Fiction

Elizabeth Gilbert

Eat, Pray, Cringe Eat, Pray, Cringe

Elizabeth Gilbert’s next novel faced outcry for its setting in Russia. So, before she could get canceled, she canceled herself.

Jun 14, 2023 / Katha Pollitt

Olaf Stapledon, 1946.

Olaf Stapledon’s Cosmology of Peace Olaf Stapledon’s Cosmology of Peace

In his science fiction classic Star Maker, he imagines a way to overcome fascism on a galactic scale.

Jun 7, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Jaime Green

Nikki Giovanni standing by the lectern and woman singing during a performance at The Phillis Wheatley Poetry Festival., 1973.

How Black Women Writers Got It Done How Black Women Writers Got It Done

Claudia Tate’s 1983 collection of interviews is an important look into the trials writers like Toni Morrison and Maya Angelou faced on their way to mainstream acceptance.

Jun 6, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Marina Magloire

A village in the Eastern Anatolia region of Turkey after an earthquake in 1983.

Ferit Edgü’s Prescient Fiction of a Turkey in Crisis Ferit Edgü’s Prescient Fiction of a Turkey in Crisis

His books, which examined the plight of eastern Turkey and the vanity of the Istanbul bourgeoise, take on new meaning after the February 6 earthquakes.

Jun 5, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Kaya Genç

Katherine Dunn’s Counterculture Parables

Katherine Dunn’s Counterculture Parables Katherine Dunn’s Counterculture Parables

Dunn’s books are often described as cult classics, which fits not only in the sense that they inspire devotion but also in the sense that cults of personality always appear in them...

Jun 1, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Nora Caplan-Bricker

The Lost Worlds of Anton Shammas’s  “Arabesques”

The Lost Worlds of Anton Shammas’s “Arabesques” The Lost Worlds of Anton Shammas’s “Arabesques”

A new translation of the 1988 novel documents not only the loss and exile created by the Nakba but also the loss and exile created by occupation.

May 30, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Raja Shehadeh

A student in the Mills College library, 1964.

The Reluctant Feminists of the 1960s The Reluctant Feminists of the 1960s

Wendell Stevenson’s campus novel Margot examines the life of a woman who initially resists the political and sexual education her era offers.

May 25, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Lily Meyer

Liberating a Palestinian Novel From Israeli Prison

Liberating a Palestinian Novel From Israeli Prison Liberating a Palestinian Novel From Israeli Prison

The Trinity of Fundamentals, a book Wisam Rafeedie penned while imprisoned, is a stirring account of dissidence and resistance to the Occupation.

May 24, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Danya Al-Saleh and Samar Al-Saleh

Appalachia Mountains

What “Demon Copperhead” Gets Right About Appalachia What “Demon Copperhead” Gets Right About Appalachia

Barbara Kingsolver’s Pulitzer Prize–winning novel shows the reality of the opioid and foster care crises in the region without resorting to stale stereotypes.

May 15, 2023 / StudentNation / Jessica Miller

Buenos Aires, in the evening light, circa 1940

Santiago Amigorena’s Novel of the Shoah and Latin America Santiago Amigorena’s Novel of the Shoah and Latin America

In The Ghetto Within, the Argentine novelist considers the dark shadow that the Holocaust has cast not only on Europe but also on Latin America.

May 8, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Ilan Stavans

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