In some ways, perhaps Morrison is even more relevant in South African universities today than she’s ever been.
Toni Morrison photographed in 2010: in both her fiction and non-fiction, she sought to expose the ‘national amnesia’ underlying often unconscious forms of racism.
Ian Langsdon/EPA
While clear-eyed about the country’s injustices, Melville never succumbed to cynicism. On the author’s bicentennial, American readers could use a dose of his ability to fuse realism with idealism.
Many of the classic books of Canadian literature thrived because of women editors, publishers and agents. Some are profiled here: Anna Porter in the 1970s, Bella Pomer in 2015 and Claire Pratt in 1950.
Diane Pullan; Facebook; special collections
Irene Clarke, Claire Pratt, Anna Porter and Bella Pomer were among the women who changed the face of Canadian publishing. Their achievements deserve our attention.
If you can’t get to Venice, Italy, allow a book translated from Italian to transport you there.
Tom Podmore/Unsplash
Reading fiction can increase your empathy and reading fiction translated from another language can improve your cross-cultural understanding. Why not let a book transport you?
Julien Brugeron, Université Paris Nanterre – Université Paris Lumières
Since 2011, Button Poetry has offered a large number of powerful poetic performances that reveal the plurality of individual stories in the United States.
Franco-Moroccan author Leila Slimani (centre) with the president of the Goncourt prize, Bernard Pivot (third from right) and others at the 2017 Frankfurt Book Fair.
John MacDougall/AFP
As the daughter in a Jewish family fleeing the Nazis, Judith Kerr’s childhood was change, upheaval and deprivation. But this ‘clever refugee girl’ made her mark, creating stories of ideal childhood.
Binyavanga Wainaina.
Binyavanga Wainaina official Facebook page
Potions, spells and alchemy are intriguing to children and adults alike. A professor of literature explains what’s behind this fascination and reveals where to experience the magic of transformation.
April 15, 2019, 7:34 p.m.: Notre-Dame de Paris in flames.
Leighton Kille
The fire that devastated the Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral on April 15 is a historic event that reminds us of the symbolic power of national monuments.
A photograph of Ellen N. La Motte soon after completing ‘The Backwash of War’ in 1916.
Courtesy of the National Archives, College Park, Maryland
Ellen N. La Motte’s ‘The Backwash of War’ was praised for its clear-eyed portrayal of war, but was swiftly banned. Yet the similarities between her spare prose and Hemingway’s are unmistakable.
‘The Golden Orange Solar City’, a depiction of the Turkish city of Antalya in the future (as inspired by Solar Punk literature such as the ‘Glass and Gardens’ anthology edited by Sarena Ulabarri).
Alan Marshall
An emerging genre of fiction in France is providing an unlikely brand of escapism.
Toni Morrison, Zora Neale Hurston and Nella Larsen are on this short list of enduring must-read writers.
Left to right: Nobel Prize, U.S. Library of Congress, Yale archive
Including queer texts in the English curriculum has the potential to affect real social change, including in understanding and confronting inequalities.