Category: words

In a one-page directive, Hoover noted with alarm a recent “increase in the establishment of black extremist bookstores which represent propaganda outlets for revolutionary and hate publications and culture centers for extremism.” The director ordered each Bureau office to “locate and identify black extremist and/or African-type bookstores in its territory and open separate discreet investigations on each to determine if it is extremist in nature.”

Writer Melissa Fraterrigo: “Before my daughters arrived I squandered time. I read books from start to finish whether I felt drawn into the world of the story or not. I worked on short stories that were okay but could easily be put aside to check email or run an errand. I lacked dedication. Parenthood changed that. So did the seizures.”

Actually, it’s way past time. Because ‘remarkably little has changed since 1846, when Edgar Allan Poe declared that ‘unquestionably the most poetical topic in the world’ is ‘the death of a beautiful woman.'” Buddy. Nope.

Unless you want a lot of depressed, traumatized kids. True, their lives might already be traumatic – but the books don’t have to be, says award-winning author Jackie French, whose books for adults contain more unresolved and unjust plot points.

Curtis Dawkins is serving a life term for a murder he committed. When Scribner offered him $150,000 for a book of short stories, he put the money in a savings account for his children – but now Michigan’s prison system is suing him to pay for his imprisonment.

The writer, screenwriter, and playwright says, “The television show is ideal for the exploration of character under pressure because of its duration. I recently watched all 86 episodes of The Sopranos, followed by all of Breaking Bad; then I did Gomorrah. I would happily have watched more.”

The accusations (anonymous at first) sparked an intense discussion as “at an awkward moment for the industry, which had gathered Monday at the American Library Association’s midwinter meeting in Denver to announce its most coveted awards for children and young adult literature.” Agents, editors, and publishing houses dropped some of the most famous male authors in young adult literature as the week went on.

“I wanted to read Lolita because I believed it would mitigate my sexual shame. The similarity between the novel’s plot and my day-to-day life had sent me on a Google search, where I read excerpts and watched trailers of both film adaptations, categorized under ‘crime,’ ‘drama’ and ‘romance.’ Until then it had never occurred to me to consider my relationship with my uncle under any of those genres.”

Cowboy poetry goes as far back as the late 19th century, when herders were known to recite original poems sitting around their campfires at night. Those poems mimicked the popular verse of their day, at least in form—they never veered into free verse, and they featured a singsong rhythm. Cowboy poetry continued for the next 100 years or so in this fashion, confined to fleeting performances in hushed fields, until 1985, when a group of folk historians used a small grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to create the Gathering in Elko with a simple purpose: to bring together men and women who craved poetry that valued and found beauty in their rural existence.

“[President Jefferson] knew that future mapmakers, naturalists, and other scientists would rely on the valuable first-hand knowledge that Lewis and Clark collected. He encouraged them to make their observations ‘with great pains and accuracy … for others as well as yourself.’ That meant that every time they encountered an unfamiliar plant, animal, landscape feature, or cultural item – the Louisiana Territory and the western portion of the continent teemed with them – they had to invent a new term.”