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 ]
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Tributes have been paid to bestselling novelist Clive Cussler who has died, aged 88. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-02-26 20:16:36 UTC ]
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If you haven’t had a chance yet to read Kiley Reid’s smash-hit debut novel SUCH A FUN AGE, now is ... Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2020-02-25 18:15:40 UTC ]
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Each of the American author’s 56 novels was a bestseller and her fiction was extolled by writers from Scott Turow to David Foster WallaceMary Higgins Clark, the “Queen of Suspense” who topped charts with each of her 56 novels, has died at the age of 92.Simon & Schuster president Carolyn... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2020-02-03 11:54:59 UTC ]
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A proposed law in Missouri would fine, and possibly jail, librarians who provide books to children that a parental board deemed inappropriate, a policy so extreme that it has attracted national attention. House Bill 2044, or “the Parental Oversight of Public Libraries Act,” introduced by... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-01-16 16:35:23 UTC ]
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Philosopher and author Sir Roger Scruton has died at the age of 75 following a battle with cancer. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-01-13 01:40:53 UTC ]
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Kiley Reid’s debut novel is a funny, fast-paced, empathetic examination of privilege in America. Continue reading at The Atlantic
[ The Atlantic | 2020-01-08 13:00:00 UTC ]
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Charles Sprawson, author of celebrated swimming memoir Haunts of the Black Masseur (Vintage), has died. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-01-08 07:22:55 UTC ]
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Aging Media Network, the Chicago-based B2B media company specializing in the business of senior care, is kicking off 2020 with the launch of an additional online publication, Behavioral Health Business (BHB), serving the mental health and substance abuse treatment industry, the company... Continue reading at Folio Magazine
[ Folio Magazine | 2020-01-07 19:09:22 UTC ]
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French publisher Gallimard has announced that it will stop marketing the personal diaries of author Gabriel Matzneff, and recall the latest volume L’Amante de l’Arsenal, published in November. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-01-07 15:44:12 UTC ]
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Elizabeth Wurtzel, author of bestseller Prozac Nation (Quartet), has died at the age of 52. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-01-07 14:09:30 UTC ]
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In her debut novel, Reid weaves together the story of a babysitter experiencing a quarter-life crisis and the tale of her privileged employer. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2020-01-07 00:07:56 UTC ]
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Penguin Random House has confirmed the death of Sonny Mehta, editor in chief of Knopf and chairman of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Mehta died yesterday (30th December) in Manhattan at the age of 77, from complications from pneumonia. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-12-30 16:18:01 UTC ]
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Writer and artist Alasdair Gray has died aged 85 with the trade paying tribute to the "cultural trailblazer" and his "forward-looking vision". Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-12-29 14:08:36 UTC ]
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US romance novelist Johanna Lindsey has passed away at the age of 67, it has been announced. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-12-23 19:54:52 UTC ]
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Author and You Magazine books editor Kate Figes has died from cancer at the age of 62. Figes wrote two novels and six works of non-fiction, including 2018’s On Smaller Dogs and Larger Life Questions (Virago) which dealt with subjects including the diagnosis that her breast cancer had metastasised. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-12-10 01:54:33 UTC ]
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The former Obama official recounts warring parents, policy wins and Washington gossip in her memoir. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2019-12-06 22:13:50 UTC ]
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Celebrity chef and prolific cookery author Gary Rhodes has died at the age of 59. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-11-27 10:40:32 UTC ]
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He may have created the biggest hit on Broadway, but the ‘Hamilton’ auteur still thinks small in a lot of ways, especially when it comes to business. Along with being the creator of a little show called Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda is also known for his enthusiastic social media... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2019-11-08 17:15:09 UTC ]
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The "extraordinarily talented" former Collins chairman and c.e.o. Ian Chapman has died, aged 94. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-11-08 14:43:47 UTC ]
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In which Jeff Kinney oversees dumpster divers, sledgehammer trivia, and a very surprising dance-off! Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-11-06 13:00:42 UTC ]
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