Today, Poets & Writers announced that Carl Phillips has won the 2021 Jackson Poetry Prize, awarded annually by Poets & Writers to an American poet of exceptional talent. The Prize comes with an unrestricted award of $75,000 to provide winners Read more >
As the Associated Press reported this morning, Blake Bailey’s Philip Roth: The Biography has a new publisher: Skyhorse Publishing. Skyhorse will release the e-book and audio editions of Philip Roth: The Biography by Wednesday, and the paperback edition on June Read more >
It’s true. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, F. Scott Fitzgerald was the first to use the term “T-shirt” in print; it appeared in This Side of Paradise in 1920, as part of a packing list: So early in September Read more >
Great news the Jane-ites who are hungry for more than just sharp Regency-era social commentary: you’ll soon be able to prepare Jane Austen’s favorite dishes, including “Toasted Cheese.” (It’s made with egg and mustard, and honestly, given how much suet Read more >
At this weekend’s annual conference of Biographers International Organization, A.N. Wilson’s The Mystery of Charles Dickens (HarperCollins) was awarded the BIO Plutarch Award—an award celebrating the best biography of the last year published in English, as chosen from nominations received Read more >
You never quite realize what’s special about where you grew up until you’ve been away for awhile: it has taken me 20 years—as a Canadian living abroad—to appreciate the degree to which there is, in fact, a very particular and Read more >
There are many—nay, infinite—ways in which writers are nothing like K-Pop superstars… HOWEVER, maybe we can take some small solace from the fact that human megahit-machine Bang Chan (of Stray Kids and 3RACHA) runs into bouts of writers’ block just Read more >
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s On Grief, Stacey Abrams’ While Justice Sleeps, Edmund de Waal’s Letters to Camondo, and Emily Henry’s People We Meet on Vacation all feature among the Best Reviewed Books of the Week. Brought to you by Book Marks, Read more >
Here’s something weird and wonderful from way back when: alt-rock icon, occasional indie movie actress, and Hole frontwoman Courtney Love, at the tender age of eleven, tried out for a role on the on the 1977 Mickey Mouse Club—the second Read more >
Today marks fifteen years since the death of Stanley Kunitz, tenth Poet Laureate of the United States and fiercely dedicated teacher. Kunitz once spoke of the importance of reading his work aloud: “I write my poems for the ear . Read more >
Somerset’s Combe Florey House, once the family home of Brideshead Revisited author Evelyn Waugh and his son Auberon, is finally for sale—and it’s pretty spectacular, looking onto parkland and water. The grounds include a twelve-bedroom home with red sandstone facades; Read more >
Because you can always use another gorgeous library to imagine yourself inside: MAD Architects has built a seaside library in Haikou, China that eschews blocky, familiar design in favor of flowing forms mimicking the clouds and sea that surround it. Read more >
Ah, the month of May: the days are long, the weather is perfect for light jackets, and the trees are taking their revenge for climate change by blowing pollen directly into our sinuses. In short, summer is near. And lest Read more >
It is a well known and oft-romanticized fact that the Brontë sisters—and the Brontë brother, for that matter—all died young, one after the other, leaving moody, moor-y masterpieces in their wake. Officially, they all suffered from tuberculosis, or complications thereof, Read more >
Last evening in a virtual ceremony, Raven Leilani was awarded the Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize—an annual £20,000 prize given to the best literary English-language work by an author aged 39 or under—for her debut novel Luster. With this win, Read more >
John Lithgow, beloved actor, author, Grammy-nominated vocalist, and Trump satirist-in-verse, recorded William Maxwell’s So Long, See You Tomorrow in December. (You can purchase tickets here.) He shared some first-person insight on his recording experience and his connection to Maxwell’s work. Read more >
A good idea to steal: the city of Rome has created a free digital library that spans the entire city, available to users of ATAC, Rome’s public transportation. Passengers waiting at bus stops or subway stations will be able to Read more >
Exciting news: the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Flamboyan Foundation’s Flamboyan Arts Fund have founded the Letras Boricuas Fellowship, which will provide unrestricted grants of $25,000 to thirty Puerto Rican writers over the next two years (fifteen in 2021 Read more >
Last week, Gothamist invited readers to choose their favorite New York book from a list curated by librarians at the New York Public Library. The books on the list were The Catcher in the Rye, Just Kids, The Amazing Adventures of Cavalier Read more >
The Publishing Triangle, the association of LGBTQ people in publishing, has named the winners of the 33rd annual Triangle Awards, honoring the best LGBTQ fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and trans literature published in 2020. In total, Publishing Triangle awarded $12000 to Read more >
