Reading Writers’ Letters & Diaries: What’s the Draw?

When we are young, our diaries and journals are filled with the silly and the [...]

Nathaniel Hawthorne and the Horrors of Salem

On images of the Salem Witch Trials in historical romance, horror, and collective memory. Nathaniel [...]

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5 Books of Essays That Inspire My Writing

Recently, my friend told me a story about when she went surfing in South Africa. [...]

Why Do Stories Matter?

Why do stories matter? A college professor asked our class this once. Why do stories [...]

The Rise of Hamilton

If you haven’t heard about the little show about a Founding Father that started out [...]

The Marathon of Infinite Jest

A novel 1,079 pages long is not the best one to start reading on a [...]

Five Great Film Adaptations of American Literature

5. No Country for Old Men (2007, dir. Joel and Ethan Coen) Cormac McCarthy’s novels [...]

Reading Novels…Again?

Paging through the same book more than once is normal — especially if it’s a [...]

Stuart Brent Books: A Memory

Stuart Brent Books was a magical bookstore on Chicago’s Michigan Avenue, owned and managed by [...]

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At Home With Hemingway

In the middle of summer on the beautiful campus of Dominican University in Oak Park, [...]

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