In 1995, I left the Elliott Bay Book Company in Seattle to teach English in Vietnam. Around that time, my friend and fellow bookseller Janet Brown traveled to Thailand to teach as well. There was no email then, and overseas phone calls were a luxury. So we wrote to one another, meditating on the countries […] The post 8 Literary Friendships Told Through Letters appeared first on Electric Literature. Continue reading at 'Electric Literature'
[ Electric Literature | 2022-04-28 11:00:00 UTC ]
Small presses have been publishing excellent work by writers who you may not know (yet). From compelling short stories to heart-wrenching novels, these books will take you on a journey across states and countries, into the past or to the future, as well as deep into the minds of richly-drawn... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2023-06-30 11:00:00 UTC ]
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Lamya H’s powerful memoir Hijab Butch Blues is an honest grappling with what it means to be queer, to be a devout hijabi Muslim person who resists gender normativity, to love faith and community. Seeking other queer women in Islam as a young person, H wonders if Maryam, whom no man has touched,... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2023-06-29 11:12:00 UTC ]
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Greg Marshall’s memoir Leg: The Story of a Limb and the Boy Who Grew from It is a brave and hilarious tour de force, taking us through his journey of self-acceptance as he grapples with cerebral palsy, queerness, and the early death of a parent. By offering us a front seat to the uproarious... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2023-06-22 11:01:00 UTC ]
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Obsessively scratching her scalp, while simultaneously chiding herself not to, Kendra Rae Phillips sits on a MetroNorth train anxious and jittery. She’s worried about being found, after being found out. Every lingering eye incites more sweat, and more scratching. Relief only comes when her train... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2023-06-19 11:07:00 UTC ]
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Kenan Orhan’s debut, I Am My Country, feels like much more than just a book of imaginative short stories set in and around the author’s ancestral homeland of Turkey. The powerful collection could be said to comprise a series of real “small rebellions” — enacted by its characters, prose, and the... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2023-06-13 11:01:00 UTC ]
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You won't make a living wage working as a bookseller in an indie bookstore. Here's a look at wages across the country. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2023-06-12 10:37:00 UTC ]
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In a cultural milieu that is increasingly recognizing the value of narratives that describe the experience of chronic pain and illness, Emily Wells’ memoir is a unique contribution. In some ways, A Matter of Appearance is not a memoir at all, though that’s where you’ll find it shelved in... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2023-06-06 11:05:00 UTC ]
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A coalition of 18 plaintiffs—including a powerful alliance of library, publishing, author, and bookseller groups—are suing to strike down a controversial new law that would expose librarians and booksellers to criminal liability for making allegedly inappropriate books accessible to minors. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-06-05 04:00:00 UTC ]
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For 17 books, Luis Alberto Urrea has highlighted the joys and sorrows of life along the U.S.-Mexican border, a territory which moves with its peoples, no matter the walls we build on the land and in our hearts. Through his memoir Nobody’s Son, novels like The House of Broken Angels, his essay... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2023-05-31 11:00:00 UTC ]
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At a lunch-hour keynote on May 24, National Book Award winner and former National Ambassador for Young People's Literature Jacqueline Woodson sat down with bookseller Miwa Messer. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-05-25 04:00:00 UTC ]
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A profound and deeply funny examination of loneliness in many of its forms—romantic, familial, artistic—Courtney Sender’s book, In Other Lifetimes All I’ve Lost Comes Back to Me, explores feminist millennial rage and the ways the trauma of the Holocaust has been passed-down through Jewish... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2023-05-23 11:00:00 UTC ]
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Jenny Fran Davis’ debut novel Dykette is indisputably, vibrantly, hilariously queer. Dykette follows three couples (and a charismatic pug) on a ten day, pressure-cooker trip to Hudson, New York. The oldest of the couple, Jules Todd (a news anchor who reads like a fictional Rachel Maddow) and her... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2023-05-18 11:00:00 UTC ]
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When I first became a single mother, I hid it from everyone, including myself. In my new book, The Leaving Season: A Memoir in Essays, I track the evolution of my relationship with motherhood, starting as a reluctant mother of two in a married household and ultimately ending as a single mother... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2023-05-12 11:10:00 UTC ]
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In her debut novel A History of Burning, Janika Oza gives us the story of a family, one migration journey at a time. Beginning with indentured labor that leads the first member of the family, Pirbhai, from his home in India to East Africa, we follow four generations across several continents and... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2023-05-12 11:00:00 UTC ]
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I can’t remember exactly when I discovered The Baby-Sitters Club books. Maybe it was at a Scholastic Book Fair at my school. But I’ll always remember the very first book, Kristy’s Great Idea, with its bright yellow cover and alphabet block letters. I saw four friends hanging out, and I... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2023-05-05 11:10:00 UTC ]
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Julia by Ada Zhang When she was twenty-two she used to spend what little money she could have saved on hardcover books, lattes, and croissants. She read in cafés alone and anonymous, with no reason except to offer the world a glimpse of her. Ten years later, she was leaving and decided to... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2023-05-03 11:05:00 UTC ]
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The Pulitzer Prize isn’t the only major literary award, but it is the one that seems to get the most attention. The Old Man and the Sea. To Kill a Mockingbird. The Optimist’s Daughter. The Color Purple. Lonesome Dove. Beloved. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay. Gilead. The Road. The... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2023-04-28 11:05:00 UTC ]
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Hug an author today! Fifty-four percent of debut authors responding to Bookseller survey said the process had a negative impact on their mental health—equally likely to feel bummed out whether they pubbed with a Big Four or an indie publisher. One, quoted anonymously in The Bookseller’s report,... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-04-24 15:32:12 UTC ]
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Some of the best moments of my life have been spent in libraries, first as a patron, later as a librarian, and I have witnessed firsthand how hard the past few decades have been on libraries. As America has continued to dismantle its social safety net, libraries have been forced to pivot from... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2023-04-21 11:05:00 UTC ]
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The bookseller announced new benefits and discount perks in an effort to "revitalize" its membership ranks and unveiled an alternative free B&N Rewards loyalty program. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-04-19 04:00:00 UTC ]
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