If Marian Engel had not died mid-career, her name might have been as well known today as Margaret Atwood's today. Instead her name graces an award granted to a Canadian female writer mid-career by the Writers' Trust. A variety of forms, a strong feminist voice, challenging female characters, a fascination
Do you ever feel the weight of your stack? Many of the books I've been reading have been rigorous and demanding. Commodore Ajith Boyagoda's story of imprisonment in Sri Lanka, Marcelino Truong's memories of coming-of-age in Vietnam between 1961 and 1963, Shirin Ebadi's work for human rights in Iran, Solmaz
Readers meet a woman up in the air. Literally. She is flying to Athens, where she will teach a course in creative writing. This is Outline. Perhaps partly because she could instruct in the art of outlining, demonstrate for her students the art of constructing a framework on which
"She was bodacious. She was outrageous. She enjoyed shaking things up." One contributor to the "Jump at the Sun" documentary about Zora Neale Hurston described her this way. Peter Bagge's new graphic biography suggests "unencumbered passion" and "grit" (Fire!!! The Zora Neale Hurston Story). In Alice Walker's essay, which opens
It occurs to me that I should have a series of posts titled "I Forgot My Key". Because what that inevitably means is that I must find a warm or cool place to wait until Mister BIP is due home. Which translates into an impromptu library visit. For the past
