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 ]
Chicago’s only Black woman-owned bookstore opened in the summer of 2019. Over the past two years, Semicolon has served as a vital and vibrant cultural hub and gallery space. Last summer, as the coronavirus began to tear through our country and small businesses had to close their doors, Semicolon... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-02-12 16:25:48 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Michael Patrick F. Smith’s “The Good Hand” is a memoir about grinding work in the last days of the Bakken oil boom. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-02-12 10:00:02 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Notes on Grief will recount the life of ‘a remarkable man of kindness and charm’ and the author’s struggle to absorb his loss during lockdown last yearChimamanda Ngozi Adichie has written a memoir about the sudden death of her father in lockdown last year. Notes on Grief, by the Orange... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2021-02-11 14:18:53 UTC ]
More news stories like this
TOVE DITLEVSEN’S first novel, A Child was Harmed, was sent back from the publisher with the accusation that she had “been reading too much Freud.” But Ditlevsen says she didn’t know who Freud was, a declaration that, 200-plus pages into her three-part memoir — a clear-eyed exploration of the... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books
[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2021-02-10 13:30:35 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Patricia Lockwood followed up on her memoir “Priestdaddy” with “No One Is Talking About This,” a novel that explores the chaotic feel of the internet and the pain of personal loss. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-02-10 10:00:17 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Clara Villarosa, the founder of two iconic bookstores, the Hue-Man Experience in Denver and the Hue-Man Experience Bookstore & Cafe in New York City, will curate BIPOC books for the Tattered Cover Bookstore. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-02-10 05:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Beloved Mexican-American actor and restauranteur Danny Trejo’s first memoir, Trejo: My Life of Crime, Redemption, and Hollywood—which details Trejo’s path from drug addiction and incarceration in some of America’s most notorious prisons (including San Quentin, Folsom, and Soledad), to unexpected... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-02-09 21:03:44 UTC ]
More news stories like this
An excerpt from “Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted,” by Suleika Jaouad Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-02-09 16:17:10 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Is there anything better than (safe, socially distanced, double masked, sanitized) browsing at your local indie? I was having the crumbiest day the other day, and I passed by my local bookstore (the Greenlight on Flatbush, if you know it) as I was running errands. Well, I couldn’t not go in.... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-02-09 13:30:25 UTC ]
More news stories like this
A list of nonfiction Black history books you can read this month to learn more about the history of racism and being Black in the U.S., including Men We Reaped: A Memoir by Jesmyn Ward. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2021-02-09 11:31:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
In his new memoir, “Gay Bar,” Jeremy Atherton Lin documents his personal history and the history of queer identity by exploring gay bars around the world. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-02-09 10:00:09 UTC ]
More news stories like this
In her new memoir coming out Tuesday, actress Priyanka Chopra Jonas recalls the pressure she felt to conform to the film industry's beauty standards. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2021-02-08 23:44:01 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Yesterday’s slate of Super Bowl commercials can be divided into two heavily-overlapping camps: cringey pop-culture nostalgia garbage fronted by stars you hoped were better than that, and expensive “unify the divided country through capitalism” garbage fronted by stars you hoped were better than... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-02-08 16:56:30 UTC ]
More news stories like this
In a memoir about family and identity, Danielle Geller uses her archival skills to create a portrait of her absent mother. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2021-02-05 15:52:48 UTC ]
More news stories like this
In a memoir about family and identity, Danielle Geller uses her archival skills to create a portrait of her absent mother. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2021-02-05 15:52:48 UTC ]
More news stories like this
“I needed help because I was the one who carried the psychic burden of our home, its physical state, all the time.” Laura Cronk considers ghosts and the gendered work of cleaning house. | Lit Hub Memoir Russell Shorto on realizing that his grandfather was a small-town mobster and (reluctantly)... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-02-05 11:30:52 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Nick and Charlie, the lead characters in graphic novel series Heartstopper, first appeared in Alice Oseman’s début Young Adult novel Solitaire. The pair were fairly minor characters, but almost as soon as she finished writing the book, she knew she wanted to expand on their story. “They have... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-02-05 10:51:49 UTC ]
More news stories like this
At Philadelphia’s Uncle Bobbie’s Coffee & Books, bookstore manager Evisa Gallman sees a long future for herself in bookselling. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-02-05 05:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
President Biden’s oldest surviving child is publishing a memoir about his struggles with addiction and drug abuse. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-02-04 18:54:06 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Son of US president, and ongoing target for conservatives, will release Beautiful Things in AprilHunter Biden, son of President Joe Biden and an ongoing target for Republican supporters, has announced that his memoir, Beautiful Things, will be published in April. Related: Joe, Jill and the... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2021-02-04 16:59:48 UTC ]
More news stories like this