Today, on what would have been Ursula K. Le Guin’s 92nd birthday, the Ursula K. Le Guin Literary Trust announced a new annual prize in honor of the beloved writer: the Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction, which will Read more >
Today McGill University announced the finalists for the 2021 Cundill History Prize. The prestigious prize recognizes history writing in English that demonstrates historical scholarship, and “offers originality, literary quality, and a broad appeal.” The jury will reward the winning historian Read more >
Big news for fans of James Joyce, or of time: the pocket watch worn by John O’Connell in James Joyce’s Ulysses is going up for auction at Bonhams on November 4th. The 18-carat gold watch and chain could fetch £80,000. Read more >
For your Tuesday viewing pleasure: the trailer for the documentary Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck In Time, which will be released by IFC in theaters and video on demand on November 19th—nearly 40 years after filming began. The documentary follows Vonnegut—celebrated author, Read more >
On Tuesday, Literary Twitter came for Margaret Atwood after she retweeted, without commentary, an op-ed article written by Toronto Star columnist Rosie DiManno. The article, “Why can’t we say ‘woman’ anymore?,” is a near-hysterical argument that the word “woman is in Read more >
Yes, you read that right. Edward Gorey’s elephant house. That’s what he called it. To the beloved author, illustrator, and costume and set designer—the man with the inventive and wonderfully macabre mind—a few of the fixtures inside resembled the shape Read more >
Lucy Caldwell has won this year’s BBC National Short Story Award with Cambridge University for “All the People Were Mean and Bad.” The news was announced today on BBC Front Row by the 2021 Chair of Judges, James Runcie. The Read more >
Today, the Black Mountain Institute in the UNLV College of Liberal Arts announced in a press release that it would discontinue the publication of its beloved literary and arts magazine, The Believer. According to the release, “the decision is part Read more >
The trailer for Maggie Gyllenhaal’s film adaptation of Elena Ferrante’s The Lost Daughter has been released—and apparently it’s going full psychological horror. Olivia Colman plays Leda, who on a seaside vacation becomes entranced by young mother Nina (Dakota Johnson) and Read more >
I spend arguably too much time thinking about all the essential public services and institutions that would, if proposed for the first time in 2021, be laughed out of Congress. Public transportation. School buses. School itself, for that matter! Excuse Read more >
Uh oh: Publishers Weekly reported yesterday that makeup company (and multi-level marketing scheme) Mary Kay is suing Jennifer Bickel Cook, long-time personal administrative assistant to Mary Kay founder Mary Kay Ash, director emeritus of the Mary Kay Museum, and the Read more >
Google Maps users have stumbled on an Easter egg, or rather, just some life creeping into the platform: a man writing a cryptic poem in the sand on a Cape Verde beach. The poem, written in Cape Verde Creole, is Read more >
Did you know that medieval “doctors” (aka chirugeons, aka physicians, aka barbers, aka chymists, aka… witches?) used to carry around little astrology handbooks to help them plan their doctoring? They were called “girdle books” because they were so important in Read more >
Just when you thought your TBR pile couldn’t get any bigger, this week brings us new titles from Rebecca Solnit and Elizabeth Strout, as well as a celebration of Black cinema, a look behind-the-scenes of The Godfather, and a survival Read more >
On the occasion of its 170th publication anniversary, here are the very first reviews of Herman Melville’s leviathan-sized opus of obsession, revenge, and meticulously detailed whaling practices. * “To convey an adequate idea of a book of such various merits Read more >
This week, the winner of the Planeta Prize, a Spanish 1-million-euro literary award, was announced: Carmen Mola, a famously private crime thriller writer. All that was known about Mola, often referred to as Spain’s “Elena Ferrante,” is that she was Read more >
On this day in 1948, the acclaimed poet and playwright Ntozake Shange was born Paulette Williams in New Jersey. Shange earned her BA in American Studies from Barnard College and her MA in American Studies from the University of Southern Read more >
I’m not kidding. If you have a little money left over this month in your literary memorabilia budget, you can now spend it on any one of 400 articles of clothing belonging to the late, great literary icon Gabriel García Read more >
Though we live in a world that dreams of ending that always seems about to give in something that will not acknowledge conclusion insists that we forever begin. -Brendan Kennelly, “Begin” Brendan Kennelly, one of Ireland’s most beloved poets, Read more >
On Friday, Michael Caine appeared on the BBC radio program “Kermode and Mayo’s Film Review,” to talk about his new film Best Sellers, in which he plays a cranky, alcoholic novelist who goes on a book tour with his publisher, Read more >
