JEWISH LITERATURE LIVE: Myla Goldberg describes her first novel Bee Season as a “personal” novel, but do not mistake personal for autobiographical. The tale of young Eliza Naumann, a spelling prodigy and potential mystic, is not Goldberg’s own. “My first spelling bee was in fourth grade. I lost on the word ‘tomorrow,’” she said when…
GW Today has spotlighted some famous writers that set their novels in DC! Two publications linked to the English department were highlighted. Congrats again to David McAleavey, Christina Daub, and Ramola Dharmaraj for their work on Full Moon on K Street. Congrats are also in order for Thomas Mallon whose book Fellow Travelers was chosen…
JEWISH LITERATURE LIVE It may seem hard to believe, but your beloved blogger (at least I hope I am beloved) was not always so studious and interested in books (read infiltrating the English department). Back in the day, I was just another five year old who could not recite the alphabet or tie her shoes….
Read more here. And Profs. Chris Sten and James Miller teach classes about DC literature. Do you have favorite “DC” books?
Here is a list of planned public events offered by the English Department this spring. There is lots available for students, faculty, staff, alumni, and friends in the wider community. Please put at least one of these events on your calendar. Several other events are in the works; please check back here for updates. JLL…
See this stack of books? English Honors students read them all … two at a time. Well, not really. But it’s a nice thought. I had a professor in college who had a photographic memory (really). In one class, he began reading Moby Dick and then closed the book and continued to “read.” For about…
Listen to GW English Ph.D. Dolen Perkins-Valdez in discussion with NPR’s Lynn Neary on a recent episode of the radio show “Tell Me More.” Dolen is promoting her new book Wench, which is set at an Ohio resort where white male slaveholders take their enslaved black mistresses. The book is based on an actual resort…
This just in from Prof. Maria Frawley: the hilarious-acerbic poem about class called “Did I Miss Anything?“ by Canadian poet Tom Wayman. Read the poem online here. And there is a fabulous “FAQ” with the poet about his poem at Canadian Poetry Online, where, among other things, Wayman reflects on why his poem has hit…
Last December, the English Department gave out 200 copies of Kalooki Nights, the challenging, sprawling, inspired, and ambitious 2006 novel by English writer Howard Jacobson, this year’s British Council UK Writer in Residence. Jacobson is a novelist, broadcaster, and journalist; London’s Independent, which publishes his weekly column, calls him an “acerbic cultural critic … known…
Gardening. What does the word mean to you? Perhaps new blossoms every spring or dirt underneath your fingernails. For most, the hobby of gardening is just that, a hobby. Maybe every so often a gardener will introduce home-grown vegetables into a family dinner, but mostly it’s a personal activity. Gardening as a food movement? Now,…
