One of the few good things to be said about 2020 is that it gave us plenty of time to read. Of the dozens of books we borrowed, bought, Kindled, and Audibled, each of us had one stand-out favorite. Presenting our top book picks for 2020, perfect for gifting to yourself …
She was just 19 when she wrote her classic horror novel during a rainy, claustrophobic summer in Switzerland in 1816. But what Mary Godwin Shelley created in her half-dead monster Frankenstein would haunt reader’s imaginations for centuries to come. Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin was born in London in 1797. Her mother, …
Purple hippos, pastel pink pigs and adorably sweet, not-scary-at-all monsters are what illustrator and author Sandra Boynton is best known for. But did you know that the woman who began designing greeting cards to earn money in college also has a Grammy nomination to her famous name? It’s just one …
Most of what I know about poetry can be summed up in this opening line: “There once was a girl from Nantucket …” I’m kidding, of course (kind of). But we’re talking poetry today because American poet Louise Glück was just awarded the 2020 Nobel Prize for Literature. In announcing …
She lived 95 years, as many years as necessary to complete the work she felt called to do. And the FBI maintained a file on her up until the end. Educator. Newspaper publisher. Civil rights activist. Housing and labor rights advocate. Outspoken critic of police violence. Vice presidential candidate. Charlotta …
She was the first Black woman to publish a book of poems in America. But it wasn’t until she turned 25 that Phillis Wheatley was allowed to decide her own name.
Shirley Jackson wrote more than 200 short stories, but it’s just one that puts her work at the top of the list of the most frequently banned literature in the world.