**Selections from the Pandemic Files published by** The Yale Review **, the preeminent journal of literature and ideas** **“If only our response to the pandemic on other fronts could have been as speedy and potent as this literary one.”—** Kirkus Reviews **, starred review** In beautifully written and powerfully thought prose, *A World Out of Reach* offers a crucial record of COVID-19 and the cataclysmic spring of 2020—a record for us and for posterity—in the arresting voices of poets, essayists, scholars, and health care workers. Ranging from matters of policy and social justice to ancient history and personal stories of living under lockdown, this vivid compilation from *The Yale Review* presents a first draft of one of the most tumultuous periods in recent history. **Contributors:** Katie Kitamura • Laura Kolbe • Nitin Ahuja • Natasha Randall • Rena Xu • Alicia Christoff • Miranda Featherstone • Maya C. Popa • Major Jackson • John Witt • Octávio Luiz Motta Ferraz • Joan Naviyuk Kane • Emmeline Clein • Nell Freudenberger • Briallen Hopper • Brandon Shimoda • Ben Purkert • Yusef Komunyakaa • Laren McClung • Eric O’Keefe-Krebs • Sean Lynch • Millicent Marcus • Meghana Mysore • Rachel Jamison Webster • Emily Ziff Griffin • Rowan Ricardo Philips • Kathryn Lofton • Monica Ferrell • Russell Morse • Randi Hutter Epstein • Noreen Khawaja • Victoria Chang • Joyelle McSweeney • Khameer Kidia • Emily Greenwood • Elisa Gabbert • Emily Bernard • Hafizah Geter • Emily Gogolak • Roger Reeves