Famous Short Story

A Critic at Large October 4, 2021 Issue Gayl Jones's Novels of Oppression In the author's work, colonization and racial hatred turn mother against child, Black against white, man against woman. By Hilton Als September 27, 2021 The real subject of her books is fracture: love begets violence at nearly every turn. Illustration by Xia Gordon Content In 1975, the professor and poet Michael S. Harper conducted a lengthy interview with Gayl Jones, a twenty-six-year-old writer from Lexington, Kentucky. Jones was a former graduate student of his in the literary-arts program at Brown University, and the occasion was the publication of her first book, "Corregidora," a short, baroque novel about love and history in Truman-era Kentucky. The novel had been edited by Toni Morrison, who was then working as a senior editor at Random House. (It was Harper who had first sent Jones's work to Morrison.) But Jones had attracted notice before she was accepted at Brown,...

When Sue Hoppin was in college, she met the man she was going to marry. "I was attending the University of Denver, and he was at the Air Force Academy," she says. "My dad had also attended the University of Denver and warned me not to date those flyboys from the Springs." "He didn't say anything about marrying one of them," she says. And so began her life as a military spouse. The life brings some real advantages, like opportunities to live abroad — her family got to live all around the US, Japan, and Germany — but it also comes with some downsides, like having to put your spouse's career over your own goals. "Though we choose to marry someone in the military, we had career goals before we got married, and those didn't just disappear." Career aspirations become more difficult to achieve, and progress comes with lots of starts and stops. After experiencing these unique challenges firsthand, Sue founded an organization to help other mil...

"I'm a firm believer that we have to tell our story; it has to be told as thoroughly and honestly as possible."  Black narratives coming from African Americans are important when working to liberate the mind. Recently, I spoke with Derrick Simmons whose childhood love for reading and writing materialized into several self-published book titles. His first book, Message To The Little Homies, was inspired while Simmons was incarcerated, having a phone conversation with his son. "The overall message in the book is to change the way that you see yourself, to change the way that you think, and by doing so, your behavior will automatically change. The book opens with a letter where I'm actually [writing a letter] "dear little homie" and I'm letting the little homie know that I know you are out in the streets, you [are] wilding out. But change is necessary! You need to change your life. So [i...

Depeche Mode will release an expanded, high-definition version of their 1989 documentary concert film  101  on Dec. 3. The original 1989 movie, a directorial husband-wife collaboration between D.A. Pennebaker ( Don't Look Back) and Chris Hegedus ( The War Room ), centered on Depeche Mode's trek from New York to California in support of their 1987 album Music for the Masses . The run culminating in the  band's final performance of the tour at the Pasadena Rose Bowl on June 18, 1988, which was documented on a 1989 live album. You can watch a trailer for the new deluxe box set featuring  101: A film by D.A. Pennebaker, Chris Hegedus, David Dawkins , below. "It's incredible to be able to see D.A. Pennebaker's film and this period of our career presented in this new high-definition light," Depeche Mode said in a press release. A Blu-ray disc will include three pr...

Have an event? Add it to our calendar. All submissions will be reviewed and approved within 24 hours. Events not located in and around the Route 1 corridor will not be approved.  « All Events October 3 @ 1:30 pm - 3:30 pm Join us in lovely Guilford Woods, a 15-acre remnant woods on the southern edge of the University of Maryland's College Park campus, for a guided nature walk and creative writing experience. Using the five senses and soaking up inspiration from these precious but endangered Woods, we will walk, observe, contemplate, think, and write. Sharing your work is optional but encouraged. Bring a snack, thermos, blanket or chair, and your writing materials to this free workshop led by Melissa Sites of the College Parks Arts Exchange. Meet up at 7591 Mowatt Lane Parking Garage. ...

A lecture ​ by the critic Christopher Ricks, now in his late eighties, is a properly theatrical affair. There is much leaning forward on the lectern, legs often crossed; hand frequently raised with intensity to brow (often furrowed, especially when quoting statements of folly); sheets of paper flipped away as though unnecessary to the performance (if you catch a glimpse of them they seem to contain little more than a word or a quotation), such paper flurries occurring particularly at times when in the sober medium of prose one might notice a hiccup or a rough conjunction in argument; meanwhile a building sweat, spreading from the armpits but also on the ample brow, conveys that this is stuff that gets the pulse racing. The words flow. Apt phrases from T.S. Eliot; some Bob Dylan; Samuel Johnson; much dazzle and many jokes; Keats-Byron-Tennyson-Dryden-Shakespeare-Beckett-Hill running giddily into each other; but each writer and observation given its space to illuminate and be illuminated...

Recent audiobook release "Life Is Too Short to Waste and Do Nothing" from Audiobook Network author Gracie Curry Holman is a compelling collection of poetry that discusses the significance of life and the importance of living it to the fullest. MINNEAPOLIS – September 27, 2021 – (Newswire.com) Gracie Curry Holman, who was born in a small town in Mississippi, has completed her new audiobook "Gracie Curry Holman": a gripping and potent collection of poetry that focuses on love, happiness, peace, and justice. This moving work contains poems including, "Now Is the Time," "I Cannot Live My Life in Fear," "I Am a Woman," "I Would Never," "I Am Fallen for You," "When I Was a Child," "Fought for Me," "I Will Share, and I Care," "Thank You for Another Day," "I Am Just Not a Color," "I Would Rather Be," "It's About Time," "The Vows We T...

Getty Images German conservative leader Armin Laschet is facing mounting unrest within his party, after their historic defeat in federal elections. As he and the other party leaders met colleagues to decide their next steps, support for his bid to form a coalition drained away. Bavarian Premier Markus Söder offered little hope when he said the centre left had the best chance. Election winner Olaf Scholz will need the support of two other parties. The Social Democrat leader called for urgent talks with the Greens and liberals, but their leaders planned to meet each other first. Mr Scholz has been buoyed by opinion polls that suggest widespread backing for a three-way government. Half of Germans want his party to run the country with the Greens and pro-business FDP in what they call a "traffic light" coalition, because of the party colours. The Bavarian premier said "there's a small possibility that the traffic light won't work": the conservatives were ready f...