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 ]
This morning, both the Chief Librarian of the Brooklyn Public Library and the President of the New York Public Library released statements announcing that they would be cancelling public library programs for the rest of March, in an effort to limit the spread of COVID-19 and encourage social... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-03-12 16:51:47 UTC ]
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Minnesota House Republicans threaten to slash funding to public libraries hosting Drag Queen Story Time. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2020-03-12 10:43:18 UTC ]
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The bills propose to give elected parental review boards the power to decide which “age-appropriate" materials can be accessible to minors within a public library, with librarians who don’t comply with the board’s decisions subject to prison time. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-02-28 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Simon & Schuster (S&S) has struck a new partnership with public libraries in the UK Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-02-16 17:38:06 UTC ]
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Cultural Cross Sections Alice-Catherine Carls Pachamama / Pichincha / Photo by Scipio Rocío Durán-Barba / Photo by Stephen Carls Rocío Durán-Barba is one of the most important voices of Latin American literature today. The author of more than fifty... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2020-02-13 15:00:14 UTC ]
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Jerry Craft’s story exploring ‘friendship, race, class and bullying in a fresh manner’ is the first graphic novel to win the long-running American children’s awardFor the first time, a graphic novel has won the Newbery Medal, the oldest and most prestigious children’s book award in the US. The... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2020-01-28 16:03:46 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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Public Libraries around the world generated a record level of digital content circulation in 2019, providing patrons access to more than 326 million e-books, audiobooks and digital magazines, according to a report by Rakuten OverDrive, a digital distribution vendor for libraries. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-01-09 05:00:00 UTC ]
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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 ]
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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 ]
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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 ]
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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 ]
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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 ]
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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 ]
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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 ]
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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 ]
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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 ]
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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 ]
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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 ]
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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 ]
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