Will Stephenson

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

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…

In our November issue: a Harper’s Forum on media’s crisis of trust, Rowan Jacobsen on a good night’s sleep, Daniel Kolitz on porn’s new frontier, Joy Williams on Gene Hackman’s last days, Nick Pinkerton on Abel Ferrara, and a new story by David Wingrave. harpers.org/archive/2025/1…

@andrewmcockburn Michael W. Clune investigates the “black box” of AI facial recognition. harpers.org/archive/2025/0…

"So Silicon Valley had fashioned for us a second Massachusetts Bay, a new frontier of avoidance whose effects lay all around me now, in the decay of the actual." Epic report from the OCD conference in San Francisco by Andrew Kay, in the new @Harpers harpers.org/archive/2025/0…

Last year, I stumbled across a myth: the Lost Tribes of Israel were real, I was told, and their descendants lived in Fiji. Reporting the story took me across the Pacific, to a warlord, a prophet and the center of the universe. Now in @Harpers harpers.org/archive/2025/0…

I wrote about Harry Crews for my favorite magazine in the world harpers.org/archive/2025/0…

One of my last @Harpers pieces was an honor to edit: *Lewis Hyde* on Darwin, butterflies, deep time, and our temporal relationship to climate change: harpers.org/archive/2025/0…

Read Ben Metcalf on Lewis H. Lapham. laphamsquarterly.org/roundtable/jaz…