October 8, 2020, 7:22am Congratulations to the great Louise Glück, who was a surprise choice for this year’s Nobel Prize for Literature. Granted, the prize is rarely obvious, but Glück —a former poet laureate of the United States—wasn’t mentioned much in any of this year’s pre-prize chatter. The prize committee cited Glück’s “unmistakable poetic voice
Literature
October 7, 2020, 12:16pm To mark the 24th anniversary of the Fox News Channel’s debut, HarperCollins and Fox News Media have announced the creation of a new imprint that will publish a stream of books I’m sure you’ll read by Fox News personalities. If the pairing seems unexpected, it’s anything but. Rupert Murdoch, who created
Richard III is one of William Shakespeare’s earliest history plays, and the first history play where we see his full maturity as a playwright emerging in his depiction of the central character’s downfall. Although Richard III shows the marked influence of Christopher Marlowe on Shakespeare, we also see signs of Shakespeare overcoming his contemporary’s influence
October 7, 2020, 10:30am Depending on how familiar you are with her work, you may not be surprised to learn that graphic memoirist Marjane Satrapi, whose Persepolis has become a modern classic, is also a figurative painter. “Painting is about going back to the origin of what I liked doing. And my mental health depends
October 6, 2020, 2:45pm The BBC Short Story Award, created in 2005 to recognize the short story as an invaluable literary form, is one of the most prestigious prizes for a single short story in the United Kingdom. The honor comes with £15,000, and previous winners include Jo Lloyd, Ingrid Persaud, and Lionel Shriver. This
Selected by Dr Oliver Tearle Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343-1400) is the most famous English writer of the Middle Ages. Although he was by no means the only celebrated poet of his time – we should mention William Langland, the Gawain poet, and John Gower, just for starters – Chaucer is the writer whose work had
October 6, 2020, 9:55am You know it’s a good day when you’re greeting with brand-new books from Rumaan Alam, Phil Klay, Tana French, Sayaka Murata, and Alice Hoffman! What’s a few more books on the TBR pile amongst friends? * Rumaan Alam, Leave the World Behind(Ecco Press) “Leave the World Behind is atmospheric and prescient: Its
October 5, 2020, 1:05pm Dear reader: the Practical Magic soundtrack is on at full volume as I write this. I’ve got a pumpkin-scented candle going. There are decorative gourds all over the place. (Seriously, I tripped on a stray one just a minute ago.) A maple-flavored yogurt is nestling into my digestive tract right now.
Here’s a question for you: which great work did Oscar Wilde write while imprisoned in Reading Gaol? Not The Ballad of Reading Gaol – that was written while he was in exile in France following his release from prison – but De Profundis, his long letter to his former lover, Lord Alfred Douglas. The Ballad
October 5, 2020, 10:18am It’s first thing in the morning and we’re already buzzing with literary news from abroad. From a spectacular longlist comes an amazing shortlist for this year’s Scotiabank Giller Prize, which seeks to recognize the best Canadian fiction of the year. Previous winners include Esi Edugyan, Elizabeth Hay, Sean Michaels, Michael Redhill, and
October 2, 2020, 12:41pm Today, Merriam-Webster observed that word searches for “schadenfreude” had spiked 30,500% after President Donald Trump announced his positive COVID-19 diagnosis—and the word was included in several news stories and headlines about the diagnosis and the global reaction. Merriam-Webster defines the term, borrowed from the German roots schaden (“damage”) and freude (“joy”) in
October 2, 2020, 12:46pm Derek Mahon, one of Ireland’s greatest contemporary poets, has died at the age at the age of 78. A host of Irish writers, including the country’s president Michael D. Higgins, have today been paying tribute to Mahon, with perhaps the most personal coming from fellow Belfast poet, Michael Longley, who had
October 2, 2020, 1:26pm It would be difficult to dethrone Anjelica Huston as Campy Horror Flick Queen, but Anne Hathaway is giving it a shot in the upcoming film adaptation of Roald Dahl’s 1983 children’s novel, The Witches. The original tale was about a young British boy and his grandmother who confront a coven of witches,
TODAY: In 1957, a California Superior Court judge rules that Allen Ginsberg’s poem “Howl” is of “redeeming social importance” and thus not obscene. “There is an art to being a good tour guide of the depths of mathematics.” How storytellers use math (without scaring people away). | Lit Hub Criticism Taunts and abuse: Deborah Tannen on what really happened
October 2, 2020, 2:14pm It’s been a real week, hasn’t it? Here’s one thing that may make it the slightest bit easier: Because it is his birthday, and because I’m personally in need of anything that can slow my heart rate for a few minutes at a time, I present to you this audio clip
In this week’s Dispatches from The Secret Library, Dr Oliver Tearle explores a forgotten work of post-apocalyptic fiction March opened on a comparatively milder note, but there was still no thaw. Food prices, which had been rising for some time, began to rocket, and there was a wave of strikes throughout the country. … The
This week on Well-Versed, Jonathan Galassi, publisher of FSG, talks with writer Marilynne Robinson about her new novel, Jack, returning to Gilead, her research on the segregation of St. Louis, and the mysterious impulse of a new novel. From the episode: Jonathan Galassi: What is it that made life so difficult for Jack? Marilynne Robinson:
October 1, 2020, 4:19pm Congratulations!Today is your day!You’re off to great places!Like a galaxy far, far away! J.J. Abrams of Star Wars fame has arrived.And he is bringing you a big surprise!Oh, The Places You’ll Go! is coming to the screen!A stranger sight you’ve never seen. He’s working with Warner Bros on this,a collaboration you won’t