Written by Alyssa Jingling In college, I have found that if a book isn’t by a dead white man or hasn’t been critiqued by James Wood, it’s typically not read. Young adult novels on the class syllabus? No way.
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Erin Hunter’s Bluestar: The Modern Tragic Victorian Heroine
We might be inclined to separate these tragic Victorian heroines from the protagonists of our modern literature, but a closer look at one novel suggests that this social suffocation has simply shifted into a new form — a feline form.
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Why Gladys Schmitt, Pittsburgh’s Pioneering Novelist and Professor, Deserves a Closer Look
Not many readers have heard of Gladys Schmitt outside of Pittsburgh. For that matter, not many readers have heard of Gladys Schmitt inside Pittsburgh.
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You Pick. No, Really: Interactive Media Allows Power Like You’ve Never Known
Think the only relevant piece of choose your own adventure literature is Netflix’s Black Mirror: Bandersnatch? Think again. And this time, think about it by playing staff writer Christie Basson’s choose your own adventure game…about choose your own adventure games. – Kylie Warkentin, Website Editor Play Here Relevant Links: What kind of content has…
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Of Werewolves and Walleye: Why Kid Rock Belongs in the American Horror Canon
“All Summer Long” is a story that—on the surface—appears to be nothing more than the tale of summer revelers in Northern Michigan, but the incredibly clever Kid Rock masterfully weaves a darker, more sinister story in the background.
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Idyll Generations: Sifting Through My Grandmother’s Bookshelves
I spent my winter break surrounded by stories both spoken and concrete. Over the past few months, my grandmother has been sifting through and donating objects around her ranch to make more space. After decluttering cabinets with my mother and unearthing old records with my uncle, she invited me to help her with the bookshelves. We spent a few days sorting through the bookshelves in her storeroom, then her hallway, then her bedroom, then her living room. To my excitement, Tennyson greeted us on three separate shelves like three chance encounters with a childhood friend.
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Slow Your Roll: A Reader’s Quest to Appreciate the Plotless Novel Using Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea
One hundred pages of an old man who sits in a little boat in the sea, trying to catch one fish. That’s it, that’s the plot!
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Why The Picture of Dorian Gray Wants What Cardi B Has
Since I Like It and The Picture of Dorian Gray both address the same themes, with some slight nuances, does this mean Cardi B acts as our critic against our dependence on material goods? The answer is an emphatic yes.
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“I Write Plays”: Walking Through The Terrence McNally Exhibit at the Harry Ransom Center
I sign my name in the guestbook of the Harry Ransom Center when I visit the Terrence McNally exhibit for the second time. Alongside the academics and the Northerners and the enthusiasts, “UT Student” is a nondescript designation. If a stack of brochures had been available, I might’ve picked one up, slipped it into my notebook, and kept it in the same way I keep playbills. This little waiting room—his little waiting room, he might correct with mock seriousness—has a theatre’s pre-show silence, as well as the headshot of the balding playwright who has written the show. He is eighty years old, the display tells me. I give the old man an impressed nod, and I turn the corner into the larger exhibit. There are no curtains hanging here, but somehow I expect to hear their heavy fabric drawing back. Maybe there are pulleys squeaking as they reveal the unlit stage.
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Three Literary Power Couples that Enamored the World with their Romance and Writings
Honestly, there is nothing better than two awesome creative spirits joining forces and elevating each other to new levels. This holds especially true in the literary world. While many romanticize the tortured writer, sitting in the lonely dark with nothing but their typewriter, we need not look far to see proof that creativity feeds creativity.
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The Novelty of the Non-Novel: A Reflection on House of Leaves and Its Nontraditional Contradictions
There are some books that are better read standing up—others that are best digested lying in bed. There are few books, however, that are best enjoyed in front of a mirror at 3 o’clock in the morning. For anyone who has read Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves, this image might seem familiar—it may even reflect their own experience reading it for the first time.
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Connections and Confessions: Finding Understanding in Plath and Confessional Poetry
“I’m surprised you’re not analyzing Daddy,” my poetry professor, Dr. D’Arcy Randall, said as we discussed my Sylvia Plath research project. “So much of your poetry is based around your family struggles.”
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