Reflections on a PhD in Literature: The Basics
[This is the first post in our three-part series Reflections on a PhD in Literature.] During the time I’ve been involved with the Books We Read project (including this blog), … Read More
Nicholas Allred
War Poetry: What Is It Good For?
With Russia’s recent invasion of Ukraine, war is back on the minds of the West––even though, as Syria, Yemen, and other sites of conflict should remind us, it never really … Read More
Books We Write – Books They Challenge
Interviews with Authors: A Bibliotherapy Reader in Hungarian Judit Hajnal Ward often publishes in her native Hungarian in topics related to Library and Information Science. Her book entitled Nyitott Könyvtár … Read More
Reading Middlemarch
This post starts with a confession: Middlemarch, by George Eliot (pen name of Mary Anne Evans), is widely considered one of the greatest novels ever written––certainly the odds-on favorite for … Read More
Reading for Recovery: Addiction and Literary Reflection
The below was first written for a project funded by the American Library Association, for a pilot project using reading as a way to address issues of addiction. For more … Read More
Confessions of a Part-Time Interviewer
Last week we had the pleasure of hosting poet Natalie Díaz for a Zoom reading and discussion, and a few weeks ago in late June we had author Carmen Maria … Read More
Meet the Author: Special Event Wednesday July 14th!
Natalie Díaz will be (virtually) coming to Rutgers for a live Zoom session on Wednesday July 14th! Díaz won an American Book Award for her first collection of poems, When … Read More
Something’s Happening and You Don’t Know What It Is: “Adolescence II”
This post, and this poem, is about puberty… I chose Rita Dove’s poem “Adolescence-II” for this summer program in part because (like all of our poems this session, actually) I’ve … Read More
Poetry Month with Summer Tales
Are you taking classes this summer? The Summer Tales Books Club operates as a non-credit course in Canvas. Started first in the summer of 2020 in response to the changed learning … Read More
Carmen Maria Machado, Between Persons
A heads-up: This post, like Machado’s memoir, discusses intimate-partner abuse. There are two distinctive formal features of Carmen Maria Machado’s In The Dream House: A Memoir that are apparent from early … Read More