For @NewYorker, I wrote about how "The Great Gatsby," which turns 100 this month, went from flop to high school classic, and whether the novel can survive another hundred years https://t.co/JyZ9LTX0J1

In honor of WRITING BACKWARDS winning the 2026 Perkins Prize, @ColumbiaUP is running a 20% off sale!

We are pleased to announce that Alexander Manshel's WRITING BACKWARDS is the Winner of the 2026 Barbara Perkins and George Perkins Prize from the International Society for the Study of Narrative. https://t.co/h04pF1gcxY @XanderManshel #HistoricalFiction #HistoricalNovel

"[A] striking example of the power that cultural history can lend to narrative studies...." Congrats to Alexander Manshel, whose WRITING BACKWARDS: HISTORICAL FICTION & THE RESHAPING OF THE AMERICAN CANON was awarded the 2026 Perkins Prize. https://t.co/8hMGFqJ68u @ColumbiaUP

In the century since its publication, “The Great Gatsby” has been adapted for film at least five times, mounted on the stage, and even turned into a video game. How did “Gatsby” grow so great, and why has it endured so long?

More than any literary prize or celebrity book club, the school syllabus shapes American reading. “The Great Gatsby” is one of the most frequently assigned texts—but its place in the high-school canon was hardly inevitable.

Sigrid Nunez

New Penguin Books catalogue feels like a publicist threw up their hands and said, "it' the new novel from Thomas Pynchon. What else can we say?"

It's a big day at the Post45 Data Collective. It's a data journal I co-founded with Laura McGrath in 2021, though we began planning in 2019. So I've worked on it for six years. Today I step off as co-editor and @XanderManshel & J.D. Porter step on 🥳🥳🥳 https://t.co/3E6A6Bq8Ff

“An author ought to write for the youth of his own generation, the critics of the next, and the schoolmasters for ever afterward,” F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote, in 1920. In this, he was wildly successful.

I've been waiting for this exposé for half a century.

"By some estimates, the total worldwide sales of the novel are now upward of thirty million copies. How did “Gatsby” grow so great, and why has it endured so long? The answer is high-school English." https://t.co/ySvXRpPXtI

For more than seven decades, high-school teachers have used “The Great Gatsby” to investigate the American Dream, to introduce students to literary techniques, and to stress the importance of finding a designated driver. How did it become an essential text? https://t.co/94F7z8hYT2

More than any literary prize or celebrity book club, the school syllabus shapes American reading. “The Great Gatsby” is one of the most frequently assigned texts—but its place in the high-school canon was hardly inevitable.

If you took high school English in the US or Canada, chances are you read The Great Gatsby at some point. But why is it so ubiquitous? As the novel turns 100, @XanderManshel has some fascinating answers in @newyorker: https://t.co/YXTmFZimKM

Many thanks to Mara Smith for her editorial brilliance, and Emily Yang for her scrupulous fact-checking!

F. Scott Fitzgerald once worried that The Great Gatsby was a flop, but worldwide sales of the novel are now upward of thirty million copies. What changed? According to McGill’s Alexander Manshel, the answer is high-school English.

Now you can also listen to Alexander Manshel's amazing book, WRITING BACKWARDS, which is now available as an audiobook! https://t.co/qhCcn6DfSF @XanderManshel @ColumbiaUP

Very excited to be giving a lecture tomorrow night (Feb. 20) as part of this award and St. Louis University's Campus Read series! If you're in the area, or want to attend by Zoom, you can find the details here:

I had a great time discussing the changing shape (and changing politics) of historical fiction with @catedomen and Claire Barnes for New American Studies Journal! Here's a link to our conversation and an excerpt from my book... https://t.co/kehKuK8p2y