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 ]
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 ]
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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 ]
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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 ]
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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 ]
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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 ]
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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 ]
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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 ]
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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 ]
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S&S officials confirmed that as of August 1, public libraries will be able to license S&S e-books for two-year terms, on a one copy/one user model, with most “new release” e-books priced between $38.99 and $52.99. Previously, S&S e-books were sold on one-year licenses, though at a... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-07-01 04:00:00 UTC ]
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The libraries cited unsustainable costs in ending the service. Cinephiles took to social media with their reactions. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2019-06-24 23:21:19 UTC ]
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If you want to get Susan Orlean riled up, just ask her about the economist who suggested the government could eliminate public libraries and "save taxpayers lots of money" now that we have Amazon for books and Starbucks as a gathering place. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2019-06-20 10:00:09 UTC ]
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If you want to get Susan Orlean riled up, just ask her about the economist who suggested the government could eliminate public libraries and “save taxpayers lots of money” now that we have Amazon for books and Starbucks as a gathering place. This modest proposal was published on Forbes.com... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2019-06-20 10:00:00 UTC ]
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The story of Mary Acworth Evershed, who made surprising discoveries about “The Divine Comedy.” Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2019-05-24 13:08:14 UTC ]
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The MIT Press will sponsor the American Literature and Culture program at the 2019 Oxford Literary Festival, marking the first time a university press sponsor has partnered with the festival in this way. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-03-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Retailer insists Authors Guild report that criticised the online giant for contributing to tumbling writers’ incomes used flawed figures, but Guild stands by findingsAmazon has called the conclusions of a recent report into US author earnings flawed, after the Authors Guild suggested that the... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2019-01-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Authors Guild survey finds writers’ incomes have fallen dramatically in five years – with literary novelists worst-hitA major survey of American authors has uncovered a crash in author earnings described as “a crisis of epic proportions” – particularly for full-time literary writers, who are “on... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2019-01-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Library Campaign (TLC) is appealing to Arts Council England (ACE) for funding and support in recognition that public libraries are “the bedrock of the nation’s entire culture strategy”. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-01-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Stan Lee's impact on popular culture spurred a billion dollar superhero industry, but the comic supremo's contribution to American literature during a period of intense social change was just as rich. Continue reading at Stuff
[ Stuff | 2018-11-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Here we are in the third year of our September weigh in, and to probably nobody’s surprise, the news is not good. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this feature, we began weighing and measuring some of the top fashion magazines to see how they stack up (literally and figuratively) against... Continue reading at Folio Magazine
[ Folio Magazine | 2018-08-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Public libraries should be replaced by Amazon stories, argued Panos Mourdoukoutas in an article published on Forbes’ website Saturday. "At the core, Amazon has provided something better than a local library without the tax fees," wrote Mourdoukoutas, an economics professor at Long Island... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2018-07-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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