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
Henry David Thoreau
thoreau
Raymond Carver
carver
Night One
poem The Road Not Taken
essay Walking
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, honest
Walt Whitman
whitman
Nancy Mairs
mairs
Flannery O'Connor
oconnor
Night Four
poem I Sing the Body Electric (Section 9)
essay On Being a Cripple
story Good Country People
Night Five
Time bending
T.S. Eliot
eliot
Jorge Luis Borges
borges
Ted Chiang
chiang
Night Five
poem Burnt Norton (opening)
essay Kafka and His Precursors
story Story of Your Life
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
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
adichie
Amy Hempel
hempel
Night Seven
poem Funeral Blues
essay Notes on Grief
story In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson Is Buried
Night Eight
What the animal gaze undoes
Elizabeth Bishop
bishop
Robin Wall Kimmerer
kimmerer
Julio Cortazar
cortazar
Night Eight
poem The Fish
essay Learning the Grammar of Animacy
story Axolotl
Night Nine
Work and its meaning
Seamus Heaney
heaney
Matthew B. Crawford
crawford
Herman Melville
melville
Night Nine
poem Digging
essay Shop Class as Soulcraft (excerpt)
story Bartleby, the Scrivener
Night Ten
COUNTER-CANON: Desire against the grain
Ocean Vuong
vuong
Audre Lorde
lorde
Oscar Wilde
wilde
Night Ten
poem Someday I'll Love Ocean Vuong
essay Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power
story The Happy Prince
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
Edgar Allan Poe
poe
Ray Bradbury
bradbury
Night Twelve
poem The Raven
essay The Philosophy of Composition
story The Veldt
Night Thirteen
Power and small cruelties
Carolyn Forché
forche
George Orwell
orwell
Ursula K. Le Guin
guin
Night Thirteen
poem The Colonel
essay Politics and the English Language
story The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas
Night Fourteen
Translated voices: war's long shadow
Wisława Szymborska
szymborska
Kenzaburō Ōe
ōe
Heinrich Böll
boll
Night Fourteen
poem The End and the Beginning
essay Hiroshima Notes (excerpt)
story Wanderer, Comest Thou to Spa...
Night Fifteen
Loneliness as a room
Emily Dickinson
dickinson
Olivia Laing
laing
Ernest Hemingway
hemingway
Night Fifteen
poem There is a Solitude of Space
essay The Lonely City, Ch. 1
story A Clean, Well-Lighted Place
Night Sixteen
COUNTER-CANON: Language turned inside out
Gloria Anzaldua
anzaldua
Theresa Hak Kyung Cha
cha
Robert Coover
coover
Night Sixteen
poem To live in the Borderlands means you
essay Dictee, "Melpomene Tragedy"
story The Babysitter
Night Seventeen
SCIENCE: The natural world as laboratory and temple
Mary Oliver
oliver
Lewis Thomas
thomas
Jack London
london
Night Seventeen
poem Wild Geese
essay The Lives of a Cell
story To Build a Fire
Night Eighteen
Class, money, the table
Langston Hughes
hughes
David Foster Wallace
wallace
F. Scott Fitzgerald
fitzgerald
Night Eighteen
poem Ballad of the Landlord
essay Consider the Lobster
story Babylon Revisited
Night Nineteen
Mothers and daughters
Lucille Clifton
clifton
Adrienne Rich
rich
Alice Walker
walker
Night Nineteen
poem wishes for sons
essay Of Woman Born (excerpt)
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
Annie Dillard
dillard
Flannery O'Connor
oconnor
Night Twenty-One
poem God's Grandeur
essay Teaching a Stone to Talk
story A Good Man is Hard to Find
Night Twenty-Two
COUNTER-CANON: Structure as sabotage
Terrance Hayes
hayes
Roland Barthes
barthes
John Barth
barth
Night Twenty-Two
poem The Golden Shovel
essay The Death of the Author
story Lost in the Funhouse
Night Twenty-Three
Desire and its disguises
Edna St. Vincent Millay
millay
Maggie Nelson
nelson
Ernest Hemingway
hemingway
Night Twenty-Three
poem I, Being Born a Woman and Distressed
essay Bluets (selections)
story Hills Like White Elephants
Night Twenty-Four
The migrant, the in-between
Warsan Shire
shire
Edward Said
said
Jhumpa Lahiri
lahiri
Night Twenty-Four
poem Home
essay Reflections on Exile
story Interpreter of Maladies
Night Twenty-Five
Translated voices: comedy and the absurd
Zbigniew Herbert
herbert
Daniil Kharms
kharms
Nikolai Gogol
gogol
Night Twenty-Five
poem Mr Cogito on the Need for Precision
essay Selections from Today I Wrote Nothing
story The Nose
Night Twenty-Six
SCIENCE: What measurement misses
Walt Whitman
whitman
Oliver Sacks
sacks
Primo Levi
levi
Night Twenty-Six
poem When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer
essay The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat
story Carbon
Night Twenty-Seven
Race, witness, voice
Gwendolyn Brooks
brooks
James Baldwin
baldwin
Toni Morrison
morrison
Night Twenty-Seven
poem We Real Cool
essay Stranger in the Village
story Recitatif
Night Twenty-Eight
COUNTER-CANON: What the canon suppresses
Audre Lorde
lorde
Zora Neale Hurston
hurston
Shirley Jackson
jackson
Night Twenty-Eight
poem A Litany for Survival
essay How It Feels to Be Colored Me
story The Lottery
Night Twenty-Nine
What the dying see
Dylan Thomas
thomas
Christopher Hitchens
hitchens
Leo Tolstoy
tolstoy
Night Twenty-Nine
poem Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night
essay Topic of Cancer
story The Death of Ivan Ilyich (Ch. 9-12)
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