America’s Public Libraries Reflect the Systematic Failures and Social Inequality of Our Country

Growing up, the library was not just Amanda Oliver’s favorite place but also her “first beloved destination, first embodied center… it was absolutely sacred.” However, soon after Oliver began her career as a librarian at a Title I school and then in the D.C. public library system, she witnessed how systemic racism, income inequality, the […] The post America’s Public Libraries Reflect the Systematic Failures and Social Inequality of Our Country appeared first on Electric Literature. Continue reading at 'Electric Literature'

[ Electric Literature | 2023-01-05 12:00:00 UTC ]

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Library audio and ebook loans in 2021 reveal unexpected stars

Alongside Richard Osman and JK Rowling, figures show huge successes for relative unknowns Ellery Adams and Brenda ChapmanThe UK’s library users are widely seen as a traditional bunch when it comes to choosing their next read, but while Richard Osman might have topped the list of the year’s... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2021-12-08 16:34:37 UTC ]
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Announcing the Winner of Electric Lit’s 2021 Book Cover of the Year Tournament

Last week, the Electric Lit team stayed glued to our phone screens as we tasked our social media followers with anointing the best book cover of 2021. The tournament was full of close calls determined by razor-thin margins (Mona at Sea prevailed over Black Girl Call Home by just five votes in... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2021-12-06 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Help Us Choose the Best Book Cover of 2021

Back by popular demand, Electric Literature is hosting our second annual “Best Book Cover of the Year” tournament, where readers determine which cover designs impressed in 2021. Just as the Italian Renaissance was born of the bubonic plague, will covid’s enduring grasp on society inspire... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2021-11-29 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Here’s The Story Behind Alan Moore’s Epic Graphic Novel That Never Was

It was just a rumor, but a persistent one. Whispers in the halls of the DC Comics offices; buzz among fans as they gathered at annual conventions. That the legendary Alan Moore, writer and creator of From Hell and V for Vendetta, had written another masterpiece, something no one had ever seen.... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2021-11-17 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Inheriting the Legacy of Japanese Imperialism

Take a kaleidoscope, peer inside its lens and turn the dial: the jeweled-mosaic pattern within deforms and reforms anew. Asako Serizawa mirrored her debut short story collection Inheritors after this complex design. Out of chronological sequence, the thirteen short stories locate twelve related... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2021-11-11 12:00:00 UTC ]
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How a public library helped my family cope with the effects of climate change

With the ongoing climate crisis, public libraries are a temporary refuge from extreme temperatures for low-income families like my own, writes Carol Eugene Park. Continue reading at CBC

[ CBC | 2021-11-07 15:00:00 UTC ]
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Which Book Cover Looks Better, the British or American Version?

Over the past few years, there’s been a lot of heated discourse surrounding a trend in book covers in which many new releases opt for variations of the same colorful abstractions: The Blob. Somehow deemed appropriate for everything from dystopian debuts to literary fiction bestsellers, these... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2021-11-05 11:00:00 UTC ]
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A Graphic Novel About 100 Years of Matrilineal Family History, From South China to Singapore

To hear Weng Pixin tell it, Let’s Not Talk Anymore started out as a kind of “fuck you” move after a particularly bad fight with her mom but—as these things tend to go—it gradually transformed into a project to locate herself within the moth-eaten story of her matrilineal line.  Moving back and... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2021-11-04 11:00:00 UTC ]
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Forget Billionaires! The Future Of Literary Magazines Depends On Us

Dear Readers, In what feels like a never ending cycle of disappointing media news, last week we in the literary community were astonished to learn that after two decades The Believer magazine will discontinue publication. (Since 2017, The Believer has been published by the Black Mountain... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2021-10-28 11:05:00 UTC ]
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Which Book Should You Read This Halloween?

This spooky season, we’ve curated a reading list for every type of reader. Craving the adrenaline rush of a horror novel full of jump scares? Looking to be spooked on a journey through the dark, haunted woods? What about a twisted retelling of classic Russian fairytales? Here are the books you... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2021-10-25 11:00:00 UTC ]
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7 Magical Realism Short Stories Haunted By Emotional Ghosts

I think a lot of us believe in ghosts. In fact, many of us are likely haunted by them. I’m talking about emotional ghosts, of course.   My debut short story collection, Those Fantastic Lives: And Other Strange Stories, has a particular fascination with ghosts. In my stories, there are certainly... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2021-10-14 11:00:00 UTC ]
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This Filipino American Memoir Confronts Privilege, Sacrifice, and Colonialism’s Legacy

Like the complex Philippine history the book aims to depict, there is no single sentence that can sum up Albert Samaha’s Concepcion, especially when he renders that history through the lens of his own diasporic family, dating back to his ancestors’ first encounter with Europeans. Though... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2021-10-13 11:00:00 UTC ]
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Seeing My Filipino Immigrant Self in Ellison’s “Invisible Man”

As a Filipino American immigrant, I’ve been aware of my invisibility from the time I set foot in the United States. I perceived it when coworkers looked past me, when store clerks and waiters talked to my white companions instead of me, and when editors and literary agents told me Filipino... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2021-09-28 11:05:21 UTC ]
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The Real Reason Anna Qu Wants You to Pay Attention to Praise

In our series “Can Writing Be Taught?” we partner with Catapult to ask their course instructors all our burning questions about the process of teaching writing. This month we’re featuring Made in China author Anna Qu, who will be leading a year-long Online Memoir Generator for writers of color... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2021-09-28 11:00:00 UTC ]
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7 Flash Fiction Collections You Should Be Reading

Flash fiction has never been hotter. A tectonic shift over the last 20 years in how narrative is conveyed—fueled largely by the online journal’s rise from (mostly) irrelevance to somewhere near the top of the literary fiction food chain—has created the perfect environment for disseminating... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2021-09-20 11:00:00 UTC ]
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Stories That Wrestle With Black Girls’ Coming of Age

The flash fiction literary community is like an extended family. If you are a writer and reader of flash, it is in all likelihood that your inner circle of literary peeps are other flash fiction folks or, you at least, know of one another. Six degrees is more like one or two in this community.... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2021-09-17 11:00:00 UTC ]
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Yiyun Li on Starting a Virtual Book Club During the Pandemic

When I first meet a writer on the page, I pose a simple question: What don’t you ask permission for? In Yiyun Li’s case, the answer is her freedom. Individualism might seem inevitable for a woman who was born in China and whose early work responds to authoritarianism, but—reading Li—one senses... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2021-09-15 11:00:00 UTC ]
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Growing Up in Ireland report reveals impact of library funding’s 2008 scrapping

In 2008, as the global financial crisis peaked and Ireland faced a long period of austerity, the government announced that the primary school library fund would be cut in its entirety. The €2.2m annual investment from the then-Department of Education & Science had been in place for 37 years;... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2021-09-10 10:30:52 UTC ]
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New PLA Survey Illustrates Critical Digital Role Played by Public Libraries

The report, '2020 Public Library Technology Survey,' provides a current, detailed snapshot of how libraries serve as digital equity hubs. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-09-03 04:00:00 UTC ]
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10 New Books Written and Translated by Women

For Women in Translation month, we’ve curated a reading list of novels and short story collections written and translated by women. Exploring everything from gender biases and millennial burnout in the Japanese workplace to a toxic relationship in Iceland, these stories expand our perspectives... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2021-08-25 11:00:00 UTC ]
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