Cultural Cross Sections Alizah Holstein I stepped out of Keflavík airport at 4:30 a.m. Far off in the dimly lit parking lot was the bus to Reykjavík—parked, empty, still off-duty. Winds buffeted me from above, the cold air curling its way up my wrists and down my neck. The landscape around me was shrouded in night. I could see nothing but desolate airport roads unfurling like tendrils out into the void. I made my way to the unlit bus, pulled my jacket tighter around me, and waited. I had come to Reykjavík for a new beginning. This September day marked the official start of my master’s program in creative writing and literary translation—Vermont College of Fine Arts’ new “International MFA”—a program dedicated to literature with a global perspective. And Iceland, a nation with one of the world’s deepest and most abiding literary traditions, would be the site of our first weeklong residency. But really, what on earth I was doing? I already had a PhD in medieval Italian history, a degree that had gifted me many things—Italian, Rome, lifelong friends, a life of the mind—but not, alas, a tenure-track job. After deciding not to accept adjunct positions, I left academia to try entrepreneurship. I had sewn a fleece vest for my infant son that other parents had wanted. Before long, I had a business designing and manufacturing outerwear. As an entrepreneur, I was inspired by all there was to discover. If the past is a foreign country to... Continue reading at 'World Literature Today'
[ World Literature Today | 2019-12-03 17:31:19 UTC ]
On February 2, 1922, Sylvia Beach, through her legendary bookstore and occasional imprint Shakespeare and Company, published the entirety of James Joyce’s modernist novel, Ulysses. (It was also Joyce’s 40th birthday.) Two years later, she sought to have at least some of it recorded in Joyce’s... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-02-02 15:29:36 UTC ]
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Some fun news (thank goodness!): China’s first 3D-printed bookstore has just been built in Shanghai and is scheduled to open to the public at the end of January. With a floor area of thirty square meters, it can accommodate fifteen readers at a time. The bookstore is in Wisdom Bay Innovation... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-01-28 16:35:33 UTC ]
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Given that we’re all justifiably afraid about the breath of others right now, it’s a weird time to be dating. While the warmer months at least offered the possibility of outdoor meetings, now it’s winter and, like all other things, dating has become an exercise in futility and endless Zoom... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-01-28 15:42:07 UTC ]
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More than twenty years ago, walking into a foreign bookstore in Tokyo, the first thing I noted was a slightly musty yet soothing scent. It came from the paper used for these books and magazines, which had been shipped from overseas—the paper either thicker or thinner, and certainly rougher, than... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-01-27 09:48:22 UTC ]
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How one bookseller found herself idiotsplaining a certain bookstore bathroom predicament to the legendary musician Lou Reed. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2021-01-25 11:34:00 UTC ]
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Before I spotted Princess: A True Story of Life Behind the Veil in Saudi Arabia on the shelves of a Borders bookstore near my Pennsylvania college, I had never seen a book about a Saudi woman before. Princess, according to its book jacket, which featured a fully veiled woman in high heels, was... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-01-25 09:48:19 UTC ]
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It’s rare to see Raven Leilani’s Luster next to Doctor De Soto, William Steig’s children’s book about a mouse that performs dental surgery—but this is par for the course at Oh Hello Again, Seattle’s newest bookshop. Oh Hello Again, rather than shelving books by genre and author, categorizes... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-01-22 16:19:24 UTC ]
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Notorious fake journalist and target of deadly vegan milkshakes Andy Ngo has a new book coming out called “something something Antifa is under your bed” or some shit; after a small protest yesterday at Powell’s Bookstore in Portland, Oregon (where Ngo is from), the store—which is one of the... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-01-12 15:29:06 UTC ]
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If there is any American institution that connects the threads of literacy, learning, and community welfare, it is the local public library. But without access to healthy food and safe housing, writes PW columnist Sari Feldman, no community can fully thrive, a fact driven home during this... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-01-08 05:00:00 UTC ]
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WHEN I WAS growing up in San Francisco in the 1960s and ’70s, I read every baseball book on the shelves of the libraries of my grammar school, junior high, and high school and the local branches of the public library. I absorbed them the way a nine-year-old immigrant might take in a new... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books
[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2020-12-27 13:30:28 UTC ]
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The Jagriti Publishing House and its bookstore are Razia Rahman Joly's memorial to her slain husband, publisher Faisal Arefin Dipan. The post AAP’s 2020 Freedom to Publish Award: Bangladesh’s Jagriti Publishing House appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2020-12-17 19:19:51 UTC ]
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When I was young my parents enrolled me in a speed-reading course, which was held in what felt like the basement of a used bookstore on a former main street in a town just west of Kansas City. The post A Year in Reading: Farooq Ahmed appeared first on The Millions. Continue reading at The Millions
[ The Millions | 2020-12-16 16:00:11 UTC ]
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Independent Denver bookstore BookBar has launched its new publishing division, BookBar Press, with the publication of an anthology of micro-plays written by area playwrights. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-12-15 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Denver's iconic Tattered Cover Bookstore, which has been owned by Len Vlahos and Kristen Gilligan since 2015, has been sold to two entrepreneurs and Denver natives, Kwame Spearman and David Back. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-12-09 05:00:00 UTC ]
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My local bookstore is long, narrow, and outlined in wooden bookshelves. It’s wedged in an old Victorian building that sits across from the Salish Sea, where orcas, seals, and otters are frequently sighted. It smells like paper and salt water, and holds some 3,000 titles that reveal to tourists... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-12-07 09:49:19 UTC ]
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YES! The volunteer-run, collectively owned radical bookstore and activist center Bluestockings is reopening in a new location after shutting down over the summer and fall. In July, Bluestockings announced they were shutting down their original location at 172 Allen Street for both pandemic and... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-12-03 16:23:15 UTC ]
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In the mood for a little holiday shopping? You know what they say: November is the new December! Who says that? Independent bookstores that need your support now! So here are a dozen new books hitting shelves today. Go forth! * Ernest Cline, Ready Player Two (Ballantine) “This sequel, nine years... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-11-24 12:39:52 UTC ]
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We’ve got a star-studded stack of new books today, folks! To name a few: President Barack Obama’s memoir, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend creator and star Rachel Bloom’s musings, Julia Child’s culinary wisdom, and Steve Martin’s cartoon pigeons (???). You can get them all at your local bookstore today! *... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-11-17 15:30:14 UTC ]
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Oprah Winfrey's interview with Barack Obama premieres on Apple TV+ on Tuesday morning, just as copies of the hotly anticipated former president's memoir lands on bookstore shelves around the world. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-11-16 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Yesterday, as senior Republican officials continued to indulge President-unelect Trump’s election fantasies, his claims of widespread voter fraud continued to be baseless, and reporters continued to point that out. Republicans in various states have made mountains out of procedural molehills and... Continue reading at Columbia Journalism Review
[ Columbia Journalism Review | 2020-11-11 13:19:27 UTC ]
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