When the novel emphasizes the quotidian—when it’s steeped in the random details of daily life, when its myths are subordinated or occluded—it’s a realist narrative. When the novel emphasizes the code—when its details build purposefully toward the romance, the battle, the crime—it’s genre fiction.

In my final short essay for Poets & Writers, a meditation on genre, climate change, and the future of the novel. A restless piece, written to shake myself up. Maybe you too? Find it here.