Graphic Novel Best Sellers

At Art & Literature, graphic novels rarely receive their due. But with shifting definitions of what constitutes literature, I think it’s time that we give graphic novels some notice. Here is the graphic novel best seller list for the week of May 9 (as reported by The New York Times’ Art Beat): Graphic Best Sellers (Hardcover) 1 DARK TOWER: TREACHERY, by Peter David and Robin Furth. 2... [Read more]

On the Bookshelf: Angels in America, Parts I and II

Playwright Tony Kushner, author of Angels in America,  said of the differences between playwriting and its (in Kusher’s view) once-removed cousin, screenwriting: “Screenwriting is primarily a narrative art–and I don’t think that’s true of playwriting, which is dialogic and dialectic, and is fundamentally always more about an argument than it is about narrative progression.... [Read more]

Tony Award Nominations Announced

This year’s Tony Award nominations have been announced, and “Billy Elliot,” the musical based on the film of the same name, leads the pack with 15 nominations, followed by “Next to Normal” with 11 and the revival of “Hair” with eight.  Here are some of the highlights: Best Play Dividing the Estate God of Carnage Reasons to Be Pretty 33 Variations Best Musical Billy... [Read more]

John Updike, the Poet

When John Updike died in January, it was an enormous blow to the fiction world.  As his newest work, a posthumous collection of poems called “Endpoint: And Other Poems” demonstrates, it was an enormous blow to the poetry world as well. Although Updike was known primarily as novelist, he was endowed with considerable talents that he–as well as his contemporaries–were careful... [Read more]

Carol Ann Duffy Named First British Poet Laureate

After 341 years of male poet laureates such as Tennyson, Wordsworth, Dryden, and Ted Hughes, Britian now has its very first female and its first Scottish poet laureate in Carol Ann Duffy. Duffy, 53, succeeds Andrew Motion and will serve in the position for 10 years. Duffy says that her annual payment of some 5,000 pounds will be donated to the Poetry Society but added, jokingly, that she’s asked... [Read more]

“Waiting for Godot” Broadway Revival

Put your Beckett caps on, theatergoers! “Waiting for Godot” is returning to Broadway this Thursday after being absent for more than 50 years. The revival (aptly) by the Roundabout Theater Company will star Nathan Lane as Estragon, Bill Irwin as Vladimir, John Goodman as Pozzo, and John Glover as Lucky. With the recession tramping on interminably, the play’s elemental yet cryptic quality... [Read more]

Winesburg, Ohio–On the Occasion of Its 90th Anniversary

This year, Sherwood Anderson’s 1919 classic “Winesburg, Ohio” turns 90.  And my has the book weathered the last century well. Anderson’s collection of interconnected short stories involving Winesburg’s eccentric, misfit, and fiercely longing denizens feels just as meaningful today as when it was first published. Full of striking imagery such as the expelled pedagogue... [Read more]

Literature Fills a Vacancy in Downtown Kalispell

Last fall, Books West closed its doors after 42 years. Read the original here: Literature Fills a Vacancy in Downtown Kalispell  Read More →

Other world literature

From total believers to complete sceptics, the author of Mirage Men selects books that are ‘informative, entertaining, puzzling or all three at once’ Mark Pilkington is a writer with a fascination for the further shores of culture, science and belief. He also publishes books as Strange Attractor Press . In Mirage Men Pilkington travels across America looking to explain his own UFO sighting... [Read more]

Malta Mediterranean Literature Festival

Top writers and musicians from seven countries, including gritty Welsh novelist Niall Griffiths, Maltese poet Victor Fenech, and Lebanese novelist Hyam Yared, will perform at this year’s fifth edition of the Malta Mediterranean Literature Festival on Thursday 9, Friday 10 and Saturday 11th September, 2010, at the Garden of Rest in Floriana, close to the Floriana Central Public. See original here: Malta... [Read more]

Teenagers dominate 2010 Palanca Awards

 The Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature has long been the venue where the country’s literary stars are lionized and acknowledged for their extraordinary contribution to Philippine literature. But more than just honoring the old guard, the Palanca Awards also welcome new talents Excerpt from:  Teenagers dominate 2010 Palanca Awards  Read More →

Classic literature to benefit inmates

Students of Baylor’s newest Engaged Living Group are going to prison, or at least their essays are. The new ELG consists of 19 freshmen and three professors from the history, classics and technology departments. Go here to read the rest:  Classic literature to benefit inmates  Read More →

Tearful Isabel Allende gets Chile’s National Literature Prize

Santiago - Chilean author Isabel Allende was in tears Thursday, as she received the South American country’s National Literature Prize. The prestigious prize - which the late Chilean author Gabriela Mistral obtained six years after receiving the Nobel Prize for Literature - generated great debate in Chile, pitting those who support Allende’s work against those who argue that she writes... [Read more]

Tearful Isabel Allende gets Chile’s National Literature Prize

Santiago - Chilean author Isabel Allende was in tears Thursday, as she received the South American country’s National Literature Prize. The prestigious prize - which the late Chilean author Gabriela Mistral obtained six years after receiving the Nobel Prize for Literature - generated great debate in Chile, pitting those who support Allende’s work against those who argue that she writes... [Read more]