Sarah Webster Fabio

Sarah Webster Fabio: Mother of Black Studies

Poet, teacher, musician, and scholar of black literature, Sarah Webser Fabio, helped build a Black Arts movement on the West Coast.
Luise Adelgunde Victoria Gottsched

Traduttore, Traditore: Is Translation Ever Really Possible?

Translator, traitor, goes the Italian expression, although something may be lost in the translation.
Violette Personified NYPL Collections

Personification Is Your Friend: The Language of Inanimate Objects

Studies have shown that anthropomorphizing not only helps us learn. It also serves a social function, helping us feel connected.
Dandy pickpockets, diving published in The caricature magazine, or Hudibrastic mirror, by G.M. Woodward, vol. 5, Folio 75

Bowie, Wilde, and the Fin de Siècle Dandies

Exploring the David Bowie/Oscar Wilde/French bohemian dandies connection.
Salaam Reads

The Importance of Publishing Muslim-Themed Children’s Books

Simon & Schuster has established a new imprint of children's books geared towards publishing Muslim characters and stories.
Falling lowercase letters

Do You Even Language, Bro? Understanding Why Nouns Become Verbs

Understanding the phenomenon known as "verbing"--where nouns are turned into verbs. 
Green Island: A novel by Shawna Yang Ryan

“Green Island” Sheds Light on Taiwan’s Tumultuous Past

Shawna Yang Ryan's "Green Island," explores the 2-28 massacre, in which tens of thousands of Taiwanese were killed by Kuomintang troops in 1947. 
The Firebrand and the First Lady Portrait of a Friendship: Pauli Murray, Eleanor Roosevelt, and the Struggle for Social Justice By Patricia Bell-Scott

Pauli Murray: Eleanor Roosevelt’s Brilliant (Black, Feminist, Queer, Trailblazing) Friend

Patricia Bell-Scott's new book explores the friendship between Eleanor Roosevelt and Pauli Murray, the poet and civil rights activist. 
Rushdie at Pen America/Free Expression Literature, May 2014. © Ed Lederman/PEN American Center

Is the Fatwa Against Salman Rushdie Real?

$600,000 dollars have been added to the original fatwa against Salman Rushdie. But Khomeini's declaration may not have been a real fatwa after all.
The Portable Veblen, by Elizabeth McKenzie

How Life in the Age of Conspicuous Consumption Can Drive You Nuts

Elizabeth McKenzie's "The Portable Veblen" concerns a character named Veblen, a woman who feels keenly the ideas of the great economist.