I rang in the new year in rural West Virginia, far from cell phone towers or, for that matter, a satellite connection to transmit images of the ball dropping in Times Square. Although I felt a bit disconnected from my annual TV ritual, the night sky was dark enough for star-watching, a rarity in Washington…
GW Professorial Lecturer in English Matt Fullerty, who is currently teaching ENGL 62 (Comedy) and ENGL 52W (English Literature), recently found himself in the middle of a national news story in the UK. Last weekend, a human skull was dug up in the garden of broadcaster/naturalist Sir David Attenborough in London. It turns out to…
Margaret Atwood’s hair sticks out in all directions, almost as if each curl has some obscure thought attached to it. Most of those thoughts lead to award-winning novels, such as The Handmaid’s Tale, about a Utopian society gone dangerously wrong as they often do in literature. Atwood’s latest novel, The Year of the Flood, also…
What do you think of when you hear the name, Michael Chabon? Comic books? Coming of age? Judaism? Pittsburgh? Movie adaptations? Chances are marijuana was probably not on that list. So when the lights dimmed in Lisner Auditorium this past Friday night and Chabon cracked the spine of his new collection of nonfiction essays, Manhood…
What does Cuba mean to you? To be entirely candid with you, my only experience with Cuba is its delicious cuisine. However, Cuba has always fascinated me with its rich cultural and political history. Last night’s reading with author and journalist, Mayra Montero only solidified that interest. As H.G. Carrillo emphasized in his warm introduction…
I have a confession to make, I am a Michael Chabon addict. My first Chabon high came from The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay. With spunky Sam Clay and rogue Joe Kavalier as the heroes, I discovered a new passion for comic books or at least the history of them, a new favorite book,…
From the latest edition: Touring a National Treasure Alumnus shows students Library of Congress’ riches A tour of the Library of Congress allowed students to admire the building’s remarkable artwork and architecture. Photo by Rick Reinhard As they perused the personal collection of one of our nation’s founding fathers, GW students took a break from…
To commemorate our GW-British Council Writer in Residence, the British Council is generously providing a substantial book fund. Nadeem Aslam has drawn up a list of contemporary British fiction he would like to see in the Gelman Library purchased through this fund. Here it is: Haunts of the Black Masseur – Charles Sprawson Redundancy of…
from the latest edition of the GW student publication le culte du moi American Girls by Jane Shore The first of the dolls she asked for was Addy, a Negro slave escaped from the Civil War. Addy arrived at Emma’s sixth birthday party wearing her historically accurate dress, drawers, stockings, cap-toed boots, and carrying a…
From Laura Sinaga’s review of Gayle Wald’s Shout, Sister, Shout! The Untold Story of Rock-and-Roll Trailblazer Sister Rosetta Tharpe in today’s NYT Book Review: In the 1940s, when big bands were hiring pretty girls with sweet voices to bob over their beats, Tharpe fronted Lucky Millinder’s raucous swing outfit with gutsy force. In the late…
