literature

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Female poets step up to the mic

Could be verse
While down in Cambridge last August with a team of Portland poets for the semi-finals of the National Poetry Slam, Tricia Henley Pryce says, she never saw more than one woman up on stage at a time.
By MEGAN GRUMBLING | February 08, 2012

More blogs = more books

Book fans use the Internet to go crazy!
On August 30, my debut young-adult novel, Fury, was published by Simon Pulse, the edgy YA imprint of Simon & Schuster. I'm a journalist by trade, and I knew next-to-nothing about book publishing until about a year ago.
By ELIZABETH MILES | September 21, 2011

Don't read these books!!

Censored
The Rhode Island affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union will host its annual Banned Books event on September 23 at 6 pm at the Providence Athenaeum.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | September 21, 2011

Review: My Afternoons with Margueritte

Twisting the "lonely child, clean old man" formula
European cinema doesn't have as many sure-fire formulas as Hollywood, but the one described, I think, by Pauline Kael as the "lonely child, clean old man" scenario has long endured.
By PETER KEOUGH | September 20, 2011

Review: Sholem Aleichem: Laughing in the Darkness

Joseph Dorman's portrait of Aleichem
Not many these days are familiar with Aleichem's own story, or his other work, or his impact on Jewish culture and literature in general.
By PETER KEOUGH | August 31, 2011

On carpentry and college

Finding reward - and real learning - in the ivory tower
Age 30, I quit the Phoenix and ended up with a job as an apprentice to a carpenter. Sawing, chiseling, hammering, nail-gunning, tiling, sanding, slotting, framing, hauling, measuring, and sweeping are less obvious outcomes of an undergraduate career in the liberal arts. College, in strange and unexpected ways, prepared me for this sort of work. And in others, did not prepare me at all.
By NINA MACLAUGHLIN | October 20, 2011

PhDisasters

Worried about writing that thesis? Turns out writing could be the least of your problems.
I knew a man pursuing a PhD in literature. His dissertation had to do with humor as a form of dissent in 20th-century literature. And how enthused he was at first! How passionate and excited.
By NINA MACLAUGHLIN | April 27, 2011

Whitcomb's legacy

Feel the poetry rattling your bones
It is unlikely that James Whitcomb Riley, a turn-of-the-century poet for a short time considered the heir to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ever envisioned his work accompanied by music quite like this.
By SAM PFEIFLE | March 23, 2011

Jane Eyre redux

Cary Fukunaga and Mia Wasikowska hold forth
Jane Austen has been a movie and television icon for some time now, and yet the Jane that both big and small screens just can't get enough of is the "poor, obscure, plain, little" heroine of Charlotte Brontë's 1847 novel.
By JEFFREY GANTZ | March 18, 2011

So you thought you were special

Literati
Reading Hannah Holmes's work is enlightening and entertaining — even when it's at its most depressing.
By JEFF INGLIS | February 16, 2011

20 Astoundingly Bad Romance Novel Covers

Moaning, groaning, and oiled-hunk-boning with Uncle Walter & Co.
Sure, we all love contemplating glistening Adonises, swashbuckling buccaneers, and loincloth-straining savages — but not as much as Uncle Walter does.
By UNCLE WALTER AND THE WIFE | February 13, 2011

The man in the yellow fur coat

As the Boston Athenaeum stages an Edward Gorey retrospective, his biographer reflects on the artist's lasting legacy
The cultural critic Mark Dery worked as a clerk for Manhattan's Gotham Book Mart in the early '80s. One afternoon, he was taken by surprise.
By EUGENIA WILLIAMSON | February 05, 2011

Review: Caroline Leavitt's family Pictures

Photo finish
Love, family, and the moments that change lives forever — these are the potent ingredients that Caroline Leavitt stirs up again and again in her fiction.
By JULIA HANNA | January 27, 2011

How to create a readable future

Future Boston authors Jon Burrowes, Alexander Jablokov, Steven Popkes, David Alexander Smith, and Sarah Smith show us how it's done.
The actual future is a collaboration between nearly seven billion people worldwide. But creating a future can be a fun indoor sport for you and your friends.
By SEVERAL FUTURE BOSTON AUTHORS | January 24, 2011

Interview: The authors of Future Boston on building the Boston of tomorrow

Future Boston, 15 years later
We only have three years before the aliens land. This was the future envisioned in Future Boston , an anthology by a group of local science-fiction writers published in 1995 .
By S.I. ROSENBAUM | January 21, 2011

11 Fictional glimpses of the Boston of tomorrow

Futures past
The history of the future is not long.
By PHOENIX STAFF | August 08, 2011

11 Fictional glimpses of the Boston of tomorrow

Futures past
The history of the future is not long.
By PHOENIX STAFF | August 08, 2011

. . . Just glad to see me?

Bad karma; a Complex Christmas; the Darwin Awards; J.R. at City Hall
Phillipe and Jorge's Plaxico Burress Award goes to State Representative Peter Petrarca who was charged Saturday night with illegally firing a gun outside Club Karma, of which he is part owner, in the ProHo district of Our Little Towne.
By PHILLIPE AND JORGE | December 15, 2010

Four questions for a hypertext pioneer

Links
As both an author and illustrator, Shelley Jackson has looked beyond the limitations of singular genres or techniques to create a novel style of work.
By DANIEL MCGOWAN | December 08, 2010

Review: David Young knows where he's going

Poet's progress
David Young's Selected and New Poems is a good book by a good poet. You'll have to take my word for that, because I am not going to quote from his poems.
By WILLIAM CORBETT | October 27, 2010

Writers celebrate Barry Hannah, the biggest literary badass you’ve never heard of

Captain Maximus R.I.P.
Gene Kwak first came across the work of Barry Hannah while studying journalism at the University of Nebraska.
By EUGENIA WILLIAMSON | November 02, 2010

Photos: Scenes from the Boston Book Festival 2010

Tote bags, owl tattoos, and Tom Perrotta on parade
A horde of book lovers get lit in Copley Square. (Sweet owl tat on slide #12.)
By JAMES CHOCA | October 21, 2010

Interview: Oliver Sacks, on The Mind's Eye

Oliver Sacks floats some thoughts on biophilia, smoking pot, and anti-science lunacy
Over the past 40 years, since the publication of Migraine in 1970, neurologist Oliver Sacks has written 10 books and countless articles, examining what happens when specific parts of a human brain go haywire or stop working.
By AMY FINCH | October 21, 2010

Continuing Education October 2010

Looking to re-animate the corpse that is your dead-end career?
Or do you just need a new hobby? Check out our continuing-education listings, plus trades that'll make you apocalypse-proof, and ways to dip your toes into a career in literature.
By BOSTON PHOENIX CONTRIBUTORS | October 18, 2010

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Lit snobs, hot librarians, and the rise of the literary tattoo

Bookmarked
Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich was sitting down for a meal at Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, when she found herself under critique.
By EUGENIA WILLIAMSON | October 10, 2010

Lawton and le Carré share their information

Data basics
Information is dangerous currency.
By CLEA SIMON | October 05, 2010

Fall Books Preview: Reading list

Smartening up the seasonal transition
Even if you’re not back in the classroom, autumn inspires a desire to learn, to restore the intellectualism that was fried by too many beers and barbecues and sunburns. Fortunately, Portland is full this fall with opportunities to spark your smarts.
By DEIRDRE FULTON | September 15, 2010

Review: John Brandon's Citrus County

Creeps done well: Anti-social wonderland
Pre-teen creeps abound in contemporary cinema.
By EUGENIA WILLIAMSON | September 15, 2010

Interview: Maya Angelou shares her wisdom

Dare to be courageous
Though poet, writer, performer, teacher, and director Maya Angelou has made several visits to Rhode Island over the past two decades, her words of wisdom are always pointed reminders to those who have heard her speak before and wake-up calls to those who haven't.
By JOHNETTE RODRIGUEZ | September 14, 2010