poetry
Joy Harjo named first Native American poet laureate
"I share this honor with ancestors and teachers who inspired in me a love of poetry," the 68-year-old poet said.
Originally, Poe envisioned a parrot — not a raven
Quoth the parrot — "Squawk! Nevermore."
Why American history lives between the cracks
The stories we tell define history. So who gets the mic in America?
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Saudade: the untranslatable word for the presence of absence
Saudade: the untranslatable Portuguese word that names the presence of absence and takes melancholy delight in what's gone.
6 famous writers who never made a dime
We all love the art, but we often forget the difficulty of being an artist. Here are some of the most famous, greatest writers of all time who never could quite make a living doing it.
How reading rewires your brain for higher intelligence and empathy
Get lost in a good book. Time and again, reading has been shown to make us healthier, smarter, and more empathic.
So How Does a Person Win a Nobel Prize in Literature?
How do you win a Nobel Prize in Literature? First you must get nominated, then it gets hard.
Why Bob Dylan Deserves a Nobel Prize in Literature
Though the logic of the Nobel committee is pretty easy to glean when it comes to the sciences, in other, less-defined categories, it surprises on a fairly regular basis.
Science And Poetry Both Depend On Metaphors
Science's signature moves share something with good poetry. Good metaphor-making can make geniuses of both kinds. But bad metaphors can mislead whole fields.
Was Bob Dylan the 20th Century’s Shakespeare?
We didn’t mind Maureen Dowd’s dismantling of (whatever remains of) the mythologizing of Dylan as a hero for/of protest. There was a moment in time when Dylan was hero for […]
Elizabeth Alexander on Teaching and Learning Poetry
The poet covers poetry’s dynamics, from graduate to grade school.
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8 min
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