remark provokes a chilling thought: what are we willing to tolerate as a morally acceptable pursuit of wealth and luxury? For Philbrick, a “proper […]
- [The Morality of Being Misled: Why Literature Teaches Us to Love the Wrong Characters](https://literarytimesmag.com/the-morality-of-being-misled-why-literature-teaches-us-to-love-the-wrong-characters/): Literature has always been fascinated by morally questionable people.  We follow murderers, liars, narcissists, tyrants, thieves, and cowards through hundreds of pages, sometimes knowing perfectly well that they are doing terrible things.  Yet we continue reading.  More strangely, we sometimes begin to understand them, sympathize with them, and even love them. This is one of literature’s manipulations: it does not always ask us to decide whether a character is good.  Instead, it asks us to see the world through their eyes. That distinction matters.  A reader can understand a character without forgiving them, but literature frequently makes the boundary between those […]
- [No Exit From the Kingdom](https://literarytimesmag.com/no-exit-from-the-kingdom/): Eugène Ionesco confessed that he wrote “Exit the King” in order to learn how to die. I keep returning to that confession and to this play while watching Europe rehearse the same lesson without appearing to learn it, mistaking spectacle for revolt and resignation for peace.  In Ionesco’s play, King Bérenger moves through three stages once he learns his kingdom, and his body, are dissolving: refusal, revolt, and, finally, resignation. This sequence appears partially in Europe’s posture toward the far right. First, the refusal: the conviction, comfortable and slightly smug, that a union built on the ruins of fascism was and […]
- [The Last Signal Drop  ](https://literarytimesmag.com/the-last-signal-drop/): Somewhere between the hills and the highway, we lost the ability to do nothing. Here’s what that’s costing us.  There’s a stretch on the road from Bilaspur toward Shimla, just after the hairpin near the Gobind Sagar lake, where the phone signal dies without warning. One bar, flickering, gone. It happens every single time, and every single time, the reaction in the car is the same — a small, almost embarrassed silence, like the passengers have been caught doing something. For thirty, maybe forty seconds, nobody has anywhere to look except out the window.  I’ve made that drive more times than […]
- [How to Call a Familiar ](https://literarytimesmag.com/how-to-call-a-familiar/): Before we fought them to wear belled collars and itchy sweaters, cats have always been curious outsiders. Whether it be their moon-eyed stares or the general aloofness of the local goth kid, cats became linked with witches through the imagery of old wise women sitting by the fire, their “familiars” curling up beside them to enjoy its warmth. We’ve all heard of barn cats: cats that work for a saucer of milk, food, and a warm place to sleep. Similar to the folk beliefs of house spirits or fairies, cats were often left dairy, bread, and cheeses in exchange for cleaning […]
- [Birth of A Daughter: A Blessing Or A Burden?](https://literarytimesmag.com/birth-of-a-daughter-a-blessing-or-a-burden/): Somewhere in the world today, a family will find out they’re having a girl, and there will be a  feeling of doom in the room. It is not just a thing in Pakistan, or even in South Asia, it’s a pattern  that shows up in different countries all around the world. China’s decades of one-child-policy  enforcement left the country with roughly 116 boys born for every 100 girls, against a natural  global average closer to 107. Nearly 76% of Japanese parents still expect financial support from  sons in old age, compared to just 6% who expect the same from daughters.   The […]
- [Could Gen Z be the next ‘Lost Generation’? ](https://literarytimesmag.com/could-gen-z-be-the-next-lost-generation/): Are we lost or simply prevented from finding our way?  The ‘Lost Generation,’ the cohort that came of age during World War I and the 1918 flu pandemic were not literally lost. These young adults who had experienced quite a lot of trauma before their lives had even begun were disoriented, cynical, and stripped of their illusions. They saw the institutions that their parents trusted—the government, the church, the economic structure—as utter failures and as untrustworthy. These seemingly aimless wanderers can be seen and explored by Hemingway in The Sun Also Rises, or Gertrude Stein’s work—authors who were part of this […]
- [Capturing Stream of Consciousness through Sound and Supporting Characters](https://literarytimesmag.com/capturing-stream-of-consciousness-through-sound-and-supporting-characters/): The term stream of consciousness can be defined as a narrative fiction technique that  captures the awareness and consciousness of an individual character through a “flow of myriad  impressions—visual, auditory, physical, associative, and subliminal.” This technique was coined  by psychologist William James in 1890 and soon gave birth to the psychological novel that many  recognize today. Stream of consciousness writing has allowed writers such as Virginia Woolf  and James Joyce to abandon the conventional grammar and narrative form, producing works that  are rich, yet sometimes deliberately fragmentary. This form of fiction is especially prevalent in  Clarice Lispector’s novels and works of […]
- [Diagnosis has excellent branding](https://literarytimesmag.com/diagnosis-has-excellent-branding/): Diagnosis Has Excellent Branding  If I asked you to describe a narcissist, you’d probably have an answer before I finished the question.  Ask you to describe a psychologically healthy person with the same precision and something curious happens.  The vocabulary evaporates.  We know every red flag.  Green ones remain strangely elusive.  This may be one of the strangest cultural developments of our time.  Never before have we possessed such an impressive vocabulary for dysfunction. We recognise gaslighting before dessert arrives. We know our attachment styles, our trauma responses, our nervous systems and our generational wounds. We can explain why relationships fail, […]
- [An Archive of Ordinary Tenderness](https://literarytimesmag.com/an-archive-of-ordinary-tenderness/): “Tum itna jo muskura rahe ho, kya gham hai jisko chhupa rahe ho?” It is often remembered as a song about hidden sorrow, but I have come to hear it as an ethical invitation to look beyond appearances. Few lines in popular culture ask a more courageous question. Not Who are you? But What is it about you that I cannot see? In an age that rewards visibility, this distinction matters. We have become remarkably skilled at looking and increasingly incapable of seeing. The paradox of contemporary life is not that we know too little about one another. It is that […]
- [On Autonomy](https://literarytimesmag.com/on-autonomy/): Serving in the Corps was, for me, a masterclass on isolation and its consequences.  The average person has their fair share of assumptions to make whenever they meet someone in service. There’s a degree of removal which allows a certain mythos to exist, helped by the glamorised (and often politically-charged) branding plastered throughout entertainment. Though my ego may beg to differ, I was not a jet-setting blood-thirsty playboy who personally fought every major terrorist at least once.  I was just a nineteen year old in a uniform that had a habit of swallowing me until everything about me just seemed so […]
- [The Meritocracy Trap: If Our Talents Are the Result of Genetics and Upbringing, Can Anyone Truly Deserve Their Success?](https://literarytimesmag.com/the-meritocracy-trap-if-our-talents-are-the-result-of-genetics-and-upbringing-can-anyone-truly-deserve-their-success/): Introduction Human beings never choose the circumstances into which they are born. We do not choose our parents, our genes, our natural abilities, or even the environment that first shapes us. Some people are born with extraordinary intelligence, musical ability, athleticism, or creativity, while others inherit different strengths and weaknesses. Scientific research suggests that these talents are influenced by genetics and developed through upbringing, while many religious traditions describe them as gifts from God. This raises an important philosophical question: if our talents are given to us rather than earned, can we truly deserve the success that results from them? Some […]
- [Splitting at the Seams](https://literarytimesmag.com/splitting-at-the-seams-by-david-krishna-strong-upadhya/): Up to 150 species go extinct daily. The acquisitions of businesses, housing units, and family heirlooms on Facebook marketplace transpire every minute. Class-action lawsuits are decided with impunity, giving life sentences, severe fines, or nothing at all. Flowers bloom. A girl laughs. Scientific discoveries regarding free, unlimited energy, rising sea levels and long-term psychological effects of electronics are unveiled, while 99% of us barely bat an eye.  None of these are the slightest bit interesting to the average person if there is no story attached to them. We are each possessed by stories of our own – working eighteen-hour days in […]
- [The Performance of being busy](https://literarytimesmag.com/the-performance-of-being-busy-by-anushree-singh/): There is a strange pride people carry in exhaustion now.  You can hear it in school hallways, office elevators, family dinners, even casual conversations between friends.  “How have you been?”  “Busy.”  The answer arrives almost automatically, often followed by a tired laugh that sounds suspiciously close to achievement. Nobody says it plainly anymore, but somewhere along the way, being overwhelmed became impressive. Rest started sounding irresponsible. Free time became something people apologized for.  I noticed this first during exam season last year. Everyone around me seemed to compete over who had slept the least. Someone bragged about surviving on three hours […]
- [Wo-man, Wo-wife, Wo-mom](https://literarytimesmag.com/wo-man-wo-wife-wo-mom-by-debayoti-ghosh/): Domesticate culture. Doemesticate identity. The ideal wife in India is seen running around in circles at her husband’s house and then continuing her rounds at the temple while circling Gods like Krishna, Rama, and Hanuman chanting mantras for the wellness of her husband and children and never once for herself. While they bathe Lord Shiva with milk for his fierce nature, they offer sindoor and Alta to Goddess Durga, addressing her matrimonial status. While the Goddess Kali is worshipped for her outburst onto Earth, a wife from a common household cackling senselessly is pinned by her ankles and shoulders to the […]
- [Violence of Freedom](https://literarytimesmag.com/violence-of-freedom-by-sharanya-bhattacharya/): Freedom is seldom peaceful or even more rare for explanations. We speak of it as if it were path Or a ray of light— as if it were expansion,individaulity or possibility. But freedom does not arrive like a gift, wrapped in a pretty wrapper or guarded to be unbroken. It tears. It confounds. But what it truly does is expose what we were surviving rather than living. We learn that freedom is the absence of restraint or the absence of fear. Yet restraint is not always visible. It hides in tradition, in politeness, in the quiet pressure to be acceptable, it […]
- [The god of moving](https://literarytimesmag.com/the-god-of-moving-by-ashay-vaidya/): There is a certain type of magic involved in the process of uprooting your entire life from one place and resettling into another. It is a quiet, nondramatic, even ubiquitous type of magic. Romantics would probably call it ‘the magic in the every day’. Which is weird, because the months leading up to the few days culminating in a handful of hours that eventually decide whether you made the right decision or an irreparable error feel anything but magical. I was ordained by the Creator and their closest sycophants, the hyper-capitalistic 8%, to spend four years of my life in a […]
- [The Choreography of Annihilation: Danse Macabre and the Seduction of Death in Literature](https://literarytimesmag.com/the-choreography-of-annihilation-danse-macabre-and-the-seduction-of-death-in-literature-by-mishika-bhatia/): The medieval danse macabre is often understood as a moral allegory: a skeletal Death leading kings, maidens, priests, and peasants alike in a grim procession toward the grave, reminding viewers of mortality’s universality. Yet this interpretation, while accurate, is incomplete. The power of the danse macabre lies not merely in its didactic insistence on equality before death, but in its choreography. Death does not strike from afar; it extends a hand. It does not annihilate anonymously; it partners. The living do not simply perish; they enter into movement. Mortality becomes relational. The macabre is rendered intimate. What the danse macabre accomplishes […]
- [Writers feel they must overachieve consistently, not to get ahead, but to keep up](https://literarytimesmag.com/writers-feel-they-must-overachieve-consistently-not-to-get-ahead-but-to-keep-up-by-sophie-maskell/): No longer is it enough to simply meet a deadline or pitch a piece: almost every aspect of the literary world requires extra qualifications, strong networks, or ideally both in abundance. The younger and emerging generation of writers feel frustration when we look at the older generation. “Just try harder! Hard work will be rewarded” has become an aspirational ethos, not the norm. From out-of-touch celebrity culture to lecturers who just don’t get it, the literary world feels as impassable as Wordsworth’s fictional mountain (‘The Prelude’). Facing constant rejection, the “measured motion” of the literary world comes from ignored emails, imaginative […]
- [The Anatomy of an Artist: A Study in the Constituents of Art](https://literarytimesmag.com/the-anatomy-of-an-artist-a-study-in-the-constituents-of-art-by-mrinalini-gajmer/): What even is the purpose of human existence if not to exhaust it in the pursuit of true art and perfection? Let not the word define its constraints, one who is proficient in their craft, who is, by layman’s terms, ‘good at what they do’, is an artist. ‘Art’ is, of course, a colloquial term for occupation, ‘profession’, and every ‘job’. For ‘everything worth being done, is worth being done well’. All that is to be done can be done as art, yet not every doer is an artist.  Most unsavory of tasks, most inglorious of events, are raw silk, waiting […]
- [Time, Love, and Perspective in Tales from the Café](https://literarytimesmag.com/time-love-and-perspective-in-tales-from-the-cafe-by-tanusha/): This piece is a response to Tales from the Café: A Novel—the second book in the Before the Coffee Gets Cold series. The series hinges on a cafe that allows one to travel back—and forward—in time. This is possible only while sitting in the chair, one which is constantly occupied by a ghost, and that one has to grab during her once-daily trip to the toilet if they want to make use of this special offering by the cafe. Time travel begins from the moment coffee is poured to the customer and lasts till the coffee gets cold. The person travelling […]
- [“If war is the answer, you are asking the wrong question.”](https://literarytimesmag.com/if-war-is-the-answer-you-are-asking-the-wrong-question-by-meesha-rana/): “If peace is equated simply with the absence of war, it can become abject pacifism that turns the world over to the most ruthless.” Henry Kissinger, former United States Secretary of State, and a political scientist, said this. He was involved in the Vietnam War, for which he won the Nobel Peace Prize, for negotiating a ceasefire. He was also involved in various other wars, aiding them to negotiate peace, mainly during the Cold War period. He was a diplomat who believed that war was sometimes neccessary to navigate diplomacy. Now, almost 50 years sicne he held office, it is an […]
- [The Beautiful Deceit: My Addiction to the Imaginary](https://literarytimesmag.com/the-beautiful-deceit-my-addiction-to-the-imaginary-by-areej-ali/): The dust specks only dance for the light I allow them.  I am the sole curator of this self-inflicted museum, responsible for its quiet and its failures.  I look at my own wrist, not as skin and bone, but as a blueprint carrying a design I did not ask  for. My body is a brittle, labeled specimen, accession-numbered by the blood, carrying the exact  angle of an inherited, quiet despair.  I hate the tilt of my jaw, the way it prepares for surrender, the readiness for a life that is less  than I deserved. Outside, the market breathes its relentless, gilded […]
- [On the day I am born, I am still someone’s daughter](https://literarytimesmag.com/on-the-day-i-am-born-i-am-still-someones-daughter-by-amata-iman-nisrin-pommeranz/): To who I became on December 17th, 2009For you are never a foster child from the very start.I wish to dedicate this piece to every person who got lost in the fostercare system and more so the ones who never found their way out.There is a way for you and you are not alone. You will not die here. Hello, I hope this letter finds you well.Somebody will need to read and translate this for you, since you haven’t quite learned English (orreading). Yet. But don’t worry, you will become an eloquent girl.I’d say you’ll become a smart girl, but that’s […]
- [Living in The Second Thought: Notes On OCD & the Search for Certainty](https://literarytimesmag.com/living-in-the-second-thought-notes-on-ocd-the-search-for-certainty-by-ola-anwer/): There are minds that walk through the world with a kind of untroubled acceptance, registering events as they occur and allowing them to remain uncomplicated in every day life.  And then there are minds like mine that hesitate, return, and reevaluate every minor action, decision, and thought.  These minds live not in the first perception of reality, but in the second. Their consciousness is shaped by doubt, by the instinct to reconsider, by the suspicion that life is always out to get them if the ritual is missed or or forgotten.  This is not simply overthinking. It is a form of […]
- [When Revisionism Shrinks a Heroine: The Glinda We Lost to Wicked](https://literarytimesmag.com/when-revisionism-shrinks-a-heroine-the-glinda-we-lost-to-wicked-by-mishika-bhatia/): Most people think Wicked is the liberating, feminist corrective to L. Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz. I think it does the opposite. For all its emerald-green shimmer, Wicked strips away one of the earliest feminist role models in American children’s literature: Glinda the Good, as Baum actually wrote her. And for the readers who know the Oz books beyond the 1939 film, this distortion feels less like a creative reinterpretation and more like a betrayal of a rich, self-contained lore.  Baum built Glinda as a powerful, ethical, politically astute woman who never needed “darkness,” or moral ambiguity to be compelling. […]
- [Bugging Out: What Two Insect Disasters Taught Me About Love, Death and Survival](https://literarytimesmag.com/bugging-out-what-two-insect-disasters-taught-me-about-love-death-and-survival-by-vanessa-garcia/): I’d been with Ignacio for a year when it was time to introduce him to my storage unit. We were  doing the thing where you move in together just a few months before getting married.   After the divorce from my first marriage, I’d put my things away in an air-conditioned storage  and bounced around for two years, from one artist residency to another, I rented a cottage behind  someone’s house, wrote, finished a PhD. All the while, my possessions were safely tucked away  in a climate-controlled storage facility in Miami. Or so I thought.  At first, it was kind of fun, […]
- [Dostoevsky’s Antidote to Pessimism and Religious Doubt in Notes from Underground](https://literarytimesmag.com/dostoevskys-antidote-to-pessimism-and-religious-doubt-in-notes-from-underground-by-soumyodip-mukherjee/): The second half of the 19th century found Europe in a precarious position. The Christian faith faced continued assaults from major developing forces. Rapid industrialisation and mass production through machines took away the value previously placed on the unique potential of a human. Imperialism reduced religion to a tool to justify the oppression of the “uncivilised” Other. Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species rejected the idea that humankind is the descendant of Adam and Eve and demonstrated how humans have evolved from apes. Auguste Comte and Ludwig Feuerbach’s theories, along with the rise of political ideologies like Marxism, questioned the […]
- [ISSUE VII](https://literarytimesmag.com/issue-vii/): THE LITERARY TIMES MAGAZINE ISSUE 07: OBSESSION An exploration of feeling that almost blurs the line between devotion and decay, worship and surrender, until it turns into self-erasure. 62 pages • PDF Format • 24.4 MB ABOUT THIS ISSUE: A feeling which begins as some fascination, something quiet, deliberate, almost tender. Then it deepens, festers, and rewrites the self, the newer, the worse version. The feeling that almost blurs the line between devotion and decay, until wanting becomes a form of worship and surrender turns into self-erasure. It is the feeling of “Obsession” that is both the engine of creation and […]
- [SPECIAL EDITION](https://literarytimesmag.com/special-edition/): THE LITERARY TIMES MAGAZINE SPECIAL EDITION Where Poetry Transcends Language and Occupies Visual Space 42 pages • PDF Format • 5.37 MB ABOUT THIS ISSUE: This special issue brings together the winning works from our Concrete Poetry Contests, poems that do not merely speak, but occupy the visual space. Selected from a wide and competitive pool of submissions, each piece in this issue stood out for its precision, conceptual clarity, and fearless engagement with form. What unites them is not aesthetic similarity, but it’s shape, a commitment to making structure speak as loudly as language itself. FEATURED CONTRIBUTORS: Margaret Austen, Yasmin […]
- [“A Free Woman, A New Creature”: Yeats and the New Woman as Muse](https://literarytimesmag.com/a-free-woman-a-new-creature-yeats-and-the-new-woman-as-muse-by-abbie-mourey/): In the third chapter of her book, The Reading Figure in Irish Art in the Long Nineteenth Century, Tricia Cusack records a pivotal scene from a short story by Sarah Grand (73–74). Grand, a prominent, late-nineteenth-century women’s rights activist in Ireland, captures one possible reaction to “the New Woman,” in her story, “The Undefinable” (73). An artist and the woman posing for him discuss the man’s work, and as they speak, the man states, “I recognized her now—a free woman, a new creature, a source of inspiration the like of which no man hitherto has ever imagined in art or literature” […]
- [MFA and the Name of the Publishing Game](https://literarytimesmag.com/mfa-and-the-name-of-the-publishing-game-by-annastacia-stegall/): Your work is really marketable, you know, with the #MeToo movement and all.  Yes, a male poetry professor actually said this to me my first semester in a MFA creative writing program. In hindsight, one goal of every MFA from a technical standpoint is to create authors that are marketable. More money equals bigger names equals a successful branding for the program equals more applicants equals more funding—the arts survive! Pass GO and collect 200 dollars! I graduated from my MFA program in Spring of 2024 with my master’s in creative writing with a focus on poetry. In the Summer of […]
- [Flirting with Disaster](https://literarytimesmag.com/flirting-with-disaster-by-sebastian-f-leeming/): ‘Indeed, the moment an artist takes notice of what other people want, and tries to supply the demand, he ceases to be an artist, and becomes a dumb or amazing craftsman, an honest or a dishonest tradesman’. 1 For the enfant terrible, that young and particular breed of artist, commerce is not an area of interest. Wilde himself, an artist who challenged the limits of a Late Victorian culture, declared Art to be the ultimate embodiment of Individualism, an idea personified in our modern conception of the enfant terrible. This individualist artist creates works without compromise, and provocation is the enduring […]
- [The Role of Silence in Literature](https://literarytimesmag.com/the-role-of-silence-in-literature-by-nafisha-zafar/): Introduction Silence is often misunderstood as emptiness—a lack of words, a gap in the narrative, an unfinished conversation. Yet, in literature, silence is never empty. It is deliberate. It carries weight, tension, and meaning that words alone cannot hold. Writers across centuries have used silence as a powerful narrative device: to express what characters cannot say, to reveal hidden emotions, or to highlight the unspeakable realities of life. In many ways, silence becomes a language of its own. Silence as Presence, Not Absence When we encounter silence in literature, it is rarely neutral. It lingers in dialogue, in pauses, in unspoken […]
- [wait, you can now check your submission status!?](https://literarytimesmag.com/wait-you-can-now-check-your-submission-status/): Hey lit fam!, We’ve got something very cool for you, and yes, it’s made by us, duh! As you know, at The Literary Times we only respond to accepted submissions. That means a lot of you send emails asking about your submission status and honestly, we just don’t have the time to reply to every single one. So… we made a solution: introducing the Submission Status Tracker! Whoo-hoo! Now, whether you submitted yesterday or a year ago, you can check the status of your work anytime, instantly (for free). How to Use It: 1. Click the Submission Status Tracker link. This is how the screen will appear: 2. Enter your name in […]
- [Inducing Forgetfulness: Essays on Orwellian Reality, Ethics, and Anthropological Subsections](https://literarytimesmag.com/inducing-forgetfulness-essays-on-orwellian-reality-ethics-and-anthropological-subsections-by-elle-lane-marston/): “The evil that men do lives after them; The good is oft interred with their bones” – William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar  It is often said evil supersedes death. That we carry our goodwill to our grave while our  injustices live on, despite our corporal disappearance. It is often told a lie gets halfway across the  world while the truth is still putting on its shoes. I believe no where is it more prevalent than in  contemporary discussions of migrants and immigrants.   As such, legacy and memory are central themes in Jason De León’s The Land of Open  Graves, especially the manner […]
- [ISSUE VI](https://literarytimesmag.com/issue-vi/): The Literary Times Magazine Issue 06 ABOUT THIS ISSUE: From the moment a boundary is drawn—whether by law, tradition, or the self—it becomes a question, a challenge, a whisper in the dark. A desire to break it, cross it overtakes. Forbidden things carry the weight of both warning and allure, and that tension is where the most compelling stories are born. This issue is an exploration of such stories. This issue explores the lines we are told not to cross and the ones we dare to, knowingly or not. Some of these boundaries exist for good reason; others are arbitrary, oppressive, […]
- [The Paradox of the Internet: Unity and Isolation](https://literarytimesmag.com/the-paradox-of-the-internet-unity-and-isolation-by-maryam-siddique/): We live in a time where internet is everywhere, in our pockets, on our desks, and even woven into our daily routines. It helps us build careers, stay informed, connect with people across the globe—and yet, something strange is happening. Despite being more connected than ever, many of us feel more alone. The internet is like a double-edged sword. On one side, it brings people closer. With just a few taps, you can talk to someone halfway across the world, attend a virtual class, or find a community that shares your interests—even if no one around you does. It gives you […]
- [Exploring the Power of Autobiography and Biography](https://literarytimesmag.com/exploring-the-power-of-autobiography-and-biography-by-calypso-morgan/): I was reading The Silent Woman (1993) by Janet Malcolm, a book on the life of Sylvia Plath. What I thought to be a simple biography of the poet turned out to be more than that. The book was about the people who wrote about and profited from the now-deceased Sylvia Plath. The main way they did this was by writing about her life and her suicide.  Reading the book made me realise the power that biography and, in the same vein, autobiography hold in the publishing world through the reader’s perspective. This genre has been present for centuries and in […]
- [Social Media and Illusion of Belonging](https://literarytimesmag.com/social-media-and-illusion-of-belonging-by-iqra-khan-turk/): In today’s world, social media platforms like Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok have changed how we connect with others. While they’ve made it easier to reach people from all over the world, they also create a strange kind of loneliness—a feeling of being “connected” yet increasingly isolated. Through algorithms, the drive for engagement, and the push for constant interaction, social media creates the illusion of connection while actually deepening feelings of alienation. Jean Baudrillard, a French theorist, described \”hyperreality\” as a state where the line between real life and its representation blurs. This is supported by research: a 2023 study found that […]
- [ISSUE V](https://literarytimesmag.com/issue-v/): The Literary Times Magazine Issue 05 The Literary Times Issue 05 is solely based on the theme of “Dies Irae” which is a Latin phrase that translates to \”Day of Wrath\”. It\’s a medieval hymn that describes the day of judgment, where the souls of the dead are summoned to face their maker. In this issue we will Embark on a profound exploration of the human experience, where the boundaries of morality, consequence, and redemption are tested. In this thought-provoking issue, we invite you to delve into the complexities of the human condition, where guilt and shame entwine with forgiveness and redemption. What happens when the […]
- [Gumshoes, Guts, and Tyrant Gods: How Filipino noir survives Western detective fiction](https://literarytimesmag.com/gumshoes-guts-and-tyrant-gods-how-filipino-noir-survives-western-detective-fiction-by/): When not hot on the scent of a miscreant at large, the armchair detective staves off boredom by pretending to read their narrator’s mind. Congeniality, after all, is among their investigative toolkit. They never lose composure before their foes and partners in justice, because they never take their cases personally— their expeditions are merely a source of mental stimulation.  Classical detectives in the British mold of Dupin and Holmes explore the heights of human intellect without dire mortal consequence. However, this comes at the expense of treating their clients’ drudgeries as “commonplace existence”. They see society as a black-and-white chessboard with […]
- [Between Planets and Hearbeats - The Little Prince](https://literarytimesmag.com/between-planets-and-hearbeats-the-little-prince-by/): Because of its many translations, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince is a beloved book by readers everywhere. The reader is drawn in to learning more about our character, a small but important young boy, because of the title of the book, “The Little Prince.”  The story’s goal and intention have caused readers to disagree throughout the years and even now.  In short, the story is about a pilot who, having learned as a child to give up on their passions in order to get along with grownups in their life, ends up down in the desert with little chance of […]
- [Bound by Flesh, Blinded by Belief](https://literarytimesmag.com/bound-by-flesh-blinded-by-belief-by/): “They’re made out of meat.” The first line of Terry Bison’s short story has altered my brain chemistry in the way I perceive the world. It’s an unsettling view on the biases, assumptions, and the nature of our intelligence. The story follows two extraterrestrial beings who find themselves trying to analyse the perception of humans and how limited it is, like how we define intelligence of other beings through the narrow lens of familiarity with our fellow beings. The beings are in disbelief at the idea of existence of sentient meat that does not fit their frame of an intelligent being […]
- [Horowitz’ world of Holmes in Doyle-sanctioned The House of Silk](https://literarytimesmag.com/horowitz-world-of-holmes-in-doyle-sanctioned-the-house-of-silk-by-angeli-arellano/): Arthur Conan Doyle’s fiction, beyond establishing the world’s most beloved detective, firmly identifies itself by skimping on just enough in-text details for the reader to become sleuths themselves. However, a faithful Sherlock Holmes adaptation draws a black-and-white against what can be called “the commonplaces of existence”—even placing the detective upon a well-held position above narrative continuity—and Anthony Horowitz doesn’t dare offend fellow fans by fracturing this pedestal.  Instead, the acclaimed screenwriter builds on what he believed was the primary appeal of Doyle’s stories: the Holmes and Watson friendship, their colorful world beyond Baker Street, and the occasional melodrama that remain tangled […]
- [The Resurgence of Rom-Com Books in American Literature](https://literarytimesmag.com/the-resurgence-of-rom-com-books-in-american-literature-by-savannah-m-rose/): For decades, romantic comedies have held a special place in American pop culture, primarily through the silver screen. Classics like When Harry Met Sally and 10 Things I Hate About You captivated audiences with their charm, wit, and heartfelt exploration of love. But in the realm of literature, rom-coms—or “chick-lit” as they were often dismissively labeled—seemed to take a backseat to the steamy, dramatic romance novels that dominated bookshelves. Now, however, rom-com books are enjoying a renaissance, led by authors like Emily Henry, Abby Jimenez, and Jasmine Guillory. This shift from traditional romance novels to more humor-infused love stories signals not […]
- [Even the Ghosts Were Feminists](https://literarytimesmag.com/even-the-ghosts-were-feminists-by-shatakshi-yadav/): The Feminine Forces of Halloween Imagine a dark hat with a long body, its peak so crooked that it is coiled up, with a purple ribbon at its rim, a head with long dark hair and pale white skin wearing it. The wearer’s eyes glisten with echoes of power. She is the one with a smile so silent that you cannot imagine the screams caused by it. Now, isn’t that how we normally describe witches? Cruel, malicious beings, waiting to feast on our terrors. This is the way that the stories we read, the series we watch, and the plays we […]
- [ISSUE IV](https://literarytimesmag.com/issue-iv/): The Literary Times Magazine Issue 04 The Literary Times Magazine 4th Issue is solely based on the theme of “Dark & Dreary.” This issue discovers the somber, the melancholic, the eerie and the shadows that haunt us, the whispers in the darkness, and the bleak beauty of a world shrouded in gloom. Through this issue we shall delve into the depths of dark legacy of human history, brutality, exploitation and oppressions where exist tales of darkness and dreariness that haunt us still. The shadows of our collective past, dark stories of despair, suffering, oppression, and the darker aspects of human nature. […]
- [The Handmaid's Tale as a Lens on Modern America and the Risks of Dystopian Fear](https://literarytimesmag.com/the-handmaids-tale-as-a-lens-on-modern-america-and-the-risks-of-dystopian-fear-by-savannah-m-rose/): Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale has become an increasingly familiar reference point in the frazzled, chaotic cycle of modern elections. The novel’s dystopian world of Gilead, where women are stripped of their rights and forced into rigid roles, has been used to illustrate concerns about political and social trends, particularly in recent years. For many, the book feels less like fiction and more like a warning that’s all too real. But while these comparisons can be compelling—and even, in some ways, valid—they also run the risk of oversimplifying the messiness of our actual world, and at a time when many are […]
- [ISSUE III](https://literarytimesmag.com/issue-iii/): The Literary Times Magazine Issue 03 The Literary Times Magazine presents ISSUE 03, solely based on the theme of \”Memory\” which delves into the depths of the realm of our past. We invite you to read and support this issue, through which you\’ll be empowering our creative cause, helping us creating a safe space for writers, artists and creators. Thank you to everyone who read, contributed, and hated our magazine. Your support means the world to us and is the sole reason we decided to move forward towards publishing our third issue; your presence and interest are all that matter. Now […]
- [Beyond The Binary Stars](https://literarytimesmag.com/beyond-the-binary-stars-by-grisha-gautam/): We’ve all spent nights gazing at the stars, yearning to know what lies beyond our atmosphere. Science fiction fulfills that childhood wonder, hurtling us across galaxies and thrusting us into societies lightyears ahead of our own. But beneath the dazzling space battles lies a deeper current – a potent exploration of political philosophy. This exploration becomes even more enthralling when we consider how women are reshaping the power dynamics within these futuristic landscapes.  Dystopian narratives, those chilling cautionary tales, paint a picture of oppressive regimes wielding technology and social engineering like iron fists. Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale” plunges us into […]
- ["From the world of sounds I pour,.."](https://literarytimesmag.com/from-the-world-of-sounds-i-pour-by-mehinbanu-aslan-pashayeva/): Sometimes forever it remains for people,A short, but although profound line.Through brief word wisdom will make it’s way to men,Although a century ago it flew off the tongue. Mirza Shafi Vazeh (18th century – 1852) After getting to know Mirza Shafi better and realizing the seriousness of a couple of his songs, I understood why Bodenstedt had gained such a wide fame among his fellow countrymen. Vazeh (“Vazeh” means “expressive”) gave people a direction to follow in spite of the gloom and gloom to which mankind had to bear witness against their will. Some were discovering the fundamentals of the cycle […]
- [Embracing Peculiarity](https://literarytimesmag.com/embracing-peculiarity-by-myra-gupta/): ‘Imitation may outpace authenticity, but authenticity outlasts imitation.’ In a world where every idea is copy pasted and cultivated into ‘trends’, it’s hard to find a place for your niche while making it worthwhile. The thought of not being successful drives people away from merely trying to put it out in the world. In the confined box that is social media, it is easy to lose yourself to the thoughts of someone on the glowing screen. Every mind has a light buried deep inside, bursting with a vision that’s original to them, aching to be free. Some may view peculiarity as just something out of the […]
- [Zones of Competing Interest](https://literarytimesmag.com/zones-of-competing-interest-by-thomas-larson/): 1 / In the twenty-first century, film and music have much more to say, much more public and private space in which to speak and be heard and be covered by the listening class, Netflix audiences in the tens of millions, much more of a sensory hold over those viewers than literature has over its readers, in part, because literature’s interior movement lacks the video-in-motion and the inner and external sonorous elements of film. In fact, though I’m a dedicated writer who’s been published nearly five hundred times, I’m at a loss of how to think about literature and its quiescence […]
- ["What are the qualities of a real human?"](https://literarytimesmag.com/what-are-the-qualities-of-a-real-human-by-mehinbanu-aslan-pashayeva/):       Humanity is not inherent in everyone who arrives in this world. A world full of trials, impenetrable thickets, which you get more and more confused about. More and more often, thus worsening your position in the eyes of the public watching you the very expression “A little bit of humanity” has a meaning.. a lot of meaning. That very drop carries with it an enormous responsibility, attached to each other, as the cars of a train bound for the unknown.       The qualities of a true human being are not for everyone to know. The chosen ones have the gift […]
- [ISSUE II](https://literarytimesmag.com/issue-ii/): The Literary Times Magazine Issue 02 The Literary Times Magazine presents Issue 02, which delves into the depths of secrets and shadows. This edition is made with unconditional love, crafted with dedication and passion. We invite you to read and support this issue, you are supporting the literary community and the artists who make it thrive. We are grateful to our talented contributors, who have entrusted us with their remarkable work. We appreciate their trust in our magazine and their passion for the written word. Theme for Issue II “Clandestine” Clandestine (adjective): “kept secret or done secretively, especially because illicit”. In the shadows […]
- [ISSUE I](https://literarytimesmag.com/issue-i/): The Literary Times Magazine Issue 01: “The Inaugural Edition” The Literary Times Magazine is thrilled to introduce “The Inaugural Edition” based on the theme of Yearning. A new digital literary and arts magazine dedicated to providing a platform for writers, poets, and artists whose works have been historically underrepresented or overlooked. Our mission is to amplify marginalized voices and celebrate the power of self-expression. Contributors: Maha Bilal, William Eldritch, Irina Tall Novikova, Sreelkha Chatterjee, Khadija Bilal, Claudia Wysocky, Catherine Arra, K.V. RAGHUPATHI, Jonathan Chibuike Ukah, Ken Cathers, Ian Douglas Robertson, Hiram Larew, Frank William Finney, Emily Hemlinger, Jerl Surratt, Cole Pressler, Helga Gruendler-Schierloh, Fatima […]

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- [MAGAZINE SUBMISSION GUIDELINES](https://literarytimesmag.com/magazine-submission-guidelines/): ISSUE 08 SUBS ARE NOW CLOSEDDEADLINE: JUNE 05 – JUNE 30, 2026 SUBMIT ★ SUBMIT ★ SUBMIT ★ SUBMIT ★ SUBMIT ★ SUBMIT ★ SUBMIT ★ SUBMIT ★ SUBMIT ★ SUBMIT ★ SUBMIT ★ SUBMIT ★ SUBMIT ★ SUBMIT ★ The Literary Times Magazine is a digital, highly selective publication committed to original, experimental, and aesthetically powerful literature. We publish new voices alongside established writers, with an emphasis on depth, experimentation, emotional intelligence, and narrative craftsmanship. ISSUE 08 Theme: “Half-Being“ Half-Being (noun):a state of identity in which the self is experienced as divided, incomplete, or internally contradictory; the condition of existing […]
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- [Home](https://literarytimesmag.com/): A modern literary culture platform Home for writers navigating beyond the contemporary literary world.  CURRENT ISSUE THE LITERARY TIMES MAGAZINE LATEST ISSUE: Obsession Our latest magazine Issue 07 “obsession“ gathers new fiction, poetry, and personal essays from a growing community of contributors writing against the noise of the contemporary literary world. PAYING OPPORTUNITIES FOR WRITERS ★ PAYING OPPORTUNITIES FOR WRITERS ★ PAYING OPPORTUNITIES FOR WRITERS ★ PAYING OPPORTUNITIES FOR WRITERS ★ LIT SUBS: LATEST PAID OPPORTUNITIES FOR WRITERS Our weekly curated list of paying opportunities, fellowships, grants and jobs, plus editorial shortlists & career-building resources for those who want more than […]
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- [ABOUT](https://literarytimesmag.com/about/): ABOUT US a modern literary culture platform for writers The Literary Times is a home for writers navigating beyond the contemporary literary world. We explore the intersection of literature, culture, creative identity, and artistic ambition through editorial commentary, cultural criticism, opportunities, and curated literary discourse. Alongside publishing original work, we provide writers with carefully curated submission opportunities, grants, fellowships, residencies, and industry insight, helping emerging and established voices navigate literary spaces with greater clarity and direction. The Literary Times exists not only as a magazine, but as a growing cultural ecosystem for people deeply invested in writing, ideas, and the evolving […]
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