Genres are the Sirens of literary criticism. They seem friendly and alluring, but they are dangerously elusive shape-shifters. You really have to lash yourself to the mast. There is also the problem ...

I love that literary fiction so often resists easy categorization. I love that this “genre” is not, really, a genre at all.

The romance novel is so present in American life—nearly a quarter of adult print fiction sold—that many of us already have an opinion before we’ve ever opened one. Advertisement In a speech included ...

Mr. Howard, a retired book editor, is the author of the forthcoming “The Insider: Malcolm Cowley and the Triumph of American Literature.” Critical discourse concerning the state of literature in ...