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DISPATCH: Manuel Marrero and Conor Hultman at The Strand (Manhattan, NY)

"Nothing I’ve read has ever clarified anything for me."

4 hrs ago • greta and Zona Motel

RECENT POSTS FROM THE BROTHERHOOD

REVIEW: In The City by Joan Silber

Is New York City the place for self-invention, or merely an echo chamber of bourgeois cliches?

Jun 19 • R. Wang and Zona Motel

COLUMN: MALLCORE w/ JP Vallières

Novelist JP Vallières writes about the mall in Watertown, NY as a rehearsal space for identity: grunge kids, goths, girlfriends, rivals, cigarettes…

Jun 18 • Brittany Ackerman, JP Vallières, and Zona Motel

ESSAY: GHOST LIGHTS

Traces of a lost play by Stephen Crane offer a new window into his marriage and his final days.

Jun 17 • Richard Byrne and Zona Motel

REVIEW: What’s So Great About the Great Books? Why You Should Read Classic Literature (Even Though It Might Destroy You) by Naomi Kanakia

Ken Baumann on Kanakia's book, published in May by Princeton University Press, and the strengths of studying classic works with other people.

Jun 16 • Ken Baumann and Zona Motel

GOSSIP: Week of June 15

A lit party fight, wife books, Conde Nast trying to steal our sparkle.

Jun 15 • mariah barden jones and Zona Motel

REVIEW: Picture of Nobody by Philip Owens

Eric Linus Kaplan on McNally Jackson's reissue of Owens' book: "The semantics of counterfactuals are tricky."

Jun 15 • Zona Motel

Zona Motel

Zona Motel

Zona Motel is an online literary space for conversation, community, and independent literature.

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Zona Motel

ZONA MOTEL is an online literary space for conversation, community, and independent literature. Subscribe for daily reviews, essays, columns, profiles, dispatches and more!

REVIEWS

REVIEW: In The City by Joan Silber

Is New York City the place for self-invention, or merely an echo chamber of bourgeois cliches?

Jun 19 • R. Wang and Zona Motel

REVIEW: What’s So Great About the Great Books? Why You Should Read Classic Literature (Even Though It Might Destroy You) by Naomi Kanakia

Ken Baumann on Kanakia's book, published in May by Princeton University Press, and the strengths of studying classic works with other people.

Jun 16 • Ken Baumann and Zona Motel

REVIEW: Picture of Nobody by Philip Owens

Eric Linus Kaplan on McNally Jackson's reissue of Owens' book: "The semantics of counterfactuals are tricky."

Jun 15 • Zona Motel

REVIEW: Petroleum-238 by Justin Nobel

Nobel was set to publish his exposé with Simon & Schuster when he learned that the publisher had been sold to a private-equity firm with deep ties to…

Jun 12 • Zona Motel and Tucker Legerski

REVIEW: Lovers XXX by Allie Rowbottom

All the sex of Lovers XXX hides something much more tender. It is a book with heart.

Jun 8 • Juliet Escoria and Zona Motel

ESSAYS & COLUMNS

COLUMN: MALLCORE w/ JP Vallières

Novelist JP Vallières writes about the mall in Watertown, NY as a rehearsal space for identity: grunge kids, goths, girlfriends, rivals, cigarettes…

Jun 18 • Brittany Ackerman, JP Vallières, and Zona Motel

ESSAY: GHOST LIGHTS

Traces of a lost play by Stephen Crane offer a new window into his marriage and his final days.

Jun 17 • Richard Byrne and Zona Motel

ESSAY: Writing in prison is easy, publishing from prison is not (Art on the Inside #3)

I’ve learned and accomplished a lot in my 4 1/2 years of confinement. I have also needed and received a lot of help.

Jun 11 • Sirii Mali and Zona Motel

COLUMN: My HBO Memories (The Projectionist #12)

Proustian recollections by way of the Home Box Office network: "We can try to recall a feeling of idyllic days just so we can milk it as best you can…

Jun 10 • Chris Oxley and Zona Motel

ESSAY: The Last Disjunction, of the Heart (in memory of J. H. Prynne)

Tom Snarsky celebrates the poetry of an original and prolific talent

Jun 5 • Zona Motel and Tom Snarsky

PROFILES

PROFILE: Heavy Manners Library, Los Angeles

An artist’s playground, (almost) free from screens

Jun 2 • Nora Kipnis and Zona Motel

PROFILE: AFK Reading Series, Glasgow

Creating space to log-off for those of us terminally online

Apr 2 • elle nash and Zona Motel

PROFILE: Close Reading Studio, Brooklyn NY

A renegade writing school by Ash Pattison-Scott

Mar 18 • Fran Matos and Zona Motel

PROFILE: The Vermicult

Worms cultivating a third space literary

Feb 18 • Zona Motel

PROFILE: Mount Florida Books, Glasgow

How a scrappy and signless storefront became a warm and sparkly community staple in south side Glasgow

Jan 30 • elle nash and Zona Motel

DISPATCHES

DISPATCH: Manuel Marrero and Conor Hultman at The Strand (Manhattan, NY)

"Nothing I’ve read has ever clarified anything for me."

4 hrs ago • greta and Zona Motel

DISPATCH: Berlin Spoken Word

"In a literary scene that, much as I love it, feels more and more infiltrated by people interested in looking like a writer rather than in writing…

Jun 14 • Zona Motel and erin evans

DISPATCH: Small Press Poetry & the Archive (Chicago)

A Symposium on Editorial Practice at University of Chicago

Jun 13 • Julian Martinez and Zona Motel

DISPATCH: Eleni Sikelianos at City Lights (San Francisco)

Christian Molenaar reports from Sikelianos' reading, in support of her new book "Memory Rehearsal," where there are no poetry idiots.

Jun 7 • Zona Motel

DISPATCH: The Franklin Park Reading Series (Brooklyn, NY)

Some people just have It. The air sparkles around them.

Jun 6 • Khaholi Bailey and Zona Motel

CONVERSATIONS

CONVERSATION: Zona Wants to Know: Nora Lange's Confession Album

The author of Day Care (Two Dollar Radio, 2026) discusses birds, trees, and delinquency with our namesake

Jun 9 • Mesha Maren and Zona Motel

CONVERSATION: Barrie Miskin on the two year anniversary of Hell Gate Bridge

What's it like to talk about your book two years after publication?

Jun 4 • Kristen Felicetti, Barrie Miskin, and Zona Motel

45:23

CONVERSATION: Lex Orgera with Jeff Alessandrelli, “This life never felt like a choice for me”

"dead friends, hikes in the Sierra Nevadas, my grandmother, reincarnation, impossible space travel, etc."

Jun 1 • Zona Motel, Lex Orgera, and The Good Man Has No Shape

CONVERSATION: Ben Niespodziany with Shane Kowalski on Short Stories, tumblr, and Erotic Fanfiction

Between any two points in the world is Pennsylvania.

May 28 • Zona Motel and Benjamin Niespodziany

CONVERSATION: Lily Lady's Sibling Loss & Yearning

"The narrator is feeling themself, in the near literal sense of the term. What still hurts? What feels good? When it’s all in the realm of fantasy…

May 27 • Zona Motel and Jack Skelley

Zona Motel

Zona Motel is an online literary space for conversation, community, and independent literature.

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