May 21 Conversation: Isabel Allende By Molly Finnegan "Island Beneath the Sea," by author Isabel Allende, is set in the early 19th-century, amid colonial powers and slavery, and a chaotic period in Caribbean history. It also involves two places very much in the news in our own time:… Continue reading
May 06 Conversation: C.K. Williams By Tom LeGro This year, C.K. Williams is out with two volumes: "Wait," a collection of new poems, and "On Whitman," an exploration of the work and genius of that great American poet. Continue reading
Apr 16 Conversation: Pulitzer Prize Winner in Fiction, Paul Harding By Molly Finnegan This year's Pulitzer Prize winner for fiction was not a bestseller or a blockbuster. Its author was not a big name, and its publisher, too -- a small imprint called Bellevue Literary Press, run out of the NYU Medical School… Continue reading
Mar 26 Conversation: Open Letter’s Translated Works Find a Ready Audience By Molly Finnegan Open Letter Books, a small press operating out of the University of Rochester in New York, is trying to offer those readers a head start. Unlike some large publishing houses that occasionally release translated works, Open Letter only publishes works… Continue reading
Feb 19 Conversation: Alberto Manguel By Arts Desk Jeffrey Brown talks Alberto Manguel, author of "The Library at Night," a series of essays on the "idea" of the library through time and place, from ancient Alexandria to cyberspace, with stops along the way at his personal library of… Continue reading
Feb 16 Links to Faulkner’s Works Found in Diary By Tom LeGro A little literary sleuthing has uncovered a link between an unpublished antebellum diary and the well-known work of William Faulkner. Continue reading
Feb 05 Conversation: Ralph Ellison’s Unfinished Novel Gets Some Visibility By Arts Desk Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man," his first novel, is widely-considered one of the great works of modern literature. After it came out in 1952, Ellison wrote and wrote, and readers waited and waited, but a second novel never came. When he… Continue reading
Jan 15 Conversation: Katherine Paterson, National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature By Arts Desk Katherine Paterson, the author of many beloved children's novels such as "The Bridge to Terabithia", was last week named the National Ambassador for Young People's Literature. Continue reading
Jan 07 Conversation: The Latest in E-Readers By Tom LeGro In another in our series, "The Next Chapter of Reading," Jeffrey Brown talks to Wired staff writer Priya Ganapati, who is at the International Consumer Electronics Show, about what she's seeing in the latest e-reader products. Continue reading
Dec 31 A Look at Google Books By Tom LeGro In another in our series about the future of literature and literacy, Spencer Michels looks at internet giant Google's controversial plan to offer millions of books online. Continue reading