When Tejan Karefa-Smart asked his uncle, James Baldwin, “When are you going to write a book about me?” he may not have expected his Uncle Jimmy to follow through so quickly. Baldwin’s only children’s book, Little Man, Little Man, which was published in 1976, chronicles a day in the life of three black children in 1970s Harlem. Four-year-old TJ, 7-year-old WT, and 8-year-old Blinky skip rope, dance in the streets, and run errands for their neighbors, but they also see the cops shoot a fleeing suspect, neighborhood boys do drugs, and the friendly Miss Lee drink gin out of sadness. “A children’s story for adults, an adult story for children,” Little Man, Little Man’s dust jacket beamed at the time, “that only a great novelist can produce.” And yet, reviewing the book for the New York Times in 1977, Julius Lester panned it as a great novelist’s admirable but ultimately unsuccessful attempt at producing children’s literature, and the book quickly went out of print. Almost four decades later, Little Man, Little Man is being reissued for a contemporary audience that may be more receptive to its ambition not to smooth over the complexity of growing up black in America. Continue reading at 'Slate'
[ Slate | 2018-08-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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My first personal encounter with the rarest book in American literature was memorable, even moving, for many reasons, but its physical appearance wasn’t one of them. If ever a book ought not to be judged by its cover, Edgar Allan Poe’s debut collection, Tamerlane and Other Poems, is that book.... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-06-25 08:56:56 UTC ]
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Dionne Sims, who opened Black Garnet Books in St. Paul, Minn., to sell books by BIPOC authors in response to the 2020 murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, is selling the store to return to school and focus on writing. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-06-20 04:00:00 UTC ]
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I’d bought my copy of James Joyce’s Ulysses at a Barnes and Noble in Manhattan in 1999, the summer before I left for college, along with a stack of other novels that I was convinced my much-smarter classmates would have already read. How I even decided which novels those were, I am still not... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-06-14 08:56:12 UTC ]
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The Best American Series is a literary institution. But just in case you’re stumbling upon it for the first time: Each book in the annual series showcases of best short fiction and nonfiction in a given year, from short stories to essays, science and nature writing, to food writing. Each... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-06-11 14:00:24 UTC ]
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Restaurateur Josh Niland and recipe developer Hetty Lui McKinnon scoop prizes in food publishing awards, which also honoured aid worker Zomi FrankcomGet our weekend culture and lifestyle emailTwo Australian cookbook authors have won prizes in this year’s James Beard Foundation awards, dubbed the... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2024-06-11 07:21:43 UTC ]
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There are times when a writer encounters the work of a contemporary at the ideal time. In my case, this writer was John Kaag and the book was his 2018 philosophical memoir Hiking with Nietzsche: On Becoming Who You Are. I had been studying philosophy in graduate school, but had left to pursue... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-06-07 08:55:26 UTC ]
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An inside look at the publication process for the author’s paranormal reimagining of ‘The Great Gatsby.’ Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-06-07 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Set to take place at the Japan Society on August 22, the eve of this year’s Anime NYC convention, the awards will celebrate the outstanding achievements of professionals in the world of Japanese comics. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-06-03 04:00:00 UTC ]
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The bestselling author’s unflinching crime novels dare to acknowledge the world as a dangerous place for women. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-05-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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As Asian American Pacific Islander Month comes to end, it’s important to remind ourselves that the Asian American identity is more than just race or shared affinity. Born out of political activism and the anti-war movement to protest and rally against injustice, warfare, imperialism, and... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2024-05-30 11:00:00 UTC ]
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If you’re reading Lit Hub, it’s a fair guess that you have fond memories of school reading challenges over summer break, those individual and classroom-wide challenges to log your summer’s reading, show off, and maybe earn a prize in September. I definitely remember logging my books every... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-05-29 14:30:35 UTC ]
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This memoir by a gay Appalachian man is about reckoning with a homophobic family but one full of love, forgiveness, and understanding. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2024-05-24 13:00:00 UTC ]
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Including a best selling book in Korea and a love story like you’ve never read before. Continue reading at HuffPost
[ HuffPost | 2024-05-23 10:45:08 UTC ]
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Paul Scheer's memoir-in-essays, 'Joyful Recollections of Trauma,' centers largely around the abuse he and his mother suffered at the hands of his stepfather. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2024-05-21 10:00:29 UTC ]
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For a Latin American publisher, it’s harder to enter Spain than the United States, one children's book publisher said at Bogotá's book fair. The post Latin American Publishers on Children’s Books, and Markets appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2024-05-20 19:58:13 UTC ]
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More Black Americans are choosing nonbelief as their "religion" and Humanism as their new identification, says Anthony Pinn, author of 'The Black Practice of Disbelief: An Introduction to the Principles, History, and Communities of Black Nonbelievers' (Beacon, May 22). PW caught up with Pinn to... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-05-15 04:00:00 UTC ]
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For The Book Review Podcast’s May book club, we’ll talk about “James,” Percival Everett’s radical reimagining of “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.” Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-05-10 15:51:16 UTC ]
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Matthew Martin, senior v-p and deputy general counsel at Penguin Random House, remembers his late mentor, former Harper general counsel Jim Fox. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-05-10 04:00:00 UTC ]
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As a bona-fide hater of actual reality, virtual reality is very appealing to me. However, I’m not that into 100 hour AAA games like Asgard’s Wrath 2 or Half Life: Alyx. I’m into short interactive experiences that can’t be had anywhere else. Good news for me? The Apple Vision Pro is getting a... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2024-05-08 18:39:58 UTC ]
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Daniel Noboa, the president of Ecuador, might have saved himself a lot of trouble, if he had only read more Latin American literature. Perhaps he would not have ordered the police to storm the Mexican embassy to arrest former Vice President Jorge Glas, who had been granted asylum there. That... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-05-06 08:58:43 UTC ]
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