Lit Lists Earlier this spring, the editors of WLT invited twenty-one writers to nominate one book, published since the year 2000, that has had a major influence on their own work, along with a brief statement explaining their choice. Now it’s your turn to vote for your favorites during our two-week contest (April 1–15)! Participating voters will be included in a drawing to receive a copy of the 1st-place book, and the top 5 list will be published in the summer issue. Ready to vote? Click here. Meena Alexander Atmospheric Embroidery: Poems Triquarterly, 2018 The spine of Atmospheric Embroidery is Indian Ocean Blues, which traces the poet’s sea voyage from India to Sudan as a child and probes my own diasporic obsessions with loss and longing, along with a return to what we sometimes “cannot bear to remember.” Uneasy dwelling places, her poems, like mine, spring from rupture and craving. This was her final book, but narratives of exile and themes of dislocation, identity, memory, and belonging also preoccupied Alexander throughout her life, as did the language and shape of self-invention and provisional spaces. She, like me, finds herself in many places all at once, marked—and yet oddly sustained—by fractured and shifting multiplicities. – Nominated by Shahilla Shariff Aharon Appelfeld Days of Astonishing Brightness (in Hebrew) Kinneret Zmora–Bitan Dvir, 2014 I read Aharon Appelfeld’s Yamim Shel Behirut Madhima (Days of... Continue reading at 'World Literature Today'
[ World Literature Today | 2021-03-31 20:04:23 UTC ]
Her essay collection was removed from contention in the category of best lesbian memoir after she went on Twitter to defend a forthcoming Sandra Newman novel from charges that it was transphobic. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2022-03-22 01:34:52 UTC ]
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It’s been ten years since the release of Wild, Cheryl Strayed’s bracingly honest memoir about hiking the Pacific Crest Trail as a young adult after her mother’s death with no experience or training—and to ccelebrate the anniversary, Strayed has released a cut scene from Wild, free to read... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-03-21 19:22:02 UTC ]
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In “The Emergency,” Thomas Fisher writes about his work at a Chicago hospital and the inequities of American health care. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2022-03-21 18:46:34 UTC ]
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Garrett Hongo tells a coming-of-age story wrapped in his love of writing and music, and recounts his lifelong quest for the perfect audio equipment. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2022-03-18 12:00:15 UTC ]
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Are you tired of getting your short stories rejected by literary magazines with weird names like Ploughshares, The Paris Review, and, lol, The New Yorker? Do you, a writer of a searing, minimalist narratives of longing and loss amid the ruins of late capitalism, need to eat? Sure you do! Well,... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-03-17 16:16:55 UTC ]
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Sasha LaPointe escaped a difficult childhood on a reservation by diving into Seattle punk. Her memoir, "Red Paint," finds solace in her Native roots. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2022-03-17 13:00:46 UTC ]
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Why did Penguin decide to reissue a memoir and a novel by Harry Crews, a dead white Southern writer? His influence — and his truths — run deep. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2022-03-15 13:00:07 UTC ]
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Erika Krouse’s Tell Me Everything, about a landmark sexual assault lawsuit, is a remarkable story told by a thrillingly unreliable narrator. Continue reading at Slate
[ Slate | 2022-03-14 09:40:00 UTC ]
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Daniel Genis, author of the new memoir 'Sentence: Ten Years and a Thousand Books in Prison,' recommends 11 essential books about life behind bars. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-03-12 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Her memoir describes her long career in diplomacy and her unwitting entanglement in Donald Trump's schemes. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2022-03-11 18:24:57 UTC ]
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Qian Julie Wang’s debut memoir Beautiful Country is a compelling and intimate portrait of an undocumented childhood. Much like Betty Smith’s A Tree Grows In Brooklyn and Frank McCourt’s Angela’s Ashes, we are carried into the heart and mind of a child: this time, a young, undocumented girl in... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2022-03-10 12:00:00 UTC ]
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In the memoir North to Paradise, Ousman Umar tells the story of his migration from rural Ghana to urban Europe, a five-year journey that took him across 11 countries. These years are so eventful and rife with suffering that just one could be a book unto itself: Ousman is exploited in Accra;... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-03-10 09:50:30 UTC ]
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T.E. Lawrence’s memoir of the Arab revolt against the Ottoman Empire -- the basis for “Lawrence of Arabia” — offers a sweeping look at war and its consequences. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2022-03-09 13:00:57 UTC ]
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At the Chicago Review of Books, Meghan O’Rourke discusses The Invisible Kingdom, a mix of memoir and research that investigates chronic illness through multiple lenses. “My work as a poet helped shape this book,” she explains. “I didn’t want it to be merely a work of reportage; I wanted to... Continue reading at The Millions
[ The Millions | 2022-03-07 21:30:33 UTC ]
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Meghan O’Rourke’s The Invisible Kingdom takes you inside the world of being chronically ill. Continue reading at Slate
[ Slate | 2022-03-03 22:44:06 UTC ]
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The novelist Kathryn Davis’s personal and time-shuffling new book, “Aurelia, Aurélia,” is about the death of her husband. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2022-03-02 10:00:08 UTC ]
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The novelist Kathryn Davis' memoir, 'Aurelia, Aurélia," is a Virginia Woolf-inspired whoosh of experiences in the aftermath of her husband's death. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2022-03-01 18:31:42 UTC ]
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Playwright and actor Harvey Fierstein reveals how a chubby gay kid from Brooklyn became a Broadway powerhouse and LBGTQ crusader. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2022-03-01 14:00:34 UTC ]
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In her new book, Amy Bloom writes about loving her husband and helping him to end his life after a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2022-03-01 10:59:23 UTC ]
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Bethanne Patrick's March picks include works by Bob Odenkirk and Elena Ferrante, as well as an Indigenous punk memoir and magical African allegories. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2022-02-28 14:00:38 UTC ]
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