An American writer living in Japan, unread and underpublished, sends an email to a group of writers he doesn’t know informing them that he is committing suicide.

What does satire do? What should we expect of it? Is it crucial to Western culture that we be free to produce it?

Merriam-Webster is revising its most authoritative tome for the digital age. But in an era of twerking and trolling, what should a dictionary look like?

Private planes, caviar lunches and Little League.

An ode to Roy Orbison.

Since exposing the Neapolitan mafia by publishing Gomorrah at age 27, Roberto Saviano has lived for nearly a decade under armed guard, shuttling between anonymous hotels and army barracks.

On the appeal of Broad City’s Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer.

An interview with the novelist, who died on Saturday.

A biography of Jimi Hendrix’s Electric Lady Studios.

Michel Houellebecq on his controversial new novel, Submission, which imagines France electing its first Muslim president.

Noah Lennox—better known as Panda Bear—has lived in Lisbon for a decade. How has the Portuguese capital shaped his life and work?

"Here’s God’s truth about it: being a groupie wasn’t about sex, it was about access. I wanted to live in the stage life, dazzled by color and sound, constantly in motion, driven by excitement and power, loved by the stage lights, part of the story."

Stefan Simchowitz has supported dozens of emerging young artists. Why do so many people hate him?

The best-selling young novelist lay dead in a trash-strewn cottage on Ireland’s rugged coast for over a week before she was discovered.

On the artist’s portrayal of violence and humanity.

We know the country music pioneer died New Year’s Eve, 1953. But how?

A profile of pre-Late Night David Letterman.

On the ground at the big, sad, strange Burt Reynolds memorabilia auction in Las Vegas.

How a 63-year-old country singer went from a Nashville homeless shelter to #1 on the Swedish charts in under a year.

Aboard the JoCo Cruise Crazy, a ship captained by singer-songwriter Jonathan Coulton and built for nerds.

How the author writes best-selling non-fiction books without the ability to leave her house.

360 degree deals and the music industry’s new hostages.

On spectacular saintliness, holy anorexia, and female hysteria.

A profile of the singer as he returns to the stage for the first time in a dozen years.

An interview with Jimmy Page on nostalgia, Robert Plant, and why he would only publish an autobiography after he dies.