Tag Archives: American Literature
Escapism in contemporary American fiction
We’re celebrating the publication of Escape, Escapism, Escapology: American Novels of the Early Twenty-First Century, in which John Limon traces the central theme of 21st-century United States fiction: the desire to escape at a time of inescapable globalization. This is an extract from the first chapter, Notes from Neverland.
Happy Birthday, Willa Cather!
Guest post by Michelle E. Moore The exceptionally prolific writer Willa Cather was born on December 7, 1873 in Gore, Virginia. Her literary work blends fiction with documentary while spanning vast distances across geographies, relationships, and time. Her personal papers document a lifetime of relationships kept afloat by near constant letter writing, sometimes conducted as she traveled long distances by rail to visit friends and… Read More »
On Writing a Guide to Poetry (Part II)
Guest Post by Mark Yakich on the 1st edition of Poetry: A Survivor’s Guide What is one to think of the following picture? Is it a bit shocking? A bit adorable? Is it shockingly adorable? Whatever it is, it is the image I had initially envisioned for my book’s cover. As someone who’s been interested… Read More »
On Writing a Guide to Poetry (Part I)
Guest Post by Mark Yakich on the 1st edition of Poetry: A Survivor’s Guide I’d wanted to call my book Poetry: A Guide for the Perplexed—not only because Bloomsbury has a series called “Guides for the Perplexed,” riffing off Maimonides’ 12th-century The Guide for the Perplexed, but because so many poems leave so many readers… Read More »
Blockbuster Feminism: Peyton Place
(Grace Metalious rejected the formal studio photograph publishers provided choosing instead, a photo by local New Hampshire photographer Larry Smith for the book jacket of Peyton Place – 1956, Larry Smith, Laconia Evening Citizen) In December 1956, a few months after the publication of her novel Peyton Place, Grace Metalious was invited to appear on… Read More »
Mad Men, the most literary show on television?
As mentioned previously on this blog, we are big fans of all things Americana and in particular, the television phenomenon that is Mad Men. So much so, that we put together our own literary guide to Mad Men on this blog last week. But we are not the only ones, the Daily Telegraph have also… Read More »
Mad Men: Our Literary Guide
We’re mad keen on Americana and Mad Men! Now that Series Five is about to hit the airwaves with a double episode in the US on March 25th & in the UK on March 27th, we’ve decided to compile a reading list for the show – books that we think say something about the characters, the show… Read More »
Kurt Vonnegut’s Last Laugh: Guest Post by Robert T. Tally Jr.
'Five years ago, on March 14, 2007, the much beloved American satirist Kurt Vonnegut fell down the front steps of his New York City brownstone, smashing his head on the sidewalk; four weeks later, he died. So it goes. Vonnegut made this last phrase immortal by enshrining it as the appropriate response to news of… Read More »
Simply Books at the Minneapolis airport
Day 1 of our photo blog Last week our author Christopher Schaberg's guest post included a lovely photo of Brad Pitt. I immediately thought to myself, 'this man has good taste in photos'. Another quick look through Christopher's book affirmed this to me. And so was born the Airports photo week! Each day this week I… Read More »