Lolita in the Afterlife On Beauty, Risk, and Reckoning with the Most Indelible and Shocking Novel of the Twentieth Century

A vibrant collection of sharp and essential modern pieces on Vladimir Nabokov’s perennially provocative book—with original contributions from a stellar cast of prominent twenty-first century writers.

In 1958, Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita was published in the United States to immediate controversy and bestsellerdom. More than sixty years later, this phenomenal novel generates as much buzz as it did when originally published. Central to countless issues at the forefront of our national discourse—art and politics, race and whiteness, gender and power, sexual trauma—Lolita lives on, in an afterlife as blinding as a supernova.

Lolita in the Afterlife is edited by the daughter of Lolita’s original publisher in America.

WITH CONTRIBUTIONS BY
Robin Givhan • Aleksandar Hemon • Jim Shepard • Emily Mortimer • Laura Lippman • Erika L. Sánchez • Sarah Weinman • Andre Dubus III • Mary Gaitskill • Zainab Salbi • Christina Baker Kline • Ian Frazier • Cheryl Strayed • Sloane Crosley • Victor LaValle • Jill Kargman • Lila Azam Zanganeh • Roxane Gay • Claire Dederer • Jessica Shattuck • Stacy Schiff • Susan Choi • Kate Elizabeth Russell • Tom Bissell • Kira Von Eichel • Bindu Bansinath • Dani Shapiro • Alexander Chee • Lauren Groff • Morgan Jerkins

JENNY MINTON QUIGLEY is a writer and editor. She is the series editor for The Best Short Stories of The Year: The O. Henry Prize Winners, and the author of a memoir, The Early Birds. She is the daughter of Walter J. Minton, the storied former president and publisher of G. P. Putnam's Sons, who first dared to publish Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov in the United States in 1958. A former book editor at several Random House imprints, Minton Quigley lives in West Hartford, Connecticut, with her husband, sons, and dogs.

Introduction by Jenny Minton Quigley

Witness for the Defense: My Father and Lolita, Emily Mortimer
Véra and Lo, Stacy Schiff
On the Road with Humbert and Lolita, Ian Frazier
Ugly Beautiful, Roxane Gay
Badge of Honor, Susan Choi
Watching the Detective, Laura Lippman
Lolita Diary, Alexander Chee
Delectatio Morosa, Lauren Groff
Lolita, #MeToo, and Myself, Morgan Jerkins
Lolita, Chamonix, France, 2018, Andre Dubus III
The Showgirl Who Discovered Lolita, Sarah Weinman
Fashion’s Lolita; Fragile, Subversive, and a Paean to White Femininity, Robin Givhan
Lolita and the Empathetic Imagination, Jim Shepard
How Lolita Freed Me from My Own Humbert, Bindu Bansinath
Ladies and Gentlemen of the Jury, Christina Baker Kline
Charmed, Victor LaValle
They Stay the Same Age, Sloane Crosley
Dear Sugar, Cheryl Strayed
What We Talk About When We Talk About Lolita, Lila Azam Zanganeh
Nabokov’s Rocking Chair: Lolita at the Movies, Tom Bissell
Lo and Behold, Jill Kargman
Acquiring Lolita’s Language, Aleksandar Hemon
Charlotte’s Complaint, Jessica Shattuck
Lolita in the Time of Trigger Warnings, Erika L. Sánchez
Maison Nymphette, Kate Elizabeth Russell
A Living Story of Lolita in Iraq, Zainab Salbi
The Lollipop Room, Kira von Eichel
The Anti-Monster, Claire Dederer
Lolita in Lockdown, Dani Shapiro
I Cannot Get Out Said the Starling, Mary Gaitskill

Acknowledgments
About the Editor
About the Contributors