Essay Photo by Miko Guziuk / Unsplash In his newest book, What Is American Literature? (Oxford University Press, 2022), award-winning cultural commentator, translator, and editor Ilan Stavans, the publisher of Restless Books and the Lewis-Sebring Professor of Humanities and Latin American and Latino Culture at Amherst College, rereads an assortment of American literary classics through the prism of the Trump years, from the poems of Phillis Wheatley to Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are. In the primer, written during the presidential election won by Joe Biden—and before the January 6, 2021, sedition instigated by Donald Trump—he also reflects on the role public libraries play in disseminating the nation’s literature, the art of teaching it to new generations of students, and the future of the book as an artifact disseminating knowledge in our graphic-driven age. The volume closes with an epistolary account, in Stavans’s words, of “the Second American Civil War.” What follows is the section on teaching. American literature starts and ends in the classroom. It starts there because whoever is a writer-to-be is likely to discover the magic of literature as an assignment, or else in response to the tedium that comes from feeling disengaged with the educational purpose. And it ends in the classroom because, at a time of precipitous declines in reading habits, books have their largest audiences among students enrolled in... Continue reading at 'World Literature Today'
[ World Literature Today | 2022-02-02 19:59:22 UTC ]
The Street is a groundbreaking work of American literature that is as relevant today as when it was published in 1946. When it won Ann Petry the Houghton Mifflin Prize for Debut Writers, the literary world was put on notice. Everyone agreed that the novel was brilliant, but, as is the case with... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-01-06 09:47:44 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Arts Council England (ACE) could make funding public libraries one of its priorities over the next decade, the organisation’s c.e.o. has said. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-01-03 11:55:05 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Bedbugs in public libraries are becoming routine. Luckily, there are a few things that librarians can do to stop them...starting with preparation. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2019-12-17 11:32:47 UTC ]
More news stories like this
The most unfree souls go west, and shout of freedom. Men are freest when they are unconscious of freedom. The shout is a rattling of chains, always was. — D. H. Lawrence, Studies in Classic American Literature ¤ I. THE ROAD BLINKS IN ahead of Eric Ashby. He’s nodding out, but he recognizes... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books
[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2019-12-11 13:30:31 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Cultural Cross Sections Shohreh Laici Photo of Tehran by Xiquinho Silva / Flickr A writer in Tehran incapable of entering the US under the Muslim travel ban encounters Michelle Obama’s Becoming in a beauty salon. Reading the Farsi translation, she... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2019-11-26 14:55:39 UTC ]
More news stories like this
The Reading Agency has reported 722,731 children took part in public libraries’ Summer Reading Challenge this summer, representing a 2.64% increase on last year’s participation. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-11-22 10:29:12 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Shortly after the stunning US presidential election in 2016, a French journalist with a lifelong love for American literature seized the political moment to give American authors a platform to express themselves in what would become a 200-page magazine called America—in French. Fifteen days... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2019-11-15 09:48:32 UTC ]
More news stories like this
The longlist for the 2020 International DUBLIN Literary Award was announced today, and it is indeed long—156 books long, to be precise. The prize is sponsored by the Dublin City Council, and the longlist is comprised of nominations from public libraries around the world. Last year’s winner,... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2019-11-11 17:21:15 UTC ]
More news stories like this
A librarian explains the decision to draw the line over Macmillan's decision to embargo new release e-books in public libraries. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-11-08 05:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
The summer before my freshman year, a kind family friend gave me a crash course in cultural awakening. She loaded me up with Fuentes, Martí, and Cortázar—all names tethered to any Latin American literature syllabus worth its salt. But it was the works of Gabriel García Márquez that stood out to... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2019-09-20 08:48:41 UTC ]
More news stories like this
After years as an Amazon affiliate, the African American Literature Book Club, an online portal dedicated to black books, literacy and a wide variety of book-related services, is severing most of its commercial ties to the online retailer. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-09-12 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
There is much to be said of importance for literary culture in general and black American literature in particular when we reflect on the life of the late novelist Paule Marshall. I will discuss all this, but I’d like to begin with an anecdote about my only encounter with this grand lady. On... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2019-09-05 08:47:45 UTC ]
More news stories like this
In her creative and critical work, Toni Morrison sought to remap the contours of American literature and culture. Continue reading at The Conversation
[ The Conversation | 2019-08-07 06:00:28 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Toni Morrison, giant of American literature and the first black woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, has passed away. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2019-08-06 14:08:13 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Interviews Matthew Davis Ugandan novelist and short-story writer Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi’s first novel, Kintu, won the Kwani Manuscript Project in 2013 and was longlisted for the Etisalat Prize in 2014. She was awarded the 2014 Commonwealth... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2019-08-06 13:42:31 UTC ]
More news stories like this
All photos courtesy of Hannah Colen. Held in Washington D.C., the Second-Annual Asian American Literature Festival took place this year at multiple locations including the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian Freer|Sackler Galleries, and kicked off at Franklin Park down the street from the Eaton... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2019-08-05 16:16:47 UTC ]
More news stories like this
An investment from the city will help public libraries perform census outreach and provide internet access throughout the city to ensure all New Yorkers are counted in the 2020 Census, the de Blasio... To view the full story, click the title link. Continue reading at Crains New York
[ Crains New York | 2019-08-01 19:48:34 UTC ]
More news stories like this
A new data viz surfaces the forgotten literature of public libraries. There’s no feeling more deflating than asking someone what they’re reading, only to have never heard of any of the three books they readily rattle off. But what if that academic smugness could be yours? What if you were the... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2019-07-15 10:20:19 UTC ]
More news stories like this
A coalition of some 44 public libraries across Washington state is organizing a six-month boycott of Blackstone Publishing's digital audiobooks after the publisher announced last month that it would withhold new release audio titles from libraries for 90 days. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-07-12 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
As an American-born literature scholar and writer who became a permanent resident of Canada last year, I’ve spent a lot of time recently wondering how to differentiate between American literature and Canadian literature. Growing up in the 1980s, I saw these two nations as not just contiguous but... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2019-07-10 11:00:48 UTC ]
More news stories like this