May 12, 2021, 12:21pm Trevor Shikaze has been named the first winner of n+1’s newly established Anthony Veasna So Prize, an annual $5,000 award named in honor of n+1 contributor and brilliant short story writer Anthony Veasna So, who died in 2020. The award is granted to an n+1-published fiction writer who shows a sustained
Literature
The story of David and Goliath is one of the most iconic and celebrated tales from the Old Testament. Virtually everyone vaguely acquainted with Bible stories knows that David, as a young boy, slew the giant Goliath. The story is an inspiring example of how the plucky underdog could defeat someone much bigger than him,
May 11, 2021, 11:51am Douglas Adams, beloved author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, has taught us a lot of important things: Don’t Panic, for example. Also, the meaning of life is 42. The author died 20 years ago today, but I was delighted to find that he still has much to teach us. In
Lord of the Flies was first published in 1954, although it very nearly wasn’t published at all. Its author, William Golding, was a struggling grammar-school teacher when he wrote it, having been given the germ of the idea by his wife, Ann. The novel’s title is a reference to Beelzebub, a name for the Devil,
May 11, 2021, 11:21am Great wonder grew in hallAt his hue most strange to see,For man and gear and allWere green as green could be. Saddle up, all you Arthurian aficionados, because the coolest-looking literary adaptation of 2021 is nearly upon us. Yes, David Lowrey’s The Green Knight—an adaptation of the 14th-century Middle English chivalric
May 10, 2021, 2:06pm People who love reading love reading. And people who love reading also love reading about how great reading is. Luckily, as you may have noticed, the opportunities for this kind of reading about reading are apparently endless. After all, if you spend a lot of time on the internet, you know
‘Two households, both alike in dignity’: so begins the Prologue to William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. What is less well-known is the very specific poetic form Shakespeare chooses for the Prologue: a form he goes on to use later in Romeo and Juliet. (We have analysed the play as a whole here.) Let’s take a
The following is excerpted from Jennifer Saint’s debut novel, Ariadne, a new epic that re-centers the forgotten women of Greek mythology as they strive for a better world. Due to a lifelong fascination with Ancient Greek mythology, Saint read Classical Studies at King’s College, London. She spent the next thirteen years as an English teacher,
May 7, 2021, 12:04pm If so, you’ve come to the right place. Someone (who goes by the name of MysigMind) is making long playlists of classical music—we’re talking Rachmaninoff, Liszt, Vivaldi, all the greats—geared specifically for 19th century villains in (slightly) different situations. For instance, A playlist for a 19th century villain scheming against his
Milk, of course, is the primary source of nourishment for mammals, a word that is ultimately derived from ‘breast’ (as, coincidentally, is the name for the city of Manchester, because it was built on a ‘breast-like’ hill). Because of its pivotal role in providing sustenance for humans and many other animals, milk has attained a
May 7, 2021, 12:10pm One hundred and twenty-six year ago today, H. G. Wells’ seminal science-fiction novella, The Time Machine, was first published. The story of an Victorian English scientist (and gentleman inventor) who builds a big ‘ol steampunk time machine and uses it to travel to the year A.D. 802,701 (where perilous adventures with
May 7, 2021, 12:47pm The 215 Literary Arts Festival—in partnership with Rutgers University Camden, The Stables, and Laternfish Press—is bringing together a band of writers, editors, musicians, and DJ librarians to celebrate the vibrant literary arts scene in the Philadelphia area, from May 10th to 15th. The Festival, founded in 2001, has hosted an array
‘The Lottery in Babylon’, a short story by Jorge Luis Borges first published in 1941, is among his most ‘Kafkaesque’ tales, bearing the influence of the Czech writer in a number of its key aspects. At the time, Borges was working a rather unfulfilling library job refilling the bookshelves, and ‘The Lottery in Babylon’ reflects
TODAY: In 2012, Maurice Sendak dies. Cross your legs, stretch your hymen: Danielle Dreilinger on the college courses that sought to curb divorce. | Lit Hub “It changes it from an entertaining satire about grubbing minor poets into a truly great story about thwarted friendship and human loneliness.” How a Robert Bolaño story influenced Chris Powers’
May 7, 2021, 4:33pm Let me tell you about a little film I watched the other night: a 2009 flick lost to the annals of history called Love Happens. It stars Jennifer Aniston as an unlucky-in-love florist. Judy Greer reprises her lifetime role as the tough-love best friend, but this time she is also an
In this week’s Dispatches from The Secret Library, Dr Oliver Tearle analyses the meaning of a strange Shakespearean quotation Let’s start with two correctives to common misconceptions about Romeo and Juliet. First of all, when Juliet asks her star-cross’d lover, ‘O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?’ she isn’t, of course, asking him where he
TODAY: In 1812, Robert Browning is born. Phoebe S.K. Young considers how companies brand The Great Outdoors (i.e. aggressively), and COVID’s impact on our concept of camping. | Lit Hub Maggie Shipstead takes the Lit Hub Questionnaire, and confesses that she still hasn’t read War and Peace (no judgment). | Lit Hub Questionnaires “He had
May 6, 2021, 12:50pm Stacey Abrams has had a busy year: on May 11th, Doubleday will publish her political thriller While Justice Sleeps, and Berkley, an imprint of Penguin Random House, has just picked up her three out-of-print romances for re-publication. (And that’s not to mention Abrams’s work as a politician and voting rights advocate.)