Books have been central to understanding certain societies and cultures for several centuries. It is ignorant to deny the essential role that these texts play in shaping how we understand ourselves, from “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” and “Ulysses” to “Prozac Nation” and “The Great Gatsby.” As Joan Didion said, “We tell ourselves stories in order to live.”
More and more, these stories are taking different forms. Books are being challenged as the main way of consuming cultural information, largely due to articles that are available online. Below is a list of writers whose work stands out among the masses of texts published everyday. They are all journalists — some of them have written books and some of them even host podcasts. Across the various forms their writings take, they are contemporary masters at sculpting important ideas into digestible, succinct pieces.
Hilton Als
Hilton Als began contributing to The New Yorker in 1989 and became a staff writer there in 1994. He covers New York City-centered culture. In three consecutive articles published in 2019 and 2020, Als wrote eloquently on photographer Roy DeCarava’s “Poetics of Blackness,” Joan Didion’s “Novels of American Womanhood” and Toni Morrison’s “Profound and Unrelenting Vision.” This just goes to show Als’ breadth of expertise, for which he has been heavily lauded, including being awarded a Guggenheim for his writing in 2000.
Kyle Chayka
Chayka’s 2020 book, “The Longing For Less: Living with Minimalism,” is one of my favorite books — and I haven’t even finished it yet. In it, he conveys his understanding of the past and uses it to keenly analyze the present. This is also achieved in his writing for The New Republic and the New York Times Magazine. Chayka is also a superb podcast guest, appearing on episodes of KCRW’s Life Examined and Los Angeles-based How Long Gone, among others.
This name will not come as a surprise to those familiar with art criticism. Schjeldahl is the resident art critic at The New Yorker, where he has worked since 1998. His writing conveys encyclopedic knowledge on everyone from the Medicis to KAWS and is invaluable to all who value the art of the art exhibit.
Kurt Streeter
Streeter writes the Sports of the Times column for the New York Times, in which he contextualizes sports news into the bigger picture of daily life. Streeter led the reporting on former WNBA star Maya Moore, who left basketball in order to help a wrongfully convicted man get out of prison. I found his multiple articles on this story to be some of the most compelling sportswriting of recent years.
Louisa Thomas
As a staff writer at The New Yorker, Thomas writes about sports happenings and what they mean beyond the arenas in which they take place. Thomas covers a number of sports with this methodology. Some of my favorite pieces from her are about Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, WNBA star Nneka Ogwumike, college football during the pandemic and womens tennis.
Jia Tolentino
Through much of her work, Tolentino does the heavy lifting of articulating why certain aspects of day-to-day life have larger significance. She has written articles about TikTok, the Netflix show “Cheer” and even “Why Humans Treat Their Dogs Like People.” Tolentino’s writing makes one feel seen for the things we don’t think twice about — and leads us to reconsider these habits. “Trick Mirror,” Tolentino’s first book, was reviewed by the Daily Emerald in 2019.
