Culture Street mural for Grenfell Tower, with poem by Ben Okri, North Kensington, London, image courtesy of IranWire and #PaintTheChange. London-based writer Malu Halasa canvasses the Middle Eastern and North African culture scene in London, where even in lockdown, there’s still much to experience. London makes travelers think of high tea and empire. For those of us who live here and have a passion for and write about the Middle East, London has emerged, more than New York or Paris, as a capital of Arab and Iranian culture outside the region. London has emerged, more than New York or Paris, as a capital of Arab and Iranian culture outside the region. It was not always like this. In the 1990s, relatively few Middle East–related events took place in London. Yet in the past twenty years that I’ve lived here, London has been transformed. The change started taking place in the 2000s. In part, political events, 9/11, and, ten years later, the 2011 Arab Spring or Awakening, as well as the wars in between and after 2011, prompted writers, journalists, and activists to forgo the usual conversation about winners and losers of regional conflicts. Instead, we began to look to creative expression from these countries and in the diaspora for a different kind of understanding and engagement. It was an approach that continued the conversations many of us were having with the people and voices that came onto the streets and in the squares... Continue reading at 'World Literature Today'
[ World Literature Today | 2021-04-19 19:22:28 UTC ]
You know what they say: April showers bring May books. Here’s today’s brand-new batch coming to (virtual) bookstores near you. Consider this a friendly reminder that it’s never a bad idea to support your local indie. * Samantha Harvey, The Shapeless Unease (Grove Press) “This memoir churns deep... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-05-12 13:45:17 UTC ]
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Readers thought Stephanie Danler's debut novel, "Sweetbitter," was autobiography. The reality, in her memoir "Stray," is far more painfully dramatic. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2020-05-12 13:00:01 UTC ]
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May 2nd, 2020 Happy birthday to us. Little City Books opened May 2nd, 2015, a stunning spring day [click here for an account of that day, on this website]. It was Independent Bookstore Day. It was our city’s annual art and music festival. And it was the Kentucky Derby (I only remember that... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-05-12 08:48:42 UTC ]
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On this episode of Personal Space: The Memoir Show, Sari Botton interviews Maggie Downs, author of the memoir and travelogue, Braver Than You Think: Around the World On the Trip of My (Mother’s) Lifetime about the year she spent traveling around the world, fulfilling many of her mother’s unmet... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-05-11 18:38:48 UTC ]
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“We are only sheltered from tragedy”, he writes in “Inventory”, “by the thin ice that we call time.” Continue reading at The Economist
[ The Economist | 2020-05-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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When Sylvia Beach, the New Jersey native who published Ulysses and opened Paris’ Shakespeare and Co. (“the most famous bookstore in the world”), died in 1962, Princeton University purchased and catalogued her papers. This trove of materials reveals, among other things, the reading preferences of... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-05-08 19:46:30 UTC ]
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On this episode of Sheltering, Maris Kreizman speaks with Mikel Jollett about his memoir, Hollywood Park. Hollywood Park is about Jollett’s experience growing up in a cult, and his escape and fallout from the childhood trauma he experienced. He talks about believing his life was normal as a... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-05-08 19:00:54 UTC ]
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These were the most popular books in libraries to kick off 2020. What have you read? Missed? Want to pick up from your library or bookstore next? Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2020-05-08 10:32:36 UTC ]
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An awesome daily roundup of the most interesting bookish links from around the web! Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2020-05-08 10:30:26 UTC ]
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The author of “Sweetbitter” has written a memoir about the pain she’s suffered from — and caused to — those she’s loved. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2020-05-08 09:00:05 UTC ]
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Independent publisher Hashtag Press will publish Jess Impiazzi's memoir Silver Linings. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-05-07 17:36:02 UTC ]
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IT IS ONLY IN the second half of Ellen O’Connell Whittet’s poignant and exquisite memoir about ballet (and other causes of female pain), What You Become in Flight, that it dawns on the reader — or on this reader, at least — that she’s invoking the word “flight” in two senses: the balletic sense... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books
[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2020-05-07 17:00:08 UTC ]
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“Recollections of My Nonexistence,” a memoir by the feminist icon, is both revealing and not. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2020-05-07 15:00:00 UTC ]
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“We are only sheltered from tragedy”, he writes in “Inventory”, “by the thin ice that we call time.” Continue reading at The Economist
[ The Economist | 2020-05-07 14:55:41 UTC ]
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On April 1st, I sent the final draft of my book, a memoir that revolves around my relationship with my cartoonist grandfather, to my editor. It was also on this day that there were nearly one million confirmed COVID-19 cases worldwide, almost 50,000 deaths, and thousands of overwhelmed... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-05-07 08:48:18 UTC ]
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A reader on how Roxane Gay's memoir HUNGER helped her overcome a fear of writing about her partial paralysis and disability within Black feminism. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2020-05-06 10:39:34 UTC ]
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One of them is that if you’re holding out hope for her to save 2020, it’s not going to happen. “Your life isn’t yours anymore,” says Michelle Obama at the outset of Becoming, the new documentary based on her 2018 memoir of the same name. She makes the poignantly self-aware comment as she... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2020-05-06 06:30:05 UTC ]
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Lookout Books, a teaching press housed at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington, is partnering with indies to provide students and others with virtual bookstore backgrounds to maintain confidentiality during video calls. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-05-06 04:00:00 UTC ]
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DC bookstore mainstay Politics & Prose recently featured Kawai Strong Washburn, author of Sharks in the Time of Saviors, in conversation with Tommy Orange, author of There There. The two discuss virtual book events, appreciating connection more than ever, and the miracle of being transported... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-05-05 20:00:41 UTC ]
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Natalie Wood's daughter, actress Natasha Gregson Wagner, has written a memoir of life with the legend and produced an HBO documentary about her career. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2020-05-05 15:00:49 UTC ]
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