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Barbara Kingsolver Takes Stock
One Pulitzer Prize, two book tours, 54 weeks on the best-seller list and many admiring messages later, the author reflects on “Demon Copperhead.” Now that “Demon Copperhead” has been in the world for almost 14 months — and a stalwart on the hardcover fiction list for 54 weeks — Barbara Kingsolver finally has a moment…
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Charles Dickens: the Man, the Myth, the Brand
THE LIFE AND LIES OF CHARLES DICKENS, by Helena Kelly The specter of biography has long struck fear in the hearts of living legends. Martha Washington, Henry James and Somerset Maugham tried to thwart would-be chroniclers by pitching private papers into the fire — heartbreaking acts of futile resistance. Trusted correspondents did not, as James…
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Beth Kephart on the Eternal Hope of Rare Books
In the aftermath of my father’s death, I wanted only quiet. I chased sanctuary through shadows. I walked the vanishing miles. I lay awake in the midnight hours, but even then, a nearby fox would call out for love, or a deer would high-step through fallen leaves, or a squirrel would bumble in the gutter.…
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These 4 new graphic novels deserve to be read deeply: powerful messages and beautiful art
Are You Willing To Die For The Cause? By Chris Oliveros × Already a Subscriber? Sign in Mall Goth By Kate Leth Simon & Schuster, 256 pages, $18.00 Simon and Schuster Monica By Daniel Clowes Fantagraphics Books, 106 pages $39.99 Fantagraphics Naked: The Confessions of a Normal Woman By Eloise Marseille Pow Pow Press, 168…
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On Literary Empathy and the Performative Reading of Palestinian Authors
The literary community holds onto empathy as a dear goal while navigating the complexities of the human experience through the eyes of characters from diverse backgrounds. Readers worldwide have long celebrated the promise of empathy as a conduit for profound understanding, and reading from diverse sources is itself celebrated as an unambiguous moral good. Yet…
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How Isaac Bashevis Singer Preserved European Jewish Life Through Literature
There has always been a gap between the English-language author Isaac Bashevis Singer and the Yiddish writer who published under at least three pseudonyms: Yitskhok Bashevis, Yitskhok Varshavski, and D. Segal. The publication of Singer’s wartime writings presents one of the first attempts to close that gap. Singer’s Writings on Yiddish and Yiddishkayt: The War…
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Nina LaCour on Finding a Story in Her Own Backyard
A couple months ago I found myself alone in a Northern California beach town, walking the hills and talking into a recording app on my phone. None of my usual ways of writing were working anymore. Not the laptop or the overpriced word processor with no distractions and an e-ink screen. Pen and paper— my…
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Ed Park on Panoramic Storytelling
This week on The Maris Review, Ed Park joins Maris Kreizman to discuss Same Bed Different Dreams, out now from Random House. Subscribe and download the episode, wherever you get your podcasts. * from the episode: Maris Kreizman: I love that we are told explicitly, throughout the novel, that writing from different viewpoints at different…
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Prime Minister’s Literary awards 2023: Jessica Au wins for lauded novella Cold Enough for Snow
Jessica Au has won the 2023 Prime Minister’s Literary award for fiction for her novel Cold Enough for Snow, taking home the $80,000 prize months after winning $125,000 at the Victorian Premier’s Literary awards. The Prime Minister’s Literary award is just the latest in a long line of accolades the Melbourne author has won for…
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Torres, Blackhawk, Santos Perez, Santat Win 2023 National Book Awards
Before kicking off this year’s National Book Awards, held at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City’s financial district on November 15, host LeVar Burton got some housekeeping out of the way. “Before we get going, are there any Moms for Liberty in the house?” he asked. “No? Good. Then hands will not need to…