In Darkness “tells the true story of a small group of Jews who hid in the sewer system below Lvov for 14 months and survived the German occupation of Poland during World War II.” Holland had presumed that, by now, everyone in that group had passed away. Then she received an e-mail from Long Island …
Author: Matthew Westphal
Beverly Sills Artist Award Goes To Angela Meade
“The soprano Angela Meade won the Beverly Sills Artist Award, a $50,000 prize for singers from ages 25 to 40 who have already appeared in featured roles at the Metropolitan Opera … Previous winners include Nathan Gunn, Joyce DiDonato, Matthew Polenzani, John Relyea, Susanna Phillips and Isabel Leonard.”
Sydney’s Top Museum Takes Its Time Finding New Director
“Six months after Edmund Capon announced his retirement as director, the Art Gallery of New South Wales is no closer to naming a successor.”
Carlos Fuentes Says Only Legalizing Drugs Can Save Mexico
The country’s most prominent author says that only decriminalization can end drug smuggling and the violence it has spawned in Mexico, leaving more than 50,000 people dead over the past five years.
A New Prize For Critics’ Hatchet Jobs
“‘A good hatchet job draws as much excited attention as a good book any day.’ That’s the late, great critic Wilfrid Sheed … On Feb. 7, The Omnivore, a British Web site that aggregates cultural criticism, will announce the winner of its first annual Hatchet Job of the Year Award for book reviews.”
What’s Wrong With the Teenage Mind These Days?
“What happens when children reach puberty earlier and adulthood later? The answer is: a good deal of teenage weirdness. Fortunately, developmental psychologists and neuroscientists are starting to explain the foundations of that weirdness.”
Audience Member Could Face Jail Time For Booing ‘Mammy’ Dance
When a children’s dance company in northern Virginia did a skit called “Little Rabbit, Where’s Your Mammy?,” Jackie Carter, angered by the hoary old stereotype, began to boo. She returned the next evening, passed out fliers and made enough noise to disrupt the performance – whereupon she was arrested for disorderly conduct, a charge which carries up to one year in prison.
Videogamers Go On Non-Killing Spree
“Videogames have long been assailed for their violent themes and gruesome imagery. But a small slice of players has embraced a new strategy: not killing. They are imparting real-world morals on their virtual-world characters and completing entire games on a ‘pacifist run” – the term for beating a blood-and-guts adventure without drawing any blood.”
Proposing A ‘Temple Of Atheism’ In London
“The philosopher and writer Alain de Botton is proposing to build a 46-metre (151ft) tower to celebrate a ‘new atheism’ as an antidote to what he describes as Professor Richard Dawkins’s ‘aggressive’ and ‘destructive’ approach to non-belief.”
Why The Jaipur Literature Festival Disinvited Salman Rushdie
Festival co-director William Dalrymple writes of how he had to balance upholding the right to freedom of expression and exchange of ideas with the very real possibility of a riot in the middle of his event.