On September 8, 2023, Commonweal senior editor Matthew Boudway was featured in conversation with George Scialabba to discuss Only a Voice, Scialabba’s new collection of essays out from Verso Books. The event was held at P&T Knitwear, an independent bookstore and event space on New York City’s Lower East Side. Together with an intimate group of readers and friends, the evening featured a reading from the book, a dialogue between writer and editor, and audience Q&A. 

Only a Voice draws together essays on politics, power, and culture from a diverse group of thinkers, artists, activists, and philosophers—including D.H. Lawrence, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Ellen Willis, and Noam Chomsky. Commonweal readers will also recognize several essays from the magazine, including “The Common Fate” (2012), “A Conservative Liberal Socialist” (2013), “Are We All Liberals Now?” (2014), and “Last Men and Women” (2021).  

George Scialabba is an award-winning critic and essayist whose writing has appeared in the Nation, Dissent, Bookforum, n+1, Commonweal, and the Boston Review, among many others. He has written for Commonweal for more than a decade, starting with “The S-Word,” his 2010 book review of G.A. Cohen’s Why Not Socialism? He is the author of five previous essay collections and a memoir, How to Be Depressed. 

Matthew Boudway is the senior editor at Commonweal.