Katherine Anne Porter (1890-1980) was born Callie Russel Porter to Harrison Boone Porter and Mary Alice (Jones) Porter. Her father had a cousin who was an American writer: O. Henry, whose real name was William Sydney Porter. Perhaps those literary genes ran in the family. When Callie was two years old, her mother died and […]
Tag Archives: Francine Friedman
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Stories are a part of life. They’re everywhere. We relate them over the phone to friends who live miles away. We share some tales of our youth to our children during those rare moments when we have their undivided attention. We hear their own stories when we ask how their days went at school. We […]
So many choices, where to begin? For years, newspapers have been dividing bestsellers into Fiction and Non-fiction. Yet if one digs deeper into these two genres, a stream of sub-genres emerges. FICTION: Fantasy explores alternate worlds, timelines, and universes, often taking individuals from reality into an entirely imagined realm. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings may […]
Although I enjoy reading many genres, fiction is my favorite. I love to be transported to another neighborhood, city, state, country, continent, or world. Nonetheless, I was talking with a friend about global affairs, when she recommended a non-fiction book, Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea. Before reading the book, I wanted to […]
Grammar rules rule—or do they? They certainly did in my day. As a grade school student many decades ago, I would anxiously approach the blackboard when called upon to diagram sentences. The challenge back then was analogous to completing a crossword puzzle in The New York Times today. Years later when I was teaching English […]
Paging through the same book more than once is normal — especially if it’s a dictionary, a reference handbook, a cookbook or a book of poetry. Who can always recall how to spell “tchotchke” . . . or correct verb usage with collective nouns . . . or a recipe that one only makes occasionally. […]
I’ve always been drawn to the power of words to bring people together, to teach, and to help others. It began with an innocent launch when I was in grade school. We lived in a six-flat building in Chicago, and it seemed to me that our neighbors needed to connect more with one another. So […]
When my husband and I were newly married, our favorite date nights involved dinner and a movie. If we didn’t have the time—or the funds—to do both, we ate leftovers before heading for the theater. In the days before video cassettes, CDs and cable TV, movies were a significant source of entertainment. Of course, they […]
Louis “Studs” Terkel was born in the Bronx in 1912 to Russian-Jewish parents who relocated to Chicago when he was eleven. His father opened a rooming house for immigrants, which introduced the young Terkel to people of all cultures and ethnic backgrounds. No wonder his books are filled with such memorable characters. Studs got his […]