In a collection written early during the COVID-19 pandemic – the middle of 2020 – novelist Zadie Smith reflects on the first few months of life in lockdown with essays on writing, racial injustice, and relative suffering.

Is writing a useful coping mechanism during times of uncertainty?

The COVID-19 pandemic and global lockdowns provoked new levels of creativity and anxiety — simultaneously.

For some writers, their work was the only way they could process grief in the midst of COVID-19 deaths, police brutality, and political unrest.

Prolific novelist and essayist Zadie Smith turned to ancient writings, like Marcus Aurelius' Meditations, in search of practical guidance during months spent locked down.

In Intimations, Smith shares six essays on what it means to be a creative person suffering through a global health crisis.

Smith, who is also a professor of fiction at New York University, promised to donate the proceeds from Intimations to charities fighting COVID-19 and racial injustice.