Kat Rosenfield spends a lot of time thinking about murder. And lucky for us, the essayist and novelist writes about it, too. 

Rosenfield’s latest thriller, “How to Survive in the Woods,” set in Maine’s 100 Mile Wilderness, releases March 10. (Not to spoil anything, but it’s really good.) She’s the author of other books, including “No One Will Miss Her” and New York Times-best-selling “A Trick of Light,” coauthored with Stan Lee. 

If you’re wondering why I’m writing about this, it’s because Rosenfield is also a culture writer at The Free Press, the publication cofounded by Bari Weiss, the new editor in chief of CBS News. And Rosenfield cohosts the "Feminine Chaos" podcast.

I first started paying close attention to Rosenfield’s work in 2022, when I read a piece she wrote for National Review, titled “Why I Keep Getting Mistaken for a Conservative,” in which she talks about the tribalism that has seeped into politics, unmooring the principles that once made terms like “liberal” and “conservative” meaningful. 

“The work I love best is about analysis, not prescription; it’s about trying to understand what is and why, not what ought to be,” Rosenfield, who describes herself as a “free-speech, pro-choice liberal,” wrote in National Review.

This sums up her work well. Rosenfield’s writing is eloquent and stylish, and she’s adept at breaking through the noise of our cultural moment and distilling what’s going on. 

I recently spoke with Rosenfield about her new novel, why she loves writing about murder, and how her fiction and nonfiction influence........

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