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 ]
We seek inspiration, consolation – and the unvarnished truth. And we know that all the best stories are trueCaroline Knox is director of the Boswell book festivalMy love affair with biography began aged nine, when my subscription book club sent me a compendium of “true life” adventure stories.... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-05-09 08:00:15 UTC ]
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Author says paparazzi and reporters began to follow him in his car and snoop around his homePrince Harry’s ghostwriter has said he bonded with his subject over the “callousness” of paparazzi and media after the “frenzied mob” around the book Spare led to photographers and journalists invading... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-05-09 03:35:56 UTC ]
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The Internet is abuzz over a forthcoming nonfiction book, a 544-page memoir (including 40 full-color photographs) slated to be published by Flatiron on July 9th. Why? Because The Internet thinks it was probably written by Taylor Swift. It all started when the owner of indie bookshop Good... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-05-08 16:47:07 UTC ]
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A 57-year-old “self-styled poet” (aren’t they all?) has spent $116,000 of his own money to build a bookstore in a mountaintop village. Oh, and it’s shaped like the number 7 and contains 7,000 books. No, this is not a parable. As Jiang Libo told the South China Morning Post: Before my bookshop... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-05-08 15:04:22 UTC ]
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Forty years ago, my not-yet-gentrified neighborhood in Brooklyn had one bookstore, Mostly Books. When the owner retired, it became a video store (RIP Cousins). Then it was derelict, then it was councilman’s office, and now it’s (obviously) a real estate office. But in all those years, a... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-05-08 15:00:19 UTC ]
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Check out what all the online book clubs are reading in May, from dystopian fiction to historical fiction set in old Hollywood. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2023-05-08 10:36:00 UTC ]
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Tasha Jun's memoir shares how she came to reconcile her complex heritage Korean and American heritage and her Christian faith. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-05-08 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Comics artist and novelist MariNaomi tackles a puzzle in the memoir 'I Thought You Loved Me': Why did a best friend dump them? Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2023-05-05 13:00:54 UTC ]
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“Too distasteful, too sordid, and too shameful.” Pauline Harmange on why she needed to write about her abortion. | Lit Hub Memoir Janet Steen on mourning the end of her brother’s story. | Lit Hub Elissa Suh reviews the forlorn, faithful new adaptation of Paolo Cognetti’s award-winning novel The... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-05-05 10:30:33 UTC ]
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The owner and operator of the Mysterious Bookshop in Lower Manhattan, the oldest bookstore in the U.S. specializing in mysteries and thrillers, said his duties running Mysterious Press don’t leave him with enough time to interact with customers. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-05-05 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Respect and support to Wasilla, Alaska’s Black Birch Books, who’re getting a lot of online flack for announcing a drag story time in June. But despite a slew of negative, and sometimes threatening, comments and reviews, Black Birch owner Taylor Jordan is going on with the show. As she told... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-05-04 15:21:17 UTC ]
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Not long after its drag queen story hours attracted protests, Riverside's Cellar Door Bookstore got evicted. But at this oasis of inclusion, the show will go on Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2023-05-04 13:00:17 UTC ]
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Your library and bookstore hauls will be looking good in these new bookish tote bags. - Kelly Jensen Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2023-05-01 10:31:00 UTC ]
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Detention of publisher Li Yanhe in China for ‘endangering national security’ has sent chills through island’s literary communityIn a bookstore near one of Taipei’s leading universities, Zeng Da-fu and his wife work quietly into the evening. Zeng has run this store for decades, tucked in a... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-04-29 02:00:23 UTC ]
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“I have only the vaguest understanding of what TikTok is,” Patchett insists. And yet she and her bookstore, Parnassus Books, have become microcelebrities on the app thanks to the shop's savvy marketing manager, Sarah Arnold. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-04-28 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Microsoft is taking its superb AI art / visual designer tool, Microsoft Designer, and opening it up to the general public today. The company is also publicizing its intelligent features: AI-generated captions and hashtags, new image formatting for social media, and AI-powered editing... Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2023-04-27 17:06:28 UTC ]
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“I adopted Fuck This Shit as my motto during the Trump administration and find it applies to something new every day.” Abigail Thomas on getting a (superb) tattoo at 80. | Lit Hub Memoir McKayla Coyle recommends sapphic reads for every occasion (like if “you’re a sad girl, or a hot girl, or a... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-04-27 10:30:50 UTC ]
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“I learned at a very early age that I wouldn’t be getting from my mother what most kids get from their mothers.” Lucinda William recalls the turbulence of growing up with a sick mother. | Lit Hub Memoir Diksa Bashu on learning to cook as an adult—and how returning to her grandmother’s Delhi... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-04-26 10:30:07 UTC ]
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Despite some slowdown, manga is still leading graphic novel sales in North America. But that success hasn’t necessarily trickled down to the professionals who help bring manga to market: translators, letterers, and editors, including many freelancers. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-04-26 04:00:00 UTC ]
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If its true that William took a payoff from Murdoch and the royals struck a peace deal, they seem willing to surrender reputations cheaplyPrince Harry has long alleged that the royal family – “the Institution”, as he calls it – is locked in a trap of appeasement with the tabloid media. In their... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-04-25 16:54:24 UTC ]
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