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 publisher-dominated Interactive Advertising Bureau has long relegated ad-tech companies to second tier, "associate" membership. But that era is now over. Today, the industry group announced a restructuring which will grant ad-tech companies full general membership, allowing them to vote on... Continue reading at Advertising Age
[ Advertising Age | 2014-09-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A new report from the Pew Research Center Internet Project offers mixed news for public libraries. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-09-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Established in memory of Nobel Prize-winning author Saul Bellow, the $25,000 award is presented biannually to a living American author whose "scale of achievement in fiction, over a sustained career, places him or her in the highest rank of American literature." Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-09-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Read with caution: in September, a number of libraries will invite patrons to read comics and graphic novels that have been challenged or banned in schools and public libraries in recent years. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-08-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Voices for the Library is marking the 50th anniversary of the Public Libraries and Museums Act by... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-07-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Public libraries have an economic impact on their communities that far exceeds their "... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-06-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Ingram announced that it has added content from Hachette Book Group, O'Reilly Media and Kensington Publishing to MyiLibrary, its ebook platform for academic and public libraries. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-05-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Smashwords, an ebook self-publishing platform, and digital library vendor OverDrive have reached an agreement to distribute 200,000 ebooks via the OverDrive global network of public libraries. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-05-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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While many public libraries in the U.S. have been serving Spanish-speaking patrons for years, in some parts of the country libraries are just beginning to engage this part of the community. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-04-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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For me, the Public Library Association (PLA) Conference—held every two years—is the single most important event for gauging where public libraries are headed. And this month’s event, held in Indianapolis, Ind. (March 11-15), didn’t disappoint. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-03-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Calling it “the first of its kind” Pew officials said the report, “sheds light on broader issues around the relationship between technology, libraries, and information resources in the U.S.” Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-03-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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It wasn't too long ago that print was considered the center of the wheel from which all other product platforms sprang out of. That's still the case for most traditional publishers, but the newer product platforms are where all the action is now. Continue reading at Folio Magazine
[ Folio Magazine | 2014-03-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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More than 100 copies of Anne Frank's Diary of a Young Girl have been vandalised in public libraries in Japan's capital Tokyo, library officials say. Continue reading at BBC News
[ BBC News | 2014-02-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Literary agent David Godwin predicts that small publishers in India will soon be forced aside by monolithic publishing houses run overseas. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2014-01-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The unnamed protagonist in Jack London's 'To Build a Fire' gets into trouble while hiking in the frozen Yukon with his dog. Widely considered to be London’s best short story, 'To Build a Fire' captures the cold with painful accuracy. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2014-01-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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In October, we gave what was scheduled to be a one-hour presentation to a group of public librarians and library directors on collaboration between school and public libraries. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2013-11-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Writer and broadcaster Clive James is nominated in this year's Costa Book Awards for his translation of Dante's epic poem The Divine Comedy. Continue reading at BBC News
[ BBC News | 2013-11-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Thanks to Sherman Alexie's forgetfulness, writers across the U.S. will volunteer at their local bookstore Saturday for the inaugural Indies First day.Not long ago the writer Sherman Alexie missed one of his readings, standing up fans at the Queen Anne Book Company, a store in Seattle. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2013-11-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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"City of Night" was not the first overtly gay-themed book but it may be the most unapologetic, a searing screed of life on the edge.I spent part of Wednesday afternoon at UCLA, on a panel to celebrate the 50th anniversary of John Rechy’s novel “City of Night,” newly reissued to commemorate the... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2013-10-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Novelist Scott Turow's 'Identical' is a compulsively readable crime story about brothers, feuding families and a long-ago murder.Over the course of nine novels, Scott Turow's Kindle County has become one the best-known settings in American literature. While fictional locations are not uncommon... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2013-10-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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