30 Nights

What is this?

Ray Bradbury advised aspiring writers to read one poem, one essay, and one short story every night. This is a 30-night sampler of that idea. Each night is a curated triple feature: all three pieces share a theme, question, or mood, so you hear three voices arguing about the same thing across centuries, continents, and forms.

See the full reading list and catalogue →

Night One
Beginnings & the open road
published
Robert Frost
frost
William Hazlitt
hazlitt
Raymond Carver
carver
Night One
poem The Road Not Taken
essay On Going a Journey
story Cathedral
Night Two
The strange inside the ordinary
William Carlos Williams
williams
Annie Dillard
dillard
Gabriel García Márquez
márquez
Night Two
poem This Is Just To Say
essay Total Eclipse
story A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings
Night Three
Memory and what it edits
Elizabeth Bishop
bishop
Joan Didion
didion
John Cheever
cheever
Night Three
poem One Art
essay On Keeping a Notebook
story The Swimmer
Night Four
The body, observed
Walt Whitman
whitman
Virginia Woolf
woolf
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
gilman
Night Four
poem I Sing the Body Electric (sec. 1–2)
essay On Being Ill
story The Yellow Wallpaper
Night Five
Time bending
T.S. Eliot
eliot
Jorge Luis Borges
borges
Jorge Luis Borges
borges
Night Five
poem Burnt Norton (opening)
essay From Other Inquisitions (excerpt)
story The Garden of Forking Paths
Night Six
Cities and strangers
T.S. Eliot
eliot
E.B. White
white
Anton Chekhov
chekhov
Night Six
poem The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
essay Here Is New York
story The Lady with the Dog
Night Seven
Grief and what survives
W.H. Auden
auden
Virginia Woolf
woolf
Andre Dubus
dubus
Night Seven
poem Funeral Blues
essay The Death of the Moth
story A Father's Story
Night Eight
Animals as mirrors
Elizabeth Bishop
bishop
John Berger
berger
Kay Boyle
boyle
Night Eight
poem The Fish
essay Why Look at Animals?
story The White Horses of Vienna
Night Nine
Work and its meaning
Seamus Heaney
heaney
George Orwell
orwell
Herman Melville
melville
Night Nine
poem Digging
essay Shooting an Elephant
story Bartleby, the Scrivener
Night Ten
Translated voices: love and longing
Alexander Pushkin
pushkin
Junichiro Tanizaki
tanizaki
Jorge Luis Borges
borges
Night Ten
poem I Loved You
essay In Praise of Shadows (excerpt)
story The Lottery in Babylon
Night Eleven
Childhood seen sideways
Dylan Thomas
thomas
E.B. White
white
James Joyce
joyce
Night Eleven
poem Fern Hill
essay Once More to the Lake
story Araby
Night Twelve
The uncanny knock at the door
Edgar Allan Poe
poe
J.R.R. Tolkien
tolkien
Ray Bradbury
bradbury
Night Twelve
poem The Raven
essay On Fairy-Stories (excerpt)
story The Veldt
Night Thirteen
Power and small cruelties
Robert Frost
frost
George Orwell
orwell
Ursula K. Le Guin
guin
Night Thirteen
poem Mending Wall
essay Politics and the English Language
story The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas
Night Fourteen
Translated voices: war's long shadow
Wilfred Owen
owen
Kenzaburō Ōe
ōe
Liam O'Flaherty
oflaherty
Night Fourteen
poem Dulce et Decorum Est
essay Hiroshima Notes (excerpt)
story The Sniper
Night Fifteen
Loneliness as a room
W.H. Auden
auden
Joan Didion
didion
Ernest Hemingway
hemingway
Night Fifteen
poem The More Loving One
essay On Going Home
story A Clean, Well-Lighted Place
Night Sixteen
Weird & experimental I: language unhinged
Lewis Carroll
carroll
Tim O'Brien
obrien
Robert Coover
coover
Night Sixteen
poem Jabberwocky
essay How to Tell a True War Story
story The Babysitter
Night Seventeen
The natural world as teacher
Mary Oliver
oliver
E.B. White
white
Jack London
london
Night Seventeen
poem Wild Geese
essay The Death of a Pig
story To Build a Fire
Night Eighteen
Class, money, the table
Robert Hayden
hayden
David Foster Wallace
wallace
F. Scott Fitzgerald
fitzgerald
Night Eighteen
poem Those Winter Sundays
essay Consider the Lobster
story Babylon Revisited
Night Nineteen
Mothers and daughters
Gwendolyn Brooks
brooks
James Baldwin
baldwin
Alice Walker
walker
Night Nineteen
poem The Mother
essay Notes of a Native Son
story Everyday Use
Night Twenty
Translated voices: dream-logic tradition
Federico García Lorca
lorca
Heinrich von Kleist
kleist
Franz Kafka
kafka
Night Twenty
poem Romance Sonámbulo
essay On the Marionette Theatre
story The Metamorphosis (Part I)
Night Twenty-One
Faith, doubt, and the cosmos
Gerard Manley Hopkins
hopkins
Rebecca Solnit
solnit
Flannery O'Connor
oconnor
Night Twenty-One
poem God's Grandeur
essay A Field Guide to Getting Lost (excerpt)
story A Good Man is Hard to Find
Night Twenty-Two
Weird & experimental II: structure as story
Wallace Stevens
stevens
Joan Didion
didion
John Barth
barth
Night Twenty-Two
poem Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird
essay Goodbye to All That
story Lost in the Funhouse
Night Twenty-Three
Desire and its disguises
Edna St. Vincent Millay
millay
Virginia Woolf
woolf
Ernest Hemingway
hemingway
Night Twenty-Three
poem Recuerdo
essay A Room of One's Own (Ch. 1)
story Hills Like White Elephants
Night Twenty-Four
The migrant, the in-between
Warsan Shire
shire
Joan Didion
didion
Jhumpa Lahiri
lahiri
Night Twenty-Four
poem Home
essay On Self-Respect
story Interpreter of Maladies
Night Twenty-Five
Translated voices: comedy and the absurd
Adam Zagajewski
zagajewski
Dostoevsky
dostoevsky
Nikolai Gogol
gogol
Night Twenty-Five
poem Try to Praise the Mutilated World
essay Notes from Underground (Pt. I, ch. 1–2)
story The Nose
Night Twenty-Six
Science, wonder, scale
Walt Whitman
whitman
Carl Sagan
sagan
Ted Chiang
chiang
Night Twenty-Six
poem When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer
essay The Pale Blue Dot (excerpt)
story Story of Your Life
Night Twenty-Seven
Race, witness, voice
Gwendolyn Brooks
brooks
James Baldwin
baldwin
James Baldwin
baldwin
Night Twenty-Seven
poem We Real Cool
essay Stranger in the Village
story Sonny's Blues
Night Twenty-Eight
Weird & experimental III: the dream you can't shake
Philip Larkin
larkin
Joan Didion
didion
Shirley Jackson
jackson
Night Twenty-Eight
poem Aubade
essay The White Album (opening)
story The Lottery
Night Twenty-Nine
What the dying see
Dylan Thomas
thomas
Annie Dillard
dillard
Leo Tolstoy
tolstoy
Night Twenty-Nine
poem Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night
essay Living Like Weasels
story The Death of Ivan Ilyich (Ch. 1–3)
Night Thirty
And then, the work begins
C.P. Cavafy
cavafy
Ray Bradbury
bradbury
Ray Bradbury
bradbury
Night Thirty
poem Ithaka
essay Zen in the Art of Writing (Ch. 1)
story The Drummer Boy of Shiloh