Consolations

28 July 1984

Author of *The Marginalian* (formerly *Brain Pickings*) Maria Popova is a Bulgarian-born, American-based essayist, book author, poet, and writer of literary and arts commentary and cultural criticism that has found wide appeal both for her writing and for the visual stylistics that accompany it. In 2006, she started the blog *Brain Pickings*, an online publication that she has fought to maintain advertisement-free. The blog, renamed to *The Marginalian* upon its 15th birthday in 2021, features her writing on books, the arts, philosophy, culture, and other subjects. In addition to her writing and related speaking engagements, she has served as an MIT Futures of Entertainment Fellow, …