Literary World at a Glance
By Hannah Paige
Welcome to BLP’s new bi-weekly blog featuring the latest noteworthy books, author news, occasional articles, and/or short published work of interest, literary travel suggestions, and perhaps more. Anything that could be of interest for those who delight in creation, who believe ardently in the written word, and who choose to spend their time learning more about the world they are a part of, can be found here.
If you’ve found your way to this site, you are part of the literary landscape. Perhaps you too are a coffee or tea connoisseur. Perhaps you spend hours reading when you should be doing laundry or cleaning out that closet you’ve allowed to metastasize . . . perhaps you worry it will overtake you one night when you tell yourself “just one more chapter.” Don’t worry, it won’t. Your faithful books will protect you from jealous sweaters, neglected pants and dresses you have been meaning to donate to Goodwill for months but haven’t because your favorite author just came out with a new book that, of course, you had to have. Perhaps you are a budding young writer, a budding old writer, age matters less than what you create with what you have lived. Perhaps you just want to know more about this “literary hub,” this world that seems out of reach for someone working as a nurse or a mechanic or a flight attendant. This isn’t true though. The literary world is not an elitist club, but a conglomeration of observations, a space for people to gather, write, and think about what their lives are in relation to what their world truly is. For lovers of words, this is the only way we know how to understand the world around us. If you are a lover of words, you belong here too.
Claudia Rankine wrote, “Not everything remembered is useful, but it all comes from the world to be stored in you.” Let us store things of substance, words themselves, knowledge of those that create, observations about the world, within ourselves. Let’s keep learning. Let’s create and learn more about those that create alongside us.
Hit the Road (Literary Travel Spots)
Let’s take our bibliophilic passions on the road. This week is featuring a virtual literary road trip. Virtually tour the Emily Dickinson museum/home and immerse yourself in the world of the famous poet herself. The museum is offering various workshops and activities on their website. It hosts events, resources, even a Spotify playlist inspired by Emily Dickinson. You can attend a virtual audio tour as well, while you wait for the museum to resume in-person tours.
https://www.emilydickinsonmuseum.org/events-news/virtual-programming/
News
In the latest issue of The New Yorker, Ruth Franklin reviewed Maria Dahvana Headley’s new translation of Beowulf which “infuses the Old English poem with feminism and social-media slang.” The article is a consideration for the applicability of what some readers might consider “outdated” language, restoring a kind of faith in the study of classic works of literature. If Beowulf can be reimagined into a 2018 novel, then there are no bounds to the connections left to be made between contemporary life and the literature of the past. Is there a novel on the brink of existence which imagines Jane Austen’s social critiques as tweets?
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/08/31/a-beowulf-for-our-moment
Vanity Fair released a special issue with guest editor Ta-Nehisi Coates, author of The Beautiful Struggle, We Were Eight Years in Power, and Between the World and Me, as well as, The Water Dancer, a novel. The issue surrounds itself with the current Black Lives Matter movement, racism, and police brutality, uniting some of our time’s most provocative and emphatic writers of color on the subjects. It is a wealth of insight.
“I have not yet watched George Floyd’s murder in its entirety, but I have seen enough of the genre to know the belief in black people as disaster, as calamity, as a Great Fire upon the city, has not yet waned.” The issue also includes work from Kiese Laymon, author of the acclaimed memoir Heavy, and Jacqueline Woodson, author of the New York Times Notable Book of the Year, Red at the Bone.
https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2020/08/september-2020-issue-the-great-fire
Brown Bookshelf announced a call to action to publishers and readers alike to prioritize the work of Black authors. This included several suggestions to broaden the literary community and engage in an active push to end the biases against black writers. More information, as well as the Brown Bookshelf’s latest cover reveal for the book Unspeakable, which will debut in February.
“We, Black creators of books for young readers, urge the children’s literature community to imagine a new way of doing business, and abandon anti-Black and racist practices that perpetuate a system that marginalizes our work.”
https://thebrownbookshelf.com/2020/08/24/call-to-action/
It’s Not Just Stephen King (Latest Releases You Might Not Know About)
Nonfiction:
Original Politics: Making America Sacred Again, Glenn Aparicio Parry (June 16)
“From Parry’s perspective, Native American politics represent a sacred America, or a politics of the heart, syncing human needs with those of nature. . . There’s much to digest within this book, which links the ideals of early Native Americans to movements within American history, pinpointing Native peoples’ stamp of influence from the outset. Breaking with past tendencies, Original Politics revises approaches to history to center Native American traditions within it.” (So so so relevant now!!)
-Foreword Reviews
Poetry:
My Name is Immigrant, Wang Ping
Fiction:
Cuttle, Chelsea Britain (Sep 1)
"Poetic, captivating...a romance steeped in a vibrant personality's introspective genius"
-Midwest Book Review
The Parasol Flower, Karen Quevillon (Aug 14)
The Runaways, Fatima Bhutto (Aug 18)
