Literature

Clamoring For Tolstoy...In Juvie?

Virginia Prescott — Tue, 21 May 2013 14:22:45 +0000

“Books Behind Bars” is program which pairs undergraduates from the University of Virginia with inmates at the Beaumont Juvenile Correctional Center to read classic Russian literature. Prison staff notice a marked change in behavior among inmates who take the class, and researchers have documented similar improvements in decision-making, social skill, and civic engagement among prisoners and undergrads who participate in the class.

Dusting Off The Classics: Why You Should Revisit Your High School Reading List

Virginia Prescott — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 13:45:07 +0000

Kevin Smokler is setting out to resurrect America’s long-ago encounters. Works such as The Great Gatsby, Fahrenheit 451 and Bartleby: The Scrivener, skimmed and discarded by 15 year-old high school hands in days of yore, are being taken off the shelf, dusted off, and re-explored by the same pair of older, more experienced eyes. By compiling a list of fifty high school “classics”, Kevin spent ten months re-reading the stories that have become distant, unquestionable deities in the eyes of many middle-aged Americans. What he found was profound; and in some ways, unexpected. Kevin, now 39, amassed his thoughts and findings in his new book Practical Classics: Fifty Reasons to Reread Fifty Books You Haven’t Touched Since High School.

Is 'In Cold Blood' Tainted By Found Documents?

Virginia Prescott — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 17:30:29 +0000

Nearly half a century ago, Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood detailed the savage murder of the Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas. That book is regarded as a literary landmark… the first so-called “nonfiction novel” that brought the true crime genre to the mainstream and cemented Capote’s celebrity status. It’s inspired three films, among them, “Capote,” in 2005, which earned a best actor Oscar for Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Sherlock Holmes, Zen Master?

Virginia Prescott — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 17:09:53 +0000

Enthusiasm for the fictional British detective is hardly new. When Sir Arthur Conan Doyle killed off Sherlock Holmes in an 1893 issue of Strand magazine, 20,000 readers canceled their subscriptions. Doyle succumbed and revived the character in dozens more stories before his own death in 1930. While the appeal of Sherlock Holmes coincided with the rise of popular science in the late Victorian era, today’s Sherlock-mania may be connected to a more 21^st century concept: mindfulness.

"The Hobbit": A Scholar's Perspective

Taylor Quimby — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 19:24:37 +0000

Corey Olsen, English Professor at Washington College and author of the book “Exploring J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit”, discusses the lasting appeal and tonal evolution of the classic children’s novel.

Exploring the End of the World

Virginia Prescott — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 15:40:32 +0000

If you don’t believe in Mayan calendars, and you’re not too worried about the next rapture that supposed to happen, then you’re probably not too concerned about the world ending anytime soon. But has the thought ever crossed your mind?

The e-Text Revolution

Sam Evans-Brown — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 15:37:44 +0000

With E-book sales outpacing print books, the days of the heavyweight backpack are numbered. In New Hampshire, thirty-three public schools banded together to purchase E-books instead of textbooks. Producer Sam Evans-Brown finds out why public schools are making the switch now, and why the long wait.

Read and Listen to Sam's story here.

Susan Orlean Brings Us the Story of Rin Tin Tin

Virginia Prescott — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 17:01:12 +0000

Author, essayist, and staff writer for The New Yorker Susan Orlean takes vivid snapshots of people who live way off the beaten path.

What Color was Christ?

Virginia Prescott — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 16:06:55 +0000

If you grew up in a religious home with a portrait of Jesus on the wall, he was probably portrayed as brown-haired, brown eyed, and Caucasian. But have you ever wondered why a Judaic man born in the Middle East would look like an aquiline-nosed Northern European? Edward J. Blum is a professor of history at San Diego State University, and along with Paul Harvey, is author of “The Color of Christ: The Son of God and the Saga of Race in America".

Bringing Back Noir...for the Tablet

Virginia Prescott — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 18:27:08 +0000

For many, the noir genre lived and died in those smokey, black-and-white films and pages of dog-eared pulp fiction in the mid 20^th century. Now, a Kickstarter project led by long-time magazine veterans Nancie Clare and Rip Gorges aim to give the noir genre the digital age treatment, with video, animation and rich media. Also with us is Megan Abbott

Because It's Pretty Hard to Catch a Pyramid

Virginia Prescott — Tue, 08 May 2012 16:15:25 +0000

John Fox, author of The Ball: Discovering the Object of the Game, discusses his findings on the history of this unassuming human artifact.

A Poem Store Open For Business, In The Open Air

Cindy Carpien — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 07:01:00 +0000

Zach Houston runs his Poem Store (on any given sidewalk) with these items: a manual typewriter, a wooden folding chair, scraps of paper, and a white poster board that reads: "POEMS — Your Topic, Your Price."

Houston usually gets from $2 to $20 for a poem, he says. He's received a $100 bill more than once. The Oakland, Calif., resident has been composing spontaneous street poems in the San Francisco Bay Area since 2005. Five years ago, it became his main source of income.

"I quit my last conventional job on April Fools' Day, 2007," says Houston, 29.

Rethinking Frankenstein

Todd Bookman and Virginia Prescott — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 15:03:05 +0000

A literary critic turns a much-held notion of the parable of Mary Shelly's story on its head.

Three-Minute Fiction Round 8: She Closed The Book...

Sat, 10 Mar 2012 05:01:00 +0000

Ready for some creative competition? Weekends on All Things Considered is launching Round 8 of its Three-Minute Fiction contest. Here's what we look for: original, short fiction that can be read in less than three minutes — that's no more than 600 words.

Each round, we have a judge who gives us a writing challenge.

Langston Hughes - I Too Sing America

NHPR Staff — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 16:54:21 +0000

Langston Hughes, an enduring icon of the Harlem Renaissance, is best-known for his written work, which wedded his fierce dedication to social justice with his belief in the transformative power of the word. But he was a music lover, too, and some of the works he was most proud of were collaborations with composers and musicians. Hosted by Terrance McKnight, WQXR host and former Morehouse professor of music, I, Too, Sing Americawill dive into the songs, cantatas, musicals and librettos that flowed from Hughes’ pen.