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 ]
My first personal encounter with the rarest book in American literature was memorable, even moving, for many reasons, but its physical appearance wasn’t one of them. If ever a book ought not to be judged by its cover, Edgar Allan Poe’s debut collection, Tamerlane and Other Poems, is that book.... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-06-25 08:56:56 UTC ]
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Announcing Publication of the RESISTIR Latin America Online Poetry Anthology, by The Editors of WLT News and Events [email protected] Tue, 06/18/2024 - 14:20 On November 18, 2023, World Literature Today and Latin American Literature Today... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2024-06-18 19:20:43 UTC ]
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At least two books in Escambia County Public Libraries were relocated following complaints by the same person behind book bans at Escambia Schools. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2024-06-17 17:35:58 UTC ]
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Brave Books is bringing its right-wing See You at the Library Storytime events to public libraries again in August. Now is the time to prepare. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2024-06-10 15:54:09 UTC ]
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The events will showcase writers and speakers from countries in Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa to UK audiences, and feature up-and-coming UK writers selected as part of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists 2023 list.This specially selected event series brings together our work with the... Continue reading at British Council global
[ British Council global | 2024-05-24 10:51:02 UTC ]
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Among the week's headlines: ALA reports that library advocates stepped up for federal library funding; Alabama passes new rules for public libraries; and librarians in Montana pulled off an ice cold protest against the state library commission. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-05-17 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Daniel Noboa, the president of Ecuador, might have saved himself a lot of trouble, if he had only read more Latin American literature. Perhaps he would not have ordered the police to storm the Mexican embassy to arrest former Vice President Jorge Glas, who had been granted asylum there. That... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-05-06 08:58:43 UTC ]
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One of the great embarrassments of New York, the richest city in America, is how money can’t be found to keep public libraries open every single day.It is, truly, a matter of priorities. Other far-reaching, progressive policy proposals can come with enormous upfront costs — municipal or... Continue reading at Crains New York
[ Crains New York | 2024-04-29 15:50:14 UTC ]
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The methods of destabilizing and dismantling public libraries may not look like how you think they would. Here's how it's happening right now. That, plus this week's book censorship news. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2024-03-29 11:30:00 UTC ]
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The Liturgy and Anxiety of Ordinary Lives: In Conversation with Rigoberto González, by Darlington Chibueze Anuonye Interviews [email protected] Tue, 03/26/2024 - 08:23 Rigoberto González / Photo by Mahsa HojjatiRecently, I scheduled a zoom call... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2024-03-26 13:23:19 UTC ]
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“At a time when books are being banned in schools and public libraries in unprecedented numbers, it’s alarming how writers have been reproached simply for signing letters that call for peace.” Maris Kreizman on the Jewish Book Council’s new initiative. | Lit Hub Politics The best book covers in... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-02-29 11:30:17 UTC ]
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The “Netflix model” of leasing e-books to public libraries is expensive, full of limitations, and potentially a boon for censorship, librarians say. It’s a growing business model that shifts power to publishers and makes access harder for patrons. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2024-02-22 16:28:54 UTC ]
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This was a regular feature of my childhood, though it feels so long ago and far away, conceptually as well as literally, that I nearly forgot it ever happened: I’d go into town to the mall with my mom, and she’d drop me at the doors of the Borders or Barnes and Noble while she […] Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-02-19 09:55:59 UTC ]
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The Los Angeles Public Library has become one of the few public libraries in this country with its own press. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2024-01-17 17:54:25 UTC ]
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Public libraries need to prepare for what's happening at school libraries to happen to them. That, plus this week's book censorship news. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2024-01-12 11:40:00 UTC ]
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Minnesota public libraries have had a wave of bomb threats called in over the last week, closing institutions early & increasing fear. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2024-01-11 14:27:23 UTC ]
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“I took refuge in the public libraries early and began a life-long love affair with them, one which has sustained me ever since.” Stephen McCauley’s love letter to the places that made him a writer. | Lit Hub Hisham Matar, Aube Rey Lescure, Nathaniel Stein and more take the Lit Hub... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-01-09 11:30:07 UTC ]
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Surveying the data reported from 19 public libraries across the country, here are the top 10 most popular books in 2023. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2023-12-21 14:40:59 UTC ]
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American readers have largely forgotten the single greatest writer to come from the Latin American Boom: Chilean novelist José Donoso. The post José Donoso Saw the Future of Latin American Literature appeared first on The Millions. Continue reading at The Millions
[ The Millions | 2023-11-21 12:00:00 UTC ]
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