Arts May 29

“There was a sense in the anti-war movement that it was being infiltrated by spies, by informers, but there was no evidence,” said Betty Medsger, author of "The Burglary." In 1971, a small group of unlikely individuals -- including a…

Poetry May 26

Poet Dan Chiasson started working on his book “Bicentennial” after the death of his father, who left when Chiasson was 7 months old. While the two never really knew each other, that event prompted Chiasson to revisit his childhood in…

Poetry May 19

W. S. Di Piero never wants to hear again that his poems are intense. “You get tired of hearing certain things if they get said so many times about the kind of work you do. I don’t write poems that…

Arts May 15

Deep in the woods of western Oregon, a group of men trudges through mud and rain, wearing full army fatigues and using slang not overheard since the Nixon administration. The men are reenacting the Vietnam War and award-winning filmmakers Mike…

Arts May 14

Life in post-colonial Africa and the civil rights era in the United States aren’t typically compared, but Dinaw Mengestu, author of the new novel “All Our Names,” saw those moments in history as an echo of each other.

Poetry May 12

Bibbins writes poems like collages -– using words or anecdotes to create new layers of meaning.

Poetry May 05

In his first collection of poems, “Letter Composed During a Lull in the Fighting,” former Army machine gunner Kevin Powers writes about combat and the consequences of conflict.

Arts May 02

Here at Art Beat, we don’t want to shy away from difficult conversations and sensitive topics when they are depicted in art. Such was the case when we posted the story “Photographer examines what being white looks like.” It elicited…

Arts May 01

In 2007, photographer Myra Green had just finished “Character Recognition,” a collection of images of her face printed through a historical photographic process called ambrotype on black glass. The project sparked a conversation with one of her friends about race.

Arts Apr 28

For historian H. W. Brands, there are many ways to write about history. When teaching his students at the University of Texas the different tried and true formats for a good paper, Brands, who is known for his books Andrew…