Lit Lists Earlier this spring, the editors of WLT invited twenty-one writers to nominate a single book, published since the year 2000, that has had a major influence on their own work, along with a brief statement explaining their choice. We published the longlist and then invited readers to vote on their favorites. Here are the top vote recipients, followed by the respective nominating statements: 1. M. NourbeSe Philip, Zong! 2. Deborah Levy, Things I Don’t Want to Know: On Writing 3. John FitzGerald, The Mind 4. Roberto Bolaño, 2666 5. (tie) Yaa Gyasi, Homegoing, and W. G. Sebald, Austerlitz To mark the occasion of Zong! winning the readers’ poll, M. NourbeSe Philip and Philip Metres recently took part in an email interview about the book. It will be published tomorrow on the WLT Weekly. M. NourbeSe Philip Zong! Wesleyan University Press, 2008 I discovered M. NourbeSe Philip’s Zong! only after I’d written abu ghraib arias, when critics saw parallels in the work. Zong! is at once a brilliant documentary long poem and a sort of ritual exorcism of the demons of the slave trade. Built out of the language of the legal document of Gregson v. Gilbert, Zong! brings to light the murder of Africans on board a slave ship in 1781 for financial gain. The kidnapped and enslaved Africans had been purposely thrown overboard so that the owner of the Zong could benefit from his insurance policy. Philip’s visionary use of the burying language... Continue reading at 'World Literature Today'
[ World Literature Today | 2021-06-28 13:32:05 UTC ]
Here are five 2025 mystery releases to have on your radar, from middle grade dark academia to short stories with sleuthing Jesuit priests. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2024-12-09 13:30:00 UTC ]
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Language of White Bones: The Secrets of Han Kang’s Poetic Prose, by Eun-Gwi Chung Essay [email protected] Thu, 12/05/2024 - 15:23 Photo of Han Kang by Paik Dahuim / Courtesy of Natur & KulturLike a clutch of words strewn over white... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2024-12-05 21:23:24 UTC ]
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The IBM Building at 590 Madison Ave. has one of the finest amenities in the city: A 8,200 square-foot park-like atrium with a 65-foot high glass ceiling, with dozens of chairs and tables available to everyone. “A tree-filled conservatory and public living room rolled into one,” is how the space... Continue reading at Crains New York
[ Crains New York | 2024-11-27 18:07:17 UTC ]
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Late in 1933, Dylan Thomas started writing a new short story. “The theme of the story I dreamed in a nightmare,” he wrote to a friend. “If successful, if the words fit to the thoughts, it will be one of the most ghastly short stories ever written.” Thomas was possessed, in part, by rejection.... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-10-31 08:56:14 UTC ]
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Due out in January, the book deals with ‘some of the crucial moments of his papacy and some of the most controversial questions of our present times’Pope Francis has written an autobiography, publisher Penguin Random House (PRH) has announced. Hope, which will be published globally in January... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2024-10-16 15:07:45 UTC ]
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Roger Allen: Translating Arabic and the Art of Translation, by Jonas Elbousty Interviews [email protected] Mon, 10/14/2024 - 14:56 Roger Allen was the first person to obtain a doctorate in modern Arabic literature at the University of Oxford. After... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2024-10-14 19:56:44 UTC ]
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Han Kang’s poetry and short stories are just as innovative and important as her novels. Continue reading at The Conversation
[ The Conversation | 2024-10-10 17:11:35 UTC ]
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Every time I read Jamie Quatro’s fiction—from her debut collection I Want to Show You More, to her 2018 novel Fire Sermon, to her short stories in the New Yorker—I experience the same edge-of-my-seat pleasure. Quatro’s characters are as alive as flesh-and-blood people; the Southern landscape... Continue reading at The Millions
[ The Millions | 2024-10-03 12:00:00 UTC ]
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In 1993, I published my first decent story in a literary journal and a few months later received a letter from an agent whose name I recognized. I’d written short stories in college classes, sent them off, and typically the only thing that came back was a rejection, housed in the... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2024-10-01 11:10:00 UTC ]
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Rarely have I been so moved, awed, amused, satisfied, and softly startled by a debut, but The Only Sound Is the Wind, the gorgeous new fiction collection by Pascha Sotolongo, is a deft, accomplished, utterly fearless book of short stories that seamlessly meld the mundane and the transcendent,... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-10-01 08:55:46 UTC ]
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The Short Stories of Moroccan Writer Mohamed Choukri: A Talk by Dr. Jonas Elbousty, by The Editors of WLT News and Events [email protected] Thu, 09/26/2024 - 13:32 The University of Oklahoma’s Center for Middle East Studies; Department of Modern... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2024-09-26 18:32:59 UTC ]
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Pedro Almodóvar's first book consists of a mix of short stories and personal essays that amount to 'a fragmentary autobiography.' Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2024-09-16 10:00:58 UTC ]
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Picture a teenager in a suburban Southern California Costco, lingering by the books tables while her parents shopped. There, between the boxed vacuums and party-size clamshells of croissants, I first encountered the writing of Ha Jin. His short story, “After Cowboy Chicken Came to Town,” had... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-09-10 08:55:26 UTC ]
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Striding the Borderlands: Charles Ferdinand Ramuz’s Great Fear on the Mountain, by Alice-Catherine Carls Book Reviews [email protected] Thu, 09/05/2024 - 14:03 Caroline Cingria, C. F. Ramuz, pastel (1903) / Images courtesy of Noël CordonierLumen... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2024-09-05 19:03:58 UTC ]
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Comma Press has been publishing Palestinian short stories since 2008. Comma’s connection to Palestinian literature deepened however in 2014 when, shortly after bringing out the anthology, The Book of Gaza, all the writers we’d worked with on that book were subjected to 51 days of carpet bombing... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-08-27 14:32:12 UTC ]
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In the first half of the twentieth century, radical bookstores took many forms and often served as part of larger, multichannel campaigns. Nazis, as well as Communists and Socialists, organized festivals and parades, dances and concerts, and schools and camps to disseminate critiques of American... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-08-21 08:56:24 UTC ]
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As her latest Jackson Brodie thriller comes out, the award-winning author discusses cosy crime, sniffy critics, and how she investigated her own family’s secretsKate Atkinson has an idea for a fun side-hustle: at some point in the future, when she’s done with the second world war, and with her... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2024-08-10 08:00:37 UTC ]
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All in the Family is a rare thing in Trumpworld: a book written without malice or bitterness. Continue reading at Slate
[ Slate | 2024-07-31 21:00:05 UTC ]
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“Examine Every Atom”: The Capacious Career of Poet, Editor, and Critic T. R. Hummer, by Chard deNiord Interviews [email protected] Wed, 07/31/2024 - 08:31 Right photo by formulanone / FlickrT. R. Hummer, as he is known professionally but Terry to... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2024-07-31 13:31:02 UTC ]
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Her novels and short stories often explored the lives of willful women who loved men who were crass, unfaithful or already married. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-07-29 02:48:48 UTC ]
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