Literature on Lockdown 2: #CultureConnectsUs

As quarantine continues, we’re all noticing that we respond to lockdown differently. While many spend each day providing care, food and other necessities, those of us privileged enough to be 'stuck at home' are seeing our friends’ and family members’ behaviour change under the new conditions: for every extrovert sibling climbing the walls, trying to come up with excuses to go to the supermarket for a change of scenery, there’s the indoor kid sitting cross-legged under the table, drawing a complicated map of a world that exists only in their head. While one bored teenager starts a 4am livestream of his first attempt to make sourdough, another is enjoying her regular sleep pattern, having re-read Anne of Avonlea before bed.Countries, too, are responding differently. New Zealand’s government – having already assured its public that the Easter Bunny is a key worker – are taking a pay cut in solidarity with their workers, while in other countries public figures are donating money towards research, charities are helping out those affected by the virus, and individuals are setting up neighbourhood mutual aid groups or doing a hundred laps of their back garden to raise millions for public health services. Meanwhile, organisations worldwide continue to come up with new, imaginative responses to the lockdown. In this week’s newsletter, the British Council looks to colleagues in Jamaica and Cuba to discover how their arts scenes have kept audiences going through quarantine, while... Continue reading at 'British Council global'

[ British Council global | 2020-04-17 15:42:05 UTC ]

Other news stories related to: "Literature on Lockdown 2: #CultureConnectsUs"


The publishing industry is probably even less diverse than you thought.

Children’s book publisher Lee & Low Books, a minority-owned company that focuses on multicultural literature, recently released the results of a survey geared towards finding out one thing: What do the numbers say about the widely perceived lack of diversity in the publishing world? The... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-01-29 21:40:46 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Publisher Of Controversial ‘American Dirt’ Cancels Author Tour Amid Security Concerns

The latest Oprah's Book Club pick by Jeanine Cummins, a white woman, has been widely criticized for stereotypical depictions of Mexicans and migration. Continue reading at HuffPost

[ HuffPost | 2020-01-29 21:08:32 UTC ]
More news stories like this


On One of the Greatest Children’s Ghost Books Ever Published

First published in 1977,  Usborne’s The World of the Unknown: Ghosts was among the most treasured books (and anecdotally, the most stolen) in school libraries of the late 70s and 80s. Many of my friends—a disproportionate number of whom are writers and artists—remember poring over the pages of... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-01-29 09:48:13 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Paulo Coelho deletes draft of children’s book he was working on with Kobe Bryant.

This is a sad and simple human gesture in the face of death. Within hours of learning Kobe Bryant had died in a helicopter crash, novelist Paulo Coelho—most famous in the US for his 1988 novel The Alchemist—deleted the draft of a children’s book he had been working on with Bryant. As Coelho to... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-01-28 16:12:50 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Graphic novel New Kid wins prestigious Newbery Medal

Jerry Craft’s story exploring ‘friendship, race, class and bullying in a fresh manner’ is the first graphic novel to win the long-running American children’s awardFor the first time, a graphic novel has won the Newbery Medal, the oldest and most prestigious children’s book award in the US. The... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2020-01-28 16:03:46 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Libraries and Authoritarianism 1940, 2020

ON HALLOWEEN 2016, former Fox News anchor Greta Van Susteren tweeted, “Colleges should stop building vanity projects like huge libraries and billing students–full libraries are on our smartphones!” At the time, this statement sounded like garden-variety know-nothingism, ideological in the sense... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books

[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2020-01-28 13:30:27 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Paulo Coelho deletes draft of children's book collaboration with Kobe Bryant

Alchemist author says basketball player’s death in helicopter crash means book has ‘lost its reason’Author Paulo Coelho has deleted the draft of a children’s book he was working on with Kobe Bryant, saying that without the basketball player’s contribution, “this book has lost its reason”.The... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2020-01-28 10:57:21 UTC ]
More news stories like this


SHARJAH FOCUS: Which authors are coming to London Book Fair?

Khulood Al Mu’alla Khulood Al Mu’alla was chosen this year as an honorary member of the Costa Rica Poetry Foundation and advisor to the International Poetry Festival of Costa Rica. She was honoured along with three poets as part of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Poets of... Continue reading at British Council global

[ British Council global | 2020-01-27 10:55:59 UTC ]
More news stories like this


On my radar: Emma Jane Unsworth’s cultural highlights

The novelist on William Blake, crying through Greta Gerwig’s Little Women and an insightful poem about teenage masturbationBorn in Bury, Greater Manchester, in 1978, Emma Jane Unsworth studied English literature at the University of Liverpool and received an MA from Manchester University’s... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2020-01-26 10:00:20 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Roxane Gay Revisits ‘Darkness’ as a Graphic Novel

The author’s latest comic book endeavor adapts a short story, “The Sacrifice of Darkness,” from her 2017 collection “Difficult Women.” Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2020-01-24 18:30:05 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Publishers defend American Dirt as claims of cultural appropriation grow

Jeanine Cummins’s novel, acclaimed by Oprah Winfrey, Stephen King and others, also faces scathing criticism from Latinx writersJeanine Cummins’s British publisher, Headline, is standing shoulder to shoulder with the American press that published her divisive thriller, declaring that it is proud... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2020-01-24 14:53:36 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Considering Zora Neale Hurston and the Legacy of Fiction

This week, Jabari Asim reviews a collection of short stories by Zora Neale Hurston. In 1978, Henry Louis Gates Jr. wrote for the Book Review about Robert Hemenway’s “Zora Neale Hurston: A Literary Biography.” Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2020-01-24 10:00:06 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Storytelling as Healing in Medicine, by Cecilia Simon

Book Reviews Cecilia Simon Photo by Michael Gaida / Pixabay “Health is whatever works and for how long.” This phrase was announced to our literature and medicine class the first week of the fall 2019 semester. Dr. Ronald Schleifer, the instructor, used... Continue reading at World Literature Today

[ World Literature Today | 2020-01-22 16:01:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Oprah Winfrey wades into 'American Dirt' controversy with her book club pick

Oprah Winfrey chose "American Dirt" as her latest book club selection. Author Jeanine Cummins' novel has sparked a backlash for its portrayal of immigrants. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2020-01-21 20:14:23 UTC ]
More news stories like this


A Compassionate Children’s Book From the NPR Host Scott Simon

In “Sunnyside Plaza,” Simon’s funny, observant protagonist solves a mystery. She also has developmental disabilities. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2020-01-21 14:45:40 UTC ]
More news stories like this


On Revamping My Book Club in 2020

Looking back at my book club in 2019, there is much I would like to change to liven up the discussion and the overall meetup in 2020. Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2020-01-12 11:31:10 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Ten libraries facing closure in Hampshire

Ten libraries could be closed across Hampshire with others having their opening hours reduced after the local authority announced plans to slash £1.76m from the service’s budget. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-01-10 01:00:51 UTC ]
More news stories like this


These are 2019’s most-borrowed digital books.

Rakuten OverDrive, a platform for digital books (used by more than 43,000 libraries and schools worldwide), has released a list of its most-borrowed ebooks and audiobooks in 2019. There are no real surprises on the list, besides maybe the fact that so many people want to listen to a woman tell... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-01-08 19:19:19 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Donaldson and Scheffler return to Acorn Wood with four new MCB titles

Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler are returning to the Tales From Acorn Wood preschool series with four new lift-the-flap instalments for Macmillan Children’s Books. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-01-08 07:32:51 UTC ]
More news stories like this


'Queer Eye' star Jonathan Van Ness to publish début picture book with HarperCollins

HarperCollins has scooped the début picture book from “Queer Eye” star Jonathan Van Ness about a gender non-binary guinea pig. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-01-08 06:46:35 UTC ]
More news stories like this