Literature and Poetry
Finding Fame and Fortune As A Writer (Ha!)
Rose Madeline Mula writes: When people learn that I write, they immediately assume I've got it made. Look at J. K. Rowling, they think. Didn't she make a gazillion bucks (or in her case pounds) writing about that nerdy little wizard, Harry Potter? True. And my career does bear a striking resemblance to JK's, up to a point — the point where she went from being a struggling unknown, to cashing her first staggering royalty check. I'd be happy with a tiny percentage of her success. But how to achieve it? more »
Taylor Branch, Barbara Kingsolver, Katherine Paterson, Natasha Trethewey: Authors at the National Book Festival
Authors and poets Margaret Atwood, Marie Arana, Taylor Branch, Don DeLillo, Khaled Hosseini, Barbara Kingsolver, Brad Meltzer, Joyce Carol Oates, Katherine Paterson and Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey will be among writers speaking. New Library of Congress exhibits celebrate opera, the majestic art form that has transfixed audiences for more than 400 years, and the other exhibit celebrates what Martin Luther King Jr. called "the greatest demonstration for freedom in the nation’s history." more »
The Other Side of Silence; What Sounded Appealing Regardless of its Horror
Joan L. Cannon writes: “If we had a keen vision and feeling of all ordinary human life, it would be like hearing the grass grow and the squirrel’s heart beat, and we should die of that roar which lies on the other side of silence.” George Elliot, Middlemarch. Are we in a time when we forget that the silence at the end of a disaster of whatever kind hides a roar that only saints and philosophers have the stomach for? more »
An Interested Party Presents: For Whom the Troll Dwells
Trolls are symbolically linked to the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge East Span Replacement Project in many ways. The statue, designed by local blacksmith Bill Roan, was affixed to the upper deck of the old bridge by a team of ironworkers who helped repair the East Span after the Loma Prieta earthquake. The Bay Bridge troll appeared in secret, without Caltrans’ approval but the troll has garnered considerable local popularity. Renowned for their protective powers, longevity and superhuman strength, trolls represent a history and spirit that deserve to be both commemorated and continued. more »