Will Stephenson

I wrote about Charles Portis, Arkansas, and quitting my job for the new @Harpers harpers.org/archive/2023/0…

My essay about the politics of Catholicism is on the cover of the August issue of @Harpers. It's an attempt, by what I hope are judiciously chosen incision points, to articulate What Exactly Is Going On. Link below!

“An adventure letting go of all your fond memories. Let them go. Replace them with nothing but the fond memory of letting them go, and then let that one go.” From a new story by Padgett Powell. harpers.org/archive/2026/0…

fewer americans are paying for open casket funerals. what does this bode for the craft of necrotic beautification known as "restorative art"? for the new issue of @Harpers, i met with morticians to trace the history, and future, of their dying art. harpers.org/archive/2026/0…

In our July issue: Christopher Hooks on America250, William T. Vollmann on a free people’s government, Ann Manov on civic centers, Meghan O’Gieblyn on willpower, Clare Bucknell on Vermeer, Rosanna Warren on John Berryman, and a story by Padgett Powell. harpers.org/archive/2026/0…

Wyatt Williams, whose essay “Hard Rain” appeared in our June issue, spoke with Will Stephenson about weather modification, conspiracy culture, and the theology of meteorology. harpers.org/2026/05/send-i…

Pretty thrilled about this, i have to say…

In the new @harpers: @wyatt_williams on cloud seeding, anti-weather modification militias, John von Neumann, and the Weather Channel harpers.org/archive/2026/0…

I spent two weeks at a Mars simulator for @Harpers 🤍It's a piece about brave utopian impulses, and the important (and sad) ways in which they can't quite get us to utopia. harpers.org/archive/2026/0…

Sam Kriss, who wrote about the next generation of AI startups in our March issue, spoke with Will Stephenson about AI’s false starts, doomsday scenarios, and eccentric proponents. harpers.org/2026/03/genera…

We’re excited to announce that the American Society of Magazine Editors has recognized Daniel Kolitz’s (@danielkolitz) “The Goon Squad” and John Jeremiah Sullivan’s “Twain Dreams” as finalists for the National Magazine Awards.

“Until we build an all-powerful but distant God, the agency problem remains. AIs are not capable of directing themselves; most people aren’t either.” Sam Kriss reports from San Francisco on the next generation of AI technologists. harpers.org/archive/2026/0…

Rosa Lyster, who wrote about the Sycamore Gap Tree in our January issue, spoke with Will Stephenson (@willstep_ ) about arboreal literature, trial reportage, forensic botany and “a specifically English kind of sentimental meltdown.” harpers.org/2026/01/genera…

In 2016, amid Duterte's drug war, I visited a flooded Quezon City barangay, many of whose youth were hooked on meth & hunted by cops. I returned year after year, learning how the war ripped the very fabric of Filipino society. Here is the result @Harpers harpers.org/archive/2026/0…

Am I addicted to sports gambling? Are you? I spent a crazed week in Sin City testing my luck and investigating the shoddy state of gambling treatment in America. My dispatch is the new @Harpers cover story: harpers.org/archive/2026/0…

@npbowlin Rosa Lyster (@rosalyster) on the confounding trial of the two men who felled the Sycamore Gap Tree. harpers.org/archive/2026/0…

In this week's Magazine: an excellent essay by @wyatt_williams on a new biography of Denis Johnson — one that suggests a new way to read Train Dreams. nytimes.com/2025/12/02/mag…

General Interest is a new interview series between Harper’s writers and editors. This month, Daniel Kolitz speaks with Matthew Sherrill about his harrowing journey into the “Goonverse,” and Joy Williams speaks with Will Stephenson about Night Moves, dogs, and Rilke. harpers.org/category/gener…

"Time is weird. Illusory, of course. It moves, like God, in mysterious ways. Maybe it is God." —Joy Williams, "One Four Two Five Old Sunset Trail," on the last days of Gene Hackman, in @harpers harpers.org/archive/2025/1…

"Is there a timeline, a regulatory environment, in which the internet does not turn into a highly efficient manufacturer of niche suicide cults? I find it hard to imagine." @danielkolitz in @Harpers on new frontiers in porn harpers.org/archive/2025/1…

Those so inclined may read 4,000-odd words by me on Abel Ferrara's fine new memoir, Scene, in the November issue of @Harpers: harpers.org/archive/2025/1…