Nadia Nurhussein on Black Land February 10, 2020 As the only African nation, with the exception of Liberia, to remain independent during the colonization of the continent, Ethiopia has long held significance for and captivated the imaginations of African Americans. Read More
Donald and Winston at the Ministry of Alternative Facts January 31, 2020 Is George Orwell the most influential writer who ever lived? Yes, according to John Rodden’s provocative book about the transformation of a man into a myth. Read More
Marion Turner on Chaucer: A European Life December 02, 2019 More than any other canonical English writer, Geoffrey Chaucer lived and worked at the centre of political life—yet his poems are anything but conventional. Read More
Michael Schmidt on Gilgamesh October 02, 2019 Poetry Day in the UK is October 3, the perfect time to revisit a lost poem—and its rediscovery by contemporary poets. Gilgamesh is the most ancient long poem known to exist. Read More
Eleanor Wilner on Before Our Eyes September 18, 2019 A poet who engages with history in lyrical language, Elenor Wilner creates worlds that reflect on and illuminate the actual one, drawing on the power of communal myth and memory to transform them into agents of change. Read More
Peter Martin on The Dictionary Wars August 26, 2019 Peter Martin recounts the patriotic fervor in the early American republic to produce a definitive national dictionary that would rival Samuel Johnson’s 1755 Dictionary of the English Language. Read More
Sharon Marcus on The Drama of Celebrity August 19, 2019 Why do so many people care so much about celebrities? Who decides who gets to be a star? What are the privileges and pleasures of fandom? Do celebrities ever deserve the outsized attention they receive? Read More
Artemis Leontis on Eva Palmer Sikelianos: A Life in Ruins August 05, 2019 This is the first biography to tell the fascinating story of Eva Palmer Sikelianos (1874–1952), an American actor, director, composer, and weaver best known for reviving the Delphic Festivals. Read More
Jonathan Bate on How the Classics Made Shakespeare April 16, 2019 Ben Jonson famously accused Shakespeare of having “small Latin and less Greek.” But he was exaggerating. Shakespeare was steeped in the classics. Read More
On Influence: Robert Hayden in Dakar February 12, 2019 After having a conversation about a novel I’ve since forgotten, my undergraduate literature professor at the University of Michigan gave me a paperback copy of Robert Hayden’s Collected Poems. Read More
