If you’re ready to dive into literature’s spookiest genre, we’ve got a few suggestions to start with – 10 beloved horror books and some contemporary releases for a scary October read. Read more
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These immersive works of journalism follow ordinary Americans facing long odds. Read more
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Before MAD there were the funny papers, with their well-worn jokesters: Dagwood and Blondie, Archie and Jughead, Little Orphan Annie. The funnies were calculated to make you smile or (rarely) crack you up, but not to dangle you upside down and show you the sheer dimwitted lunacy of life itself. For that, comics reader, you had to wait for the advent of MAD, whose Usual Gang of Idiots poked smirking fun at cows both sacred and profane. Proudly unfurling its adolescent gibes, MAD was kin to wild card TV comedy like the Smothers Brothers and Laugh-In. Small visual doodads festooned its pages, and there were tiny, snide jokes strewn about like buried treasure. This was a device to make young readers pore over each panel repeatedly, while picking their noses and ignoring calls to come to the dinner table. MAD’s densely textured comic vibe inspired the Firesign Theatre, along with Dr. Demento, Monty Python, Second City, SNL, the Simpsons, the Onion, and on and on—a comic Valhalla. Read more
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Nye’s prize was announced Friday by the Academy of American Poets, which has previously given the award to Louise Glück, John Ashbery and Rita Dove among others. Nye, 72, is known for such collections as “Fuel,” “Yellow Queen” and “Grace Notes,” which came out this year. Read more
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The winners of the 2024 Kirkus Prize were announced on Oct. 16 at the 11th Annual Kirkus Prize awards at the Tribeca Rooftop in New York City. The prestigious literary award is presented by Kirkus Reviews, the leading pre-publication journal of book reviews in the U.S, and awarded to one author of fiction, nonfiction and young people’s literature. Read more
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As the master of myth and fantasy turns 90 today it’s a good time to look at his wide ranging canon – from Booker-nominated novels to children’s fiction, poetry and essays. Read more
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The 15th through 17th centuries saw a wave of “witch hunts” break out across the Western world: the Salem Witch Trials in Massachusetts, the 1428 Valais Hexen hunts in what is now Switzerland, and the myriad persecutions in Scotland and Ireland after the passage of the Witchcraft Acts of 1563 and 1586 (respectively) are only a few of the many witchcraft-related uproars that plagued Europe and America.
The idea of witches had been present in folklore all the way back to the time of the ancient Romans. But a persecution on this scale hadn’t occurred before across nations. What could have prompted these 300 years of deadly witch hunts? A new study published in the journal Theory and Society seems to have pinpointed the source of this outbreak of witchcraft panic. And as it turns out, the culprit for the deadly craze is none other than Johannes Gutenberg. No, the famed German inventor was not some master of the occult. But his most notable invention, the printing press, is what helped the massive spreading of a new theory of witchcraft in the 15th century, according to this study.
One particularly damaging mass-produced book—a text called Malleus Maleficarum, written in 1487 by Heinrich Kramer, a Dominican friar—reshaped how the Western world saw the practice of witchcraft. As the study writes, this new line of thinking “depicted witchcraft as conspiratorial activity against godly society and not simply mischief by village sorceresses, pagans, or ignorant peasants.”
More than just crafting a conspiracy theory, Malleus Maleficarum—which translates to “The Hammer of Evil-Doers”—also served as “the first printed guide for witch-hunters” Read more
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All four of the 2024 Forward prizes for poetry have been awarded to women: Victoria Chang won the £10,000 prize for best collection; Marjorie Lotfi’s book was named best first collection; Cindy Juyoung Ok won the prize for the best single poem (written); and Leyla Josephine was awarded the prize for the best single poem (performed). Read more
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Lore Segal, a virtuosic and witty author of autobiographical novels of her life as a young Jewish Viennese refugee in England and as an émigré in America, died on Monday at her home in Manhattan. Read more
The South Korean author, best known for “The Vegetarian,” is the first writer from her country to receive the prestigious award. Read more
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