Culture Calendar

START

JAN. 7

In his first novel, Radiance of Tomorrow, Ishmael Beah imagines what came after the Sierra Leone war that was the topic of his 2007 memoir.

JAN. 12

Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson star in True Detective, HBO’s new series about a pair of investigators who are drawn back into a case they’d thought was closed.

JAN. 14

Bruce Springsteen returns with his 18th studio album, High Hopes, which offers new takes on old favorites as well as previously unreleased songs.

JAN. 14

American master E.L. Doctorow’s new novel, Andrew’s Brain, takes on the struggle between fate and free will.

FEB. 4

B.J. Novak is known for his on-camera work on The Office, but he’s also a writer. One More Thing is his first collection of short stories.

FEBRUARY

It’s been years since Beck released an album of new material, but the “Loser” singer is back with Morning Phase (exact release date TBA).

FEB. 20

A musical adaptation of The Bridges of Madison County opens on Broadway. (Previews start Jan. 17, in time for Valentine’s Day.)

MARCH 7

The Whitney Biennial, grande dame of contemporary-art fests, gets one last go at the old Whitney Museum building in New York City before a 2015 move.

MARCH 7

Filmmaker Wes Anderson’s signature aesthetic goes abroad in The Grand Budapest Hotel, starring Ralph Fiennes as a concierge.

MARCH 14

A crowdfunding drive last spring helped turn the cult TV fave Veronica Mars into a movie; now fans will see how their efforts paid off.

MARCH 31

For nine seasons, the sitcom How I Met Your Mother has teased the main characters’ meeting. If there’s no payout by the time the series finale airs on CBS, fans will flip out.

APRIL 4

Spring’s arrival is heralded by several cinematic superhero sequels, beginning with Captain America: The Winter Soldier. The costumes continue with The Amazing Spider-Man 2 on May 2 and X-Men: Days of Future Past on May 23.

Bam! Pow!

APRIL 10

Woody Allen’s musical adaptation of Bullets Over Broadway opens, starring Zach Braff as a wannabe playwright.

APRIL 17

Henri Matisse’s “cutouts”–made when, late in life, he was unable to paint–take center stage at the Tate Modern in London.

APRIL 22

Speaking of HIMYM’s Neil Patrick Harris: he’s on Broadway in Hedwig and the Angry Inch.

MAY 6

Foodies know Ruth Reichl as a food critic. Her first novel, Delicious!, takes a chow-centric story and adds a dash of history for spice.

JUNE 6

The Fault in Our Stars, with Shailene Woodley: a film based on a hit YA novel that’s neither paranormal nor postapocalyptic.

JUNE 27

The Whitney Museum gives Jeff Koons his first ever major New York City museum show.

SUMMER

Unfounded rumors too major to ignore: albums from Adele and Kanye West, the latter of which some hope to be the Jay Z collaboration Watch the Throne 2.

SUMMER

Summer TV belongs to big-name directors: CBS has Halle Berry in Extant, with Steven Spielberg as an exec producer, and FX has Guillermo del Toro’s The Strain.

FALL

Taylor Swift hasn’t announced a release date for her next album, but her hints imply that fans should keep an eye out in autumn.

OCT. 3

Book-club champ Gone Girl, the hit novel about a woman’s disappearance, arrives on the big screen with Ben Affleck.

NOV. 7

Watch out for wormholes when Inception filmmaker Christopher Nolan goes to outer space with Interstellar.

NOV. 21

Jennifer Lawrence is back as bow-slinging heroine (and box-office champ) Katniss in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1, the penultimate trip to Panem.

DEC. 17

Every journey must come to an end, as Peter Jackson’s latest Tolkien trilogy will in The Hobbit: There and Back Again.