Words truly have the power to soothe our souls and comfort our spirits, to offer us a glimpse of other worlds, and to shine light on our own hopes and dreams. The more I read, the more I know, but more importantly, the more I get to know myself.
As a refugee from Vietnam, a country colonized by the French and then fought over by the Americans and the Soviet Union, I see the Obama presidency as spelling the end of a 500-year-old colonial curse.
I'm not sure why I love reviews so much and find the reading of criticism so difficult. Maybe it's because reviews are more fun. But it's been helpful to think of criticism not as the enemy of creativity, but as its complement.
Coming to this event reminded me of everything I love about PEN. The writers who make up PEN care passionately about the freedom to write whether it's in the classroom or for journalists abroad.
In the upcoming Israeli election, the one thing most parties seem reluctant to discuss is the deadlocked peace process with the Palestinians and the whole painful, tangled and conflicted issue of relations between Jews and Palestinians. Israeli authors have no such qualms, as four recent works demonstrate.
Like Mitt and the president, wealthy fictional protagonists vary in that some are "to the manor born" while others become affluent from their own hard work. Literature's rich characters also vary in their likability -- ranging from appalling to appealing.
The best way for the liberal arts, for colleges and universities, to create a renaissance in the twenty-first century is not to become more separate and abstruse but to become more worldly -- more cosmopolitan and real, but on our own terms.
You can't be a great writer without being a great reader. We know why Nick Hornby is such a terrific novelist, screenwriter and columnist: it's not only what he reads, but how he reads.
Let's face the inevitable truth that vacuity is a part of life that sometimes appears to be necessary, but let's not get caught in the false belief that we can call everything we put our eyes on "literature."
This article courtesy of Miami New Times. By Ciara LaVelle A small motorboat meandered through the 2011 Columbus Day Regatta, carrying just a dr...
Late Sunday afternoon I made some jokes on Twitter using the hashtag #Mitterature that mashed up the public persona of Mitt Romney with well-known book titles. Like "Cayman Treasure Island" or "The Wind in the Willards."
Without question, $3.5+ million is a lot of money. But that doesn't mean it's necessarily a bad business deal. Let's examine why, with a simplified version of the way publishing economics work.
While the word counts of Alex Epstein's "microfictions" may rarely reach triple digits, the stories from his new collection, For My Next Illusion I Will Use Wings, occupy the space of something much larger.
It used to be that a standard feature of the home of the upwardly intellectually mobile was a shelf of books -- a display of erudition to all visitors. Alas, books and the bookshelves groaning under their weight are going the way of the landline.
Martin Weber graciously took the time to answer some questions as to his work, writing process, and issues with which the LGBT community grapples.
His memoir, August Farewell, details the death of his partner to cancer and was noted by The Advocate magazine as one of the 21 Biographies or Memoirs You Should Read Now. It was a pleasure to speak with him recently about his life and journey to authorhood.
Dear Mrs. Rowling, let me state for the record that I have not read your new novel, The Casual Vacancy, and though I have not skimmed one single page, I must be honest about the depth of your deception, lies, and skullduggery.
Mr. Bogdanovitch's characters range from contemptible wretches to disinterested observers; satisfied to watch life or death pass in front of them as they chronicle the tedium of life.
There's something rather satisfying about using the Huffington Post, a venue built on blogging, to respond to Peter Stothard's alarmist claim that book bloggers are ruining literature.
Everyone's a headline writer on Twitter. Technology mainstreamed words the way cheap, mass-manufactured automobiles made everyone a driver. Who, these days, needs a livery cab?
My affair with books reached an obsessive level of magnificence, from Louisa May Alcott to Jane Austen and George Orwell. I read whatever I could find in my parents' house. Reading was a part of my daily routine, just like eating or drinking water.
Though there have been grumblings about new technologies' detrimental effect on more traditional forms of literature, we believe that these media are not mutually exclusive. We can hold on to, and elevate, the things we love about books and still embrace the worlds opened up by more recent developments.
I have written things in appalling circumstances. In the worst motels, on scraps of paper and envelopes. And oftentimes the reduced circumstance takes me to creative places I wouldn't go otherwise.
Amos Oz is one of Israel's foremost novelists and public intellectuals. A few years older than the state he has dedicated his soul to, his fertile imagination has held a creative mirror up to this young society.
There's a kind of truth that you can only get through untruth -- through fiction. And that's why we're now adding fiction and poetry to our menu at Huffington.
