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‘The Power’ is Coming Soon to Prime Video

The Power, is an emotionally-driven global thriller, based on Naomi Alderman’s international award-winning novel. The world of The Power is our world, but for one twist of nature. Suddenly, and without warning, teenage girls develop the power to electrocute people at will. Watch trailer

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John Steinbeck’s House May Become a Writers Retreat

John Steinbeck’s home in Long Island’s Sag Harbor may soon secure its place in literary history, thanks to an impassioned coalition of readers, writers, and booksellers. The Sag Harbor Partnership; the town of Southampton, N.Y.; and the University of Texas at Austin have joined forces to purchase Steinbeck’s beloved summer cottage, which is currently for sale for the first time in 60 years. The goal: to preserve the property to use as a writers retreat, hosted by UT Austin’s Michener Center for Writers. Read more

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Ling Ma’s ‘Bliss Montage’ Wins $20,000 Story Prize

Ling Ma’s “Bliss Montage,” a collection which blends the real and the surreal, has won the Story Prize for best short fiction … The two other finalists, Andrea Barrett for “Natural History” and Morgan Talty for “Night of the Living Rez,” each will get $5,000. Read more

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How America Manufactures Poverty

How is it that the United States, a country with a gross domestic product “larger than the combined economies of Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom, India, France, and Italy,” has a higher relative poverty rate than those other advanced democracies? Why do one in eight Americans, and one in six children, live in poverty—a rate about the same as it was in 1970? Why do we put up with it? Read more

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I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai

This engrossing novel by the author of “The Great Believers” is many different books at once. It is a boarding school novel, offering an encapsulated view of a world within a world. It is a cold-case mystery in which readers learn new information along with the characters. It is an adult-revisiting-childhood story in which a narrator considers the past from a different viewpoint. It is also a perceptive commentary on contemporary society. These elements come together seamlessly in a fast-paced mystery. Read more

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Kenzaburo Oe, Nobel Prize-Winning Japanese Writer, Dies Aged 88

Spanning fiction and essays, Oe’s work tackled a wide range of subjects from militarism and nuclear disarmament to innocence and trauma, and he became an outspoken champion for the voiceless in the face of what he regarded as his country’s failures. Regarded by some in Japan as distinctly western, Oe’s style was often likened to William Faulkner; in his own words, in his writing he would “start from my personal matters and then link it up with society, the state and the world” Read more