Selected by Dr Oliver Tearle Ever since the Victorians, fantasy fiction has been a huge part of children’s literature. Indeed, classic fantasy novels for children actually emerged some time before serious fantasy literature for adults – modern fantasy, at least – became popular. In this post, we introduce 12 must-read fantasy novels for children and
Literature
September 23, 2020, 4:09pm There’s big news in poetry (drumroll, please): Today, the American Academy of Poets announced that Nikky Finney has won the Wallace Stevens Award, which comes with a whopping $100,000 purse. The prize, established in 1994, is conferred annually to honor outstanding artistic achievement in the art of poetry over a poet’s
TODAY: In 1978, Pablo Neruda dies. “Taping a luminous little poem to a parking lot post hardly rose to the level of guerrilla art, but still, it felt subversive.” Maggie Lane on the life of the poet elf. | Lit Hub WATCH: Matt Quinn of Mt. Joy on musical storytelling and early influences, as part of
September 22, 2020, 2:46pm In the latest chapter of Edward Snowden’s legal battle over his 2019 book Permanent Record, a federal judge has ruled that Edward Snowden needs to forfeit about $1 million in speaking fees and $4 million from other book-related earnings to the government. While Snowden’s story and book deal precede our current,
Dear Wisconsin– Dear swing state: Dear battleground and infinite presidential visit: Dear broken-heartland: Dear flyover: Dear Packer fan and Brewer fan and anti-labor leader: Dear Act 10: Dear apple orchard and cranberry bog: Dear Tammy and Ron: Dear Cheesehead: Dear Butter Burger: Dear diabetes and high cholesterol and Ironman: Dear Supermax and overcrowded county lockup:
‘Love’s Philosophy’ is a poem by the second-generation Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822). The poem was published in December 1819 and is one of Shelley’s most accessible short poems. Nevertheless, a few words of analysis may help to illuminate the poem’s meaning. First, though, here’s the text of the poem. Love’s Philosophy The fountains
September 21, 2020, 3:16pm Shirley Jackson’s beloved short novel We Have Always Lived in the Castle, which also happens to have one of the best opening paragraphs of all time, was published on this day in 1962. In addition to being one of the books that shaped me (like so many others) as a writer,
TODAY: In 1964, Saul Bellow’s Herzog is published. The ultimate best books lists: In which we tally all the big fall lists (math!) to figure out which books have been getting the most chatter. | Lit Hub “She taught us what it was to make light. We’ve learned, these past four years, how to transform and
September 18, 2020, 10:15am Last but certainly not least: it’s the time for fiction! The National Book Foundation has announced the ten books contending for this year’s National Book Award for Fiction. The award, created in 1950, is the most prestigious literary prize in the United States, rewarding bold and cogent writing. According to the National
September 18, 2020, 10:59am Susanna Clarke’s Piranesi, Ayad Akhtar’s Homeland Elegies, Walter Mosley’s The Awkward Black Man, and Ben Macintyre’s Agent Sonya all feature among the Best Reviewed Books of the Week. Fiction 1. Piranesi by Susanna Clarke 14 Rave • 5 Positive “The only way in which Piranesi falls short of its predecessor is
TODAY: In 1902, Japanese poet and critic Masaoka Shiki, a major figure in the development of modern haiku poetry who is credited with writing nearly 20,000 stanzas during his short life, dies. The countess who wanted to be the most photographed woman in the world: Nathalie Léger on Virginia Oldoïni of Castiglione. | Lit Hub History “A
September 18, 2020, 11:15am It is so easy to be hopeful in the daytime when you can see the things you wish on. But it was night, it stayed night. Night was striding across nothingness with the whole round world in his hands . . . They sat in company with the others in other
In this week’s Dispatches from The Secret Library, Dr Oliver Tearle enjoys the comic verse by one of the most ‘miserable’ poets in English literature ‘The Crocodile or, Public Decency’ is not one of the best-known poems of A. E. Housman (1859-1936), the classical scholar and poet who failed his Finals at Oxford but went
September 18, 2020, 1:44pm When a group of thieves stole $3.2 million worth of rare books from a London warehouse in 2017, including seminal scientific texts by Isaac Newton and Galileo, they shocked the antiquarian book world and inspired a number of theories about what had happened. Who would target such rare titles—including a 1566
TODAY: In 1902, P. G. Wodehouse’s first novel, The Pothunters, is published in London by A & C Black. Back to school reading for students of all ages: it’s our fall 2020 book preview! | Lit Hub Playwright Dan O’Brien knows that every family is unhappy in its own way: on past traumas and a future for
September 17, 2020, 4:27pm Today, the New York Public Library announced the winner for this year’s Young Lions Fiction Award. The award—founded in 2001 by Ethan Hawke, Hannah McFarland, Jennifer Rudolph Walsh, and Rick Moody—was created to honor a writer age 35 or younger for a novel or collection of short stories. The prize comes
We live in unreal times. I wake up in the middle of a global pandemic to watch a reality-TV president spout conspiracy theories while dystopian corporations enact new science fiction tech. In this chaos, I’ve found myself turning to escapist fiction. Stories that conjure a different, more peaceful and stable world. For me that’s been
Selected by Dr Oliver Tearle The (possibly mythical) figure of King Arthur has inspired the imaginations of countless writers for the last thousand years. But which are the very best books about King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table? Here, we’ve gathered ten of the very best books that feature King Arthur, whether