Literature

TODAY: In 1973, American poet Conrad Aiken dies at 84.      Also on Lit Hub: Pidgeon Pagonis on the urgency of writing memoir as an intersex author • Jenna Clake on learning the craft of fiction by working in a call center • Read from Maya Binyam’s debut novel, Hangman

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) Where does the word ‘pandemonium’ come from? This word, which has come to have somewhat different meaning from its original use, has its origins in a classic work of English literature, where it has a very specific meaning. But what is that work of literature, and what was the

August 16, 2023, 1:30pm When former assistant editor Zakiya Dalila Harris started her novel about the publishing business, she was inspired in part by Jordan Peele’s horror-turned-excavation of racism Get Out. The resulting book, The Other Black Girl, was in a 14-way bidding way, and went to Atria Books in a million-dollar deal. Now, it’s a

My husband, a professor of electrical engineering by trade, is the kind of obsessive for which I have an affinity in my writing life. A refugee born in Latvia, John loves Latvian rye bread fervently. He eats Latvian rye several times a day and is unable to leave home without a five-pound loaf crowding the

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) Sometimes it’s good to draw attention to one’s own, or someone else’s, open-minded attitude to something. But that very phrase ‘open-minded’ can easily become overused, and perhaps, in any case, it’s not quite the phrase you’re looking for because it can easily convey too open an outlook. As a

August 15, 2023, 12:20pm AI can’t guarantee that it won’t play porn when you ask it to play a children’s song. It can’t tell whether someone’s eyes are open in a photo. It can’t deliver a case history without inventing case law. And yet! An Iowa school district has used AI to review book titles,

TODAY: In 1885, Edna Ferber, Pulitzer-prize winning writer of So Big and Show Boat, is born.      Also on Lit Hub: What Elizabeth Rush saw of motherhood and climate in Antarctica • How to capture the emotional center of a novel • Read from Paul Murray’s latest novel, The Bee Sting

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) Where does the word ‘dinosaur’ come from, and what does it literally mean? And why is the word ‘dinosaur’ entirely inappropriate for the thing it describes? Let’s delve into the etymology – or origin – of ‘dinosaur’ to learn why the word was, quite literally, a ‘terrible’ choice of

August 14, 2023, 1:38pm The Kānaka Maoli literary scene is asking for help from authors, illustrators, publishers, and agents as they embark on the slow road to recovery following the deadly wildfires of August 8th on Maui, Hawai’i. If you are a writerly sort, you can help by donating services and items that can be

For thirty-five years, I was at the center of the Barbie universe as a member of Mattel’s design team. It wasn’t a career I had ever envisioned when I was younger, but from that moment in 1962 when I first read Mattel’s advertisement in Women’s Wear Daily, I saw my future, and it thrilled me.

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) The word selfish is a very useful one, but it is also rather blunt and direct. Happily, there are other ways of describing someone as ‘selfish’ without using this word, or at least overusing it. Many of them, fittingly enough, are ­self- formations, as the first synonyms listed below

In my writing, I often begin a scene by drafting two versions of the same event: the event as it would look captured on camera, the “view from nowhere,” in as much as such a thing can ever exist—and then the scene as witnessed by a primary character. What do they focus on? What is

The Last Voyage of the Demeter hoists sail underneath an excellent conceit. The film is an adaptation of a single chapter from the 1897 novel Dracula, Chapter VII, which is an account of a ship’s voyage chartered from Varna, Bulgaria to Whitby, England. The novel Dracula is epistolary and this account is the Captain’s Log,

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘Happiness’ is a poem by the American writer Raymond Carver (1938-88). Carver is probably best-known for his short stories, especially the anthology favourite ‘What We Talk about When We Talk about Love’, but he was also a gifted poet, and his poetry helps us to clarify our understanding of

TODAY: In 1867, American classicist and author Edith Hamilton is born.    “It was like unearthing shards of Roman pottery.” Julie Otsuka on writing from memories. | Lit Hub James Hynes considers the thorniness of writing period appropriate yet accessible dialogue in historical fiction. | Lit Hub Craft How Richard Wright’s Black Boy inspired Omer Aziz. | Lit Hub “Arendt had made

A city is not a static unit. It’s a dynamic and constantly changing environment, adapting to the needs of its residents. And when that city has more than eight million inhabitants who come from every part of the globe, understanding how it works is a daunting challenge. New York City’s immense size and scope and

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) The compound adjective hard-working is of surprisingly old vintage: the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) traces it back as early as 1682, when Thomas Tryon used it in his book, Health’s Grand Preservative; Or The Women’s Best Doctor: ‘Hard working rough Trades and Imployments.’ And we all know what ‘hard-working’

August 11, 2023, 10:49am Fast-moving wildfires damaged much of Lahaina, the capital of the Kingdom of Hawai’i, this week, as well as locales up and down the west coast of Maui. Priceless cultural artifacts and buildings were destroyed or damaged, including Lahaina Public Library, which was built in 1956 on a former royal taro patch