How the world could have looked: the most spectacular buildings that were never made

A mega egg in Paris, a hovering hotel in Machu Picchu, an hourglass tower in New York, a pleasure island in Baghdad … we reveal the architectural visions that were just too costly – or too weird

Gerald Cinamon obituary

Chief designer for Penguin Books with a flair for pacing illustrated nonfiction, such as with Pelican’s Style and Civilization series

‘My own inner critic is a bully’: Julia Cameron on creative demons and updating The Artist’s Way

Creativity guru Julia Cameron has long inspired others. Now she’s sharing her own secret weapon

‘I was in a kind of ecstatic freefall’: artist Miranda July on writing the book that could change your life

The artist and filmmaker has always enjoyed challenging convention. Now she has written a novel which takes a breathtaking look at menopause, sex, death and transformation

‘I did not know the life I have now was a possibility’: Gemma Rolls-Bentley on her history of queer art

After two decades creating pioneering exhibitions, the curator decided to publish a ‘sexy coffee table book’ bringing together work made for clubs and protests as much as galleries

‘I know the adrenaline of escaping’: Henry Cockburn on turning his time on the run into a refugee rap epic

His Costa-shortlisted first book examined his own schizophrenia, from hospital breakouts to hiding from the police. Now the writer has fed this into Tale of Ahmed, a story in rap verse about a boy fleeing Afghanistan for Britain

Francis Bacon: A Self-Portrait in Words by Michael Peppiatt review – glimpses of a demon-driven genius

Despite the painter’s lack of ‘epistolary fluency’, this collection of his writings – from drunken interviews to begging letters – offers some insight into his working methods and private life

‘My role was to be a truthful witness’: photographer Jack Lueders-Booth’s Polaroids of American female prisoners

In the 1970s, the photographer began teaching in a progressive US women’s prison and made moving portraits of many of the inmates. Looking back, he sees how many of them actually felt safer in prison

The big picture: author Paul Auster in his element

The celebrated ​writer, who died last week, is captured​ by Arnold Newman in his study ​in 1993​ with his trusty Olympia manual typewriter​

‘These people matter’: why Diana Matar photographs the sites where US police have killed civilians

The celebrated US photographer’s new series is a quietly devastating commemoration and a critique of modern American culture

Critics, cancellation and cleanskin wine: the Australian novels satirising the art world

New books from Bri Lee and Liam Pieper reach into the frictions and follies of the art industry. But are they fact or fantasy?

On my radar: CMAT’s cultural highlights

The Irish musician on her favourite traditional pub, converting to the cult of baseball, and gigs in a western movie set

John Miles obituary

Creator with his design partner Colin Banks of corporate identities for clients including Royal Mail and British Telecom

Walking in the air: Snowman creator Raymond Briggs’s favourite Sussex paths

An exhibition of the great British illustrator’s life opens this month in Ditchling village, in the South Downs countryside that inspired him

‘No one comes back’: Margaret Atwood’s anti-war poem debuts at Venice Biennale

Canadian author’s work, shared exclusively with the Observer, is to be shown alongside art by Goya