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A Romance Salon: American Royalty Tracey Livesay’s steamy rom-com American Royalty is the first in a new series inspired by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s real-life love story. Rapper Danielle “Duchess” Nelson turns the palace upside down when she falls for reclusive Prince Jameson. Livesay will discuss her work, answer questions, and sign copies at […]

Say his name

As a youth, George Floyd dreamed of being a Supreme Court justice, a professional athlete, a rap star.  Washington Post reporters Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa document those dreams and the impact of systemic racism on Floyd’s life in their book, His Name is George Floyd: One Man’s Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice. […]

Candy unlimited

Writing a book is an admirably impressive feat in its own right, but adapting an Old English epic—that happens to be quite violent—into a tale palatable for children? Yeah, Zach Weinersmith did that. Bea Wolf (pronounced Bee-wolf) is Weinersmith’s illustrated, comedic retelling of Beowulf that follows a gang of troublemaking kids as they defend their […]

A chorus of perspectives

The poems in John Keene’s latest collection, Punks: New & Selected Poems, span three decades, saturated with the desire, loss, and reflections of a Black gay man who lived through the early days of the AIDS epidemic and continues to navigate our contemporary traumas and tragedies. Keene received the 2022 National Book Award for Poetry […]

Foraging for facts

One day, Psyche Williams-Forson’s daughter stopped letting her father pack Ghanaian food for her lunch. Her lunchbox smelled different than others, and she didn’t want to be made fun of. This is still a familiar scene for some American students coming from migrant families, and unless people rethink their understanding of food culture, it will […]

Ann Beattie has More to Say

Known best for her short stories and novels, author Ann Beattie recently published More to Say: Essays & Appreciations, a collection of short nonfiction. The winner of numerous awards, Beattie brings her keen insight and sense of language to these curated pieces, all of which were originally published between 1982 and 2022 in a variety […]

‘Words to subvert fear’ 

In Soul Culture: Black Poets, Books, and Questions that Grew Me Up by Remica Bingham-Risher, the poet and essayist, reflects on her life and the influences of the Black poetry community, as framed by interviews with 10 influential mentors. An Affrilachian Poet, Cave Canem fellow, and winner of the Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Award as […]

Speculative memoir

In Sofia Samatar’s latest book, The White Mosque, the author and James Madison University professor weaves stories from her life together with histories of a group of Russian Mennonites who migrated to what is now Uzbekistan. Ak Metchet, which means “white mosque,” is the name of the Uzbek village that was settled by 19th-century Mennonites […]