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Books I Wish I’d Read as an LGBTQ Teenager
When I was young, the only literature I could find about lesbians was either deeply tragic or short on character and long on formulaic, anatomically incorrect sex scenes (I’m looking at you, Xena...
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5 Beach Reads for the Dog Days of August
Among the bookish, August has a poor reputation as a month, like December, with few strong releases. Listen, even publishers deserve a vacation. (One hopes their L.L. Bean boat-and-tote bags are...
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Five Books Making News This Week: Floods, Ponds, and Grief
Phillip Glass wins the Chicago Tribune Literary Award for his memoir Words Without Music. Heartland Prizes go to Jane Smiley for Golden Age (fiction) and Margo Jefferson for Negroland (nonfiction)....
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Jacqueline Woodson on Brooklyn and the Brilliance of Black Girls
Jacqueline Woodson is justly beloved for her many YA novels, but particularly for Brown Girl Dreaming, which—though universal in its appeal to a wide audience—has been hugely important for young...
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A Book Doesn’t Have to Be Long to Win an Award
The National Book Award for fiction is one of the highest honors a writer can receive. Like most of the literary establishment, the winners are overwhelmingly white and overwhelmingly male. This is not...
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On the Red Carpet at the National Book Awards
Last Wednesday’s National Book Awards did honor to some of the finest writers in the country, achieving just the right mix of pomp and glamor, thoughtfulness and grace (thanks in no small part to the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Why Do We Keep Fighting Over ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’?
Recently, a school in Virginia removed copies of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird and Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn from classrooms—and the county is considering banning them completely—after a...
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See Photos From the Writers Resist Flagship Event in NYC
If you’re reading this space, chances are you’ve heard of Writers Resist (soon to become Write Our Democracy), which held over 100 events across the country this week in support of free speech and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
10 Wonderful Children’s Poets You Should Know
Eighteen years ago today, Shel Silverstein, also known as Uncle Shelby, also known as the writer who introduced a generation (or two) of current adults to poetry, died at the age of 67. Of course...
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100 Books Across America: Fiction and Nonfiction for Every State in the Union
It seems as though everyone is traveling right now—students and teachers are heading off to new cities or returning to old ones for the fall semester, friends are kicking off last-ditch road trips, and...
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The Ebullient Joy of the Inaugural Well-Read Black Girl Festival
“This is a historic moment,” Tayari Jones announced when she got on stage at the Well-Read Black Girl Festival. While she had grown up up with models of important black women writers, this specific...
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10 Iconic Brooklyn Books…
Betty Smith, Brooklyn native and author of nearly everyone’s first favorite book about Brooklyn—coming-of-age novels will do that for you—died 42 years ago today. To celebrate her life and literary...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Five Books Making News This Week: Floods, Ponds, and Grief
Phillip Glass wins the Chicago Tribune Literary Award for his memoir Words Without Music. Heartland Prizes go to Jane Smiley for Golden Age (fiction) and Margo Jefferson for Negroland (nonfiction)....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Jacqueline Woodson on Brooklyn and the Brilliance of Black Girls
Jacqueline Woodson is justly beloved for her many YA novels, but particularly for Brown Girl Dreaming, which—though universal in its appeal to a wide audience—has been hugely important for young...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A Book Doesn’t Have to Be Long to Win an Award
The National Book Award for fiction is one of the highest honors a writer can receive. Like most of the literary establishment, the winners are overwhelmingly white and overwhelmingly male. This is not...
View ArticleClik here to view.
On the Red Carpet at the National Book Awards
Last Wednesday’s National Book Awards did honor to some of the finest writers in the country, achieving just the right mix of pomp and glamor, thoughtfulness and grace (thanks in no small part to the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Why Do We Keep Fighting Over ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’?
Recently, a school in Virginia removed copies of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird and Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn from classrooms—and the county is considering banning them completely—after a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
See Photos From the Writers Resist Flagship Event in NYC
If you’re reading this space, chances are you’ve heard of Writers Resist (soon to become Write Our Democracy), which held over 100 events across the country this week in support of free speech and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
10 Wonderful Children’s Poets You Should Know
Eighteen years ago today, Shel Silverstein, also known as Uncle Shelby, also known as the writer who introduced a generation (or two) of current adults to poetry, died at the age of 67. Of course...
View Article