LiteraryTraveler.net

W.B. Yeats in 1907 by Augustus John

William Butler Yeats is not only a Nobel Prize winner, but he’s also  a major figure in the literary revival of Ireland during the 20th century.  Yeats brought his own unique style and lyrical quality to every poem, and even play, that he ever wrote.  For example, here is what Yeats writes about autumn in Ireland:

AUTUMN is over the long leaves that love us,
And over the mice in the barley sheaves;
Yellow the leaves of the rowan above us,
And yellow the wet wild-strawberry leaves.

The hour of the waning of love has beset us,
And weary and worn are our sad souls now;
Let us part, ere the season of passion forget us,
With a kiss and a tear on thy drooping brow.

The Falling of the Leaves by W.B. Yeats

Yeats evoked not only the seasons, but the beauty of the Irish countryside, finding the magical and exquisite quality in all of nature.  Yeats was also especially interested in the supernatural.  He wrote about fairies and other elements of mysticism.  As writer Wendy Hawkin says in her article Conjuring Yeats, “he spun a magical web around the west, transforming it into the most mystical landscape in the whole of Ireland.”

To be especially Irish this year, pick up a volume of Yeats’ poetry or read one of his indelible plays.  To continue reading about Yeats, please check out:

Conjuring Yeats

Go to Know: Yeats’ Ireland

Selected Yeats’ poetry from Poets.org

St. Patty’s Day is on the way.  Although it’s only a small, religious celebration in Ireland, we Americans know how to take a holiday and turn it into debauchery and fun!  All this week, in honor of St. Patrick’s Day (March 17th), we’re blogging about Irish writers, starting with arguably the most famous of them all: James Joyce.

To find the spirit of James Joyce, you have to travel all over Europe.  To start, it’s best to visit his native Ireland–just as writer Mike Karsnak did for his James Joyce pub crawl through Dublin.  Immerse yourself in Ulysses and start drinking your way through Dublin’s literary pubs.  Joyce would have loved the raucous and the tribute to him and his work.  Forget the lush green countryside and start drinking!

You might want to move onto Trieste, Italy, Joyce’s favorite city, to find his teaching roots and love of culture and language.  Writer Kit Snedaker discusses how Joyce taught English, but also befriended an Italian family and learned their dialect of Italian.  He also used this Trieste inspiration for his literary works and even got his Italian friend published.

If you want to pay your respects to Joyce’s grave, you must travel to Zurich, Switzerland.  As Jennifer Eisenlau writes, Joyce’s grave is somewhat of an anomaly.  No one seems to know where it is and there is no fanfare surrounding his tombstone.  However, with Eisenlau’s help, you can most certainly find it and celebrate Joyce in his remote place of rest.

So start celebrating St. Patty’s Day early with LT.  Here are some Joyce articles to help you get in the festive mood:

A ‘Moral Pub’ Crawl Through James Joyce’s Dublin

James Joyce A Portrait of The Artist in Trieste

A Visit to James Joyce’s Grave

Oh, Brazil.  We all want to go there.  The beaches of paradise, the beautiful people, the hot sand between our toes.  But Brazil offers more than fun and sun.  In fact, it’s downright literary.  There is a great lyricist from Itapua, Brazil by the name of Vinicius de Moraes.  He wrote poetry of Brazilian naturalism and created lyrics to Bossa nova music, which infuses the sounds of Brazilian samba and mellow jazz with a bit of pop.

Bossa nova translates to “a new way of doing things” and Vinicius certainly paved his own way in the Brazilian literary scene.  Seasoned writer (and a once inhabitant of Itapua) Eleanor Stanford discusses Vinicius’ contributions to literature in Brazil:

Literary Traveler: As author of The Book of Sleep, how did living in Itapua, Brazil influence you as a poet?  How does Vinicius de Moraes’ poetry influence yours?

Eleanor Stanford: I was influenced by the language, the landscape, and by the people I met. Vinicius’ poetry is not a direct influence on mine, but I admire his mellifluous and sensual language, in both his poems and his samba lyrics.

LT: Since Vinicius writes in his poetry about the setting of Itapua, do you think Brazil’s natural setting inspires the poet more than, let’s say, the United States?  Or would you disagree with this statement, since in The Book of Sleep, you write about mundane things such as New Jersey and Barbie dolls?

ES: I think it depends on the poet. But any place can inspire poems. It has more to do with the internal state of the writer. That receptive state can sometimes be facilitated by being in an exotic or beautiful location. But it is also highly individual and capricious; a resonant place for one writer might be mundane or ugly to another. And the ideal, I suppose, would be to tap into that inspiration wherever one happens to find oneself.

LT: Are there any other literary sites in and around Itapua, Brazil that you would recommend to our literary travelers?

ES: Downtown Salvador, which is 45 minutes or so from Itapuã, has Fundação Casa Jorge Amado, a museum dedicated to Jorge Amado, Bahia’s most famous literary son.

Please continue reading our latest article, A Brazilian Afternoon in Vinicius’ Itapua.

Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” is a short story worth remembering.  I won’t ruin the ending for you if you haven’t read it … but it’s quite frankly one of the most memorable and bizarre endings in literary history.  It’s no wonder that Utne Reader has decided to revisit the publishing of “The Lottery” in The New Yorker in 1948.

I first read “The Lottery” in elementary school in a program called Junior Grade Books.  I recall being bored by a lot of the stories we were required to read, but when we started “The Lottery” I felt an immediate attachment to it.  I loved the way Jackson describes the heightened tension–but without letting the reader in on the big surprise.  At the end, I was completely shocked as were the rest of the kids in my class.

Fast forward to nearly 15 years later.  As a Peace Corps volunteer in Estonia, I taught English as a foreign language.  My advanced class loved reading American and British literature and it was a good way to build their context clue reading skills.  Therefore, I gave them “The Lottery” to read.  And they loved it too.  Only one student foresaw the ending while the others were left in the dark as I was reading it for the first time as a kid.

As Utne Reader reports, when “The Lottery” first came out, readers of The New Yorker were horrified and disgusted, even canceling subscriptions and flooding Jackson with hate mail.  My, how times have changed.  As a society we’ve gotten much darker.  Is that a good thing?

Join us in celebrating “The Lottery” with our article entitled Shirley Jackson’s Outsider Perspective of Bennington, Vermont.

Karl Marx is a controversial figure.  Some people grimace with the mention of his name while others celebrate his contributions to political history.  Marxism was a political ideology that swept through Europe and still exists today in some forms, even in democracy.  We may not embrace Marxism fully, but whether or not you realize it, you may be engaging in a Marxist principle … and liking it!

For this installment of “Behind The Article,” we asked Steven Hermans, writer of our latest article entitled Karl Marx’s Revolutionary Brussels, about Marxism today and politics in Belgium:

Literary Traveler: As you discussed in the article, Karl Marx’s communist vision had appeal with the poor masses.  In this deep recession, do you think communism will have a comeback?

Steven Hermans: Having traveled extensively in the former Soviet Union, I can safely say that communism is well and truly dead. Although the good sides of communist society are underreported in the West, I don’t think the idea of a dictatorial rule is appealing to anyone anymore, not to mention communism’s economic and environmental problems. Marxism however is alive more than ever, as we can see in the global protests against bankers, stock traders and multinationals, and with the demise of capitalism as we know it I see socialism making a comeback.

LT: How do Belgians view their current political system?

SH: It’s always tricky to speak about Belgians, since the country is so deeply divided between the Dutch-speaking and the French-speaking part. To generalize, I think most Belgians look at the current anarchy with apathy. Belgians are not patriotic people: as long as they and their families are doing fine, the state’s wounds can continue to fester.

LT: Since you live in Brussels, are there any literary sites you would recommend?

SH: I recommend the Comic Strip Museum. Belgium has a long and rich history of comics and graphic novels, and it is often referred to as the ninth art in Belgium and France. If you are not interested in comics, you can still admire the magnificent building: the Wacquez warehouse built by the famous architect Victor Horta in 1906. It’s the most beautiful Art Nouveau building in Brussels in my opinion.

Please continue reading Karl Marx’s Revolutionary Brussels.

Colin Firth is certainly a handsome brooder.  He’s made his mark on literary television when he played the always brooding Mr. Darcy in the BBC miniseries of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.  For those of us–especially the ladies–who remember this epic series in 1995, we all remember Colin Firth’s scene stealing dark glares.

Firth has made quite a bit of money off of the literary.  In fact, he played the modern version of Mr. Darcy as the character of Mark Darcy, a lawyer from a well-established, British family, in Bridget Jones’ Diary.  The movie was a modern and quirky adaption of Pride and Prejudice.  Firth then continued his literary movie success acting in hits such as Shakespeare in Love, The Importance of Being Earnest, Dorian Gray and A Christmas Carol.

For anyone who has seen Colin Firth in his latest movie, The King’s Speech, you’re probably not surprised to hear he’s a favorite to win the Oscar for Best Actor.  The King’s Speech is not exactly literary, but it is historical.  It keeps in line with Firth’s career, which is to put quality over anything else.

So what do you think, will Colin Firth win the Oscar?

We’ve celebrated African American and African writers, so now it’s time to look to the Caribbean.  Usually, people think of palm trees, flawless beaches, aqua waters and beach-side resorts.  The Caribbean islands certainly have all of that, but they also hold a great literary tradition.

I was introduced to Caribbean writers during my semester abroad at the University of the West Indies or UWI (pronounced “you-ee”) in Cave Hill, Barbados in 1999.  I took a class with a flaming, red-haired, white Jamaican professor.  I thought it funny, a little white woman with a huge Jamaican accent resounding throughout the lecture hall.  It was she who introduced me to one of my favorite books of all time: Annie John by Jamaica Kincaid, an author from Antigua.

Several years later in Boston, while taking a grad class at Harvard, another professor introduced me to V.S. Naipaul, a courageous writer from Trinidad.  I had been to Trinidad several times, staying with a Trini family, so I knew firsthand the racial mixture Naipaul speaks of.  Trinis have ethnic roots from Africa, India and native Carib tribes, making them a culture of physically stunning people. Naipaul, an East Indian Trini himself, traveled to India to discover his roots and courageously wrote about how disgusted he was with the country.

Derek Walcott, a poet from St. Lucia who recently won the T.S. Eliot Prize for Poetry, is also a controversial figure.  His reputation is marred by accusations of sexual harassment from female students.

So whichever author you chose to read, or if you choose to read all of them, remember the Caribbean is a magical and literary place.

Please enjoy:

Jamaica Kincaid & Annie John: A Childhood Cut Short

Mr. Biswas’ Houses: Finding V.S. Naipaul in Trinidad

The Helen of the West Indies: Derek Walcott’s St. Lucia

Anne Frank is a legend.

But is she a historical legend or a literary legend?  That’s the question literary expert Francine Prose tackles in her book entitled Anne Frank: The Book, The Life, The Afterlife.  Literary Traveler writer Hannah May takes it one step further as she examines Prose’s conclusions of Frank combined with her own feelings about the young Holocaust victim, including her visit to The Anne Frank Museum in Amsterdam.

In this installment of  “Behind The Article”, we asked Hannah May her opinions about Frank’s literary and historical impact:

Literary Traveler: Since Holocaust survivors will soon start dying out, how will The Diary of Anne Frank serve to carry on history?  Will it become an even more important historical document?

Hannah May: Most definitely. As both a first-person account of the Holocaust and influential piece of literature, it delves into the historical moment and the psyche of the people in it. As less people are able to testify and tell their story, it will immortalise both the time and people, suspending their voices in modern consciousness for years to come.

LT: Did anything strike you as shocking when researching this article esp. reading Francine Prose?

HM: I hadn’t realised how people were so polarised and vehemently either opposed or celebrated the book to such extreme levels. Despite the controversies, claims of fraud and various ways it has been reworked and interpreted, it continues to endure as millions still return to the original text that so beautifully conveys the resilience, strength and vulnerability of the human spirit.

Francine’s analytical reading of the book unveils proof of its intended literary and artistic nature, making it all the more tragic and shocking: Anne wanted people to know her story, whatever the consequences.

LT: Is there anywhere else worth noting for our literary travelers to visit around The Anne Frank House in Amsterdam?  (i.e. restaurant, bar, bookshop, other tourist attraction, park, etc.)

HM: I would always recommend the nearby Museum Plein for the vast collections of internationally renowned art, especially the Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh. Cobra is a cool cafe-meets-gallery situated in the middle of the Plein with excellent coffee. Theater Carré is nearby as is the picturesque Vondelpark; both striking. Noordermarkt is a younger, hip area of the city where you can dine at Finch. And the bustling Leidseplein (or Red Light District) is always worth a visit.

Please continue onto the article entitled Anne Frank’s Lasting Literary Impact.

Of course, this is Black History Month at LT, and we’ve been honoring African American writers.  But we’d like to change it up a bit and honor a literary tradition and writer that come from the exquisite continent of Africa.  Since we live in a global world, we’ve all seen documentaries on Africa–the heartache mixed with hope.  The vivid costumes, face paint and body piercings of tribal life.  The trendy fashion industry, the extravagant safaris, the golden pyramids …

We’d like you to explore two countries with us in particular: Ghana and South Africa.  Writer Hannah May travels to Ghana to attend the wedding of a close friend.  Once there, she discovers she has fallen in love with the people and the culture, and especially the folklore and oral literary tradition, of Ghana.  May says:

When I left Africa, I was speechless. Several tears spoke for me. I had only spent just shy of a month on the continent, but it was an extraordinarily defining experience that both affirmed and reformed me.

Join May on her journey in The Oral Literary Tradition of Ghana: Folklore & Proverbs.

As for South Africa, J.M. Coetzee, a white Afrikaner, writes about the turmoil and racial divide in his native Cape Town.  It is a country marred by the scars of prejudice and hatred.  Writer Nicholas J. Klenske discusses how Coetzee dissects the violent rift between the black South African and the white Afrikaner in his literature.  Klenske says:

Perhaps like no other post-apartheid novel, Disgrace introduces the reader to a new Cape Town and South Africa – one that finds itself engulfed in a different type of violence and conflict. Instead of the perfection many hoped to see after the fall of apartheid, in Disgrace all races, individuals and even Cape Town itself find themselves feeling disgraced.

A brave South African, Coetzee searches the darkness to find the light.  He examines every part of apartheid–before, during and after.  And he recognizes that his country is still healing.  To read more, take a look at J.M. Coetzee’s Warring Cape Town.

There’s a part of black history that no one likes to talk about; however, without this history we would not have insightful literary black voices, narratives and stories passed down from generation to generation.  We’re talking about that dark time in American history known as slavery.

Blighting our past is an era when blacks were sold into slavery, some dying by the whip or torture of their slave master, some living in hell their entire lives and some escaping to freedom, only to find more prejudice and racial divide in the North.  In honor of Black History Month, we acknowledge those who rose out of fear and darkness to write about this most turbulent time.  There was one writer in particular who gave the first black character in literature a soul.  And the writer was not black.  He was Mark Twain.

A few years ago, I had the privilege of interviewing Terrell Dempsey, a writer who did what no one else had–he delved into the history of black slavery in Twain’s hometown of Hannibal, Missouri.  This was unprecedented and a monumental task.  Dempsey’s findings were incredulous, including that Twain’s family kept slaves, but Twain himself had a transformation and resented slavery and all it stood for.

Every time I read Dempsey’s interview and article, I’m fascinated by the shocking facts and extent of black slavery in Twain’s Hannibal.  So please, join us in American history by reading A Revealing Interview with Terrell Dempsey and Finding Mark Twain’s Hannibal.  As a bonus, join our publisher, Francis McGovern, on the Mississippi River on the historic Delta Queen steamboat, which included a stop in Hannibal.

He’s the guy wearing the fedora.  He’s the guy who looks black, but actually comes from an extensive history of Jewish Eastern Europeans.  He’s also the guy who explores American black culture in his mystery series with star detective Easy Rawlins.

Of course, we’re talking about none other than Walter Mosley.  In continuing with Black History Month, we’re honoring Mr. Mosley by celebrating his multicultural roots.  Not many writers, let alone people, can talk about what it’s like to grow up both black and Jewish, but Mosley can.  He embraces both cultures in his writing, including when Easy Rawlins spies on a Polish-Jewish communist in A Red Death.

Interestingly enough, Mosley grew up in notorious Watts, California–a city known for its violent and explosive racial tensions.  Somehow the writer sidestepped all the negativity and turbulence and let his imagination run free as a child.  Fortunately for 12 year-old Mosley and his parents, they moved to an affluent Los Angeles suburb in 1964 … only a year before the horror of the Watts riots.

Today, he is a man of great importance, not only in the writing world, but he is also known for his literary editing skills as well.  For a man who started writing late in life–at 34 years of age–he’s become a favorite of President Bill Clinton and Denzel Washington has played Easy Rawlins in the movie adaptation of Devil in a Blue Dress.

Therefore, we celebrate Walter Mosley and all his accomplishments, proving that being both black and Jewish is a beautiful thing.

Please enjoy The “Easy” Yet Complex Writing of Walter Mosley, A Black Jewish Author.

Harlem is a place that is so closely imbued in the hearts of Americans everywhere.  Even tourists from around the world come to see the streets of Harlem, a once Mecca to the black artist, including the black writer.  What arose from the Harlem Renaissance was a beautiful, literary tradition of African American stories, storytelling and history.  Langston Hughes, Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Nella Larsen, Carl Van Vechten, Countee Cullen, Louis Armstrong, Zora Neale Hurston … these are the names of the Harlem Renaissance.

Can you imagine going into a club in Harlem in the 1920s-30s and seeing Louis Armstrong blow on his trumpet or Langston Hughes reading his poem “Harlem” a.k.a. “A Dream Deferred”?  This era was magical, never to be repeated as of today, sadly enough.  But the magic still resounds in the streets of Harlem.  The people there haven’t forgotten where they come from.  Even though there are now more white people living in Harlem than black.  Even though Harlem has pretty much underwent gentrification.

The memory of the Harlem Renaissance exists.  You can find it on amateur night at the Apollo Theater, in the spirit of the Harlem Globetrotters (originating in 1926) and the smooth jazz and blues songs of Black Swan Records.  I hope to find it myself in a couple weeks as I head to Harlem to eat at Sylvia’s, a historic restaurant owned and run by Sylvia Woods, the “Queen of Soul Food,” since 1962.  Everyone who is someone has eaten there, including President Bill Clinton, Nelson Mandela, Susan Lucci, Magic Johnson and many more.

So explore Harlem with us with these two articles that give you the grand tour of a place imbued with literary spirit and black pride.

A New Kind of Renaissance: Touring Harlem

The Studio Museum in Harlem Presents Africa Comics

Our latest article, Jim Morrison & Lipstick Kisses at Oscar Wilde’s Pere-Lachaise, is very rock-n-roll.  Wilde was flamboyant, fun-loving and ostentatious, so why not be buried in Pere-Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, France, along with other celebrities such as The Doors Jim Morrison, Chopin, Proust and even Edith Piaf?

Oscar Wilde found a resting place that suited him.  He is buried in a grave that is adorned by literary fans and fans who just want to leave their lipstick kisses on his tombstone.  Kevin E.G. Perry, the writer of the Oscar Wilde article, completely agrees: Oscar is living in death, the way he loved living in life.  And good for him.  We should all be so lucky.

A new literary tradition we’re trying at LT is to go “Behind The Article.”  Now you can read more fascinating tidbits and observations about the writer and the place … things that weren’t included in the article.  For this blog post, we asked Perry a couple of questions that we’re sure our readers would love to know.

Literary Traveler: We hear you visited Edith Piaf’s grave as well.  Did it evoke any different emotions than visiting Wilde’s or Morrison’s graves?

Kevin E.G. Perry: Edith Piaf’s grave is very close to Wilde’s, but it’s an altogether more modest affair. It’s a family plot which displays only the inscription ‘Famille Gassion-Piaf’, and you’d easily miss it if someone hadn’t attached her photograph. This simplicity and the fact that it is set back away from the path seemed to add to the air of reverence that surrounds it–and makes it even more startling to think that when she was buried there, over 100,000 mourners attended the ceremony.

LT: Can you tell our readers a little more about The Doors fans at Jim Morrison’s grave?  How many fans were there?  Did you find the experience overwhelming or overly-touristy?

KP: On the day I visited Pere-Lachaise there were six or seven Doors fans who seemed to be spending the day at Jim Morrison’s grave, quite apart from the ebb and flow of other cemetery visitors. They were smoking cigarettes and playing music at a low volume–the latest torch holders in a perpetual vigil that has lasted almost 40 years.

We hope you enjoyed this first installment of “Behind The Article.”  We’ll keep them coming.  In the meantime, please enjoy Oscar Wilde at Pere-Lachaise.

As a black woman who was coming of age in the early part of the 20th century, it was hard for Nella Larsen to understand where she fit.  Her mother was of Danish descent, a white woman, and her biological father was of West Indian descent.  If you think about Larsen’s unusual background, you realize how difficult it must have been for Larsen to be of mixed race in the early 20th century.

To compound her identity crisis even more, Larsen’s mother could not deal with raising an obviously black daughter.  Sadly, she separated herself from Nella for most of Nella’s life.  Somehow through the pain and tragedy, and even a very personal identity crisis, Nella Larsen flourished into one of the great Harlem Renaissance writers with her book Passing.

In Passing, Larsen shapes the psyche and identity of the black female.  She was one of the first to do so, thus giving readers today a historical insight into the black female of the early 20th century and Harlem Renaissance.

To read more about Nella Larsen’s fascinating life and identity issues, take a look at Discovering Parallels to Nella Larsen.

Who embodies the Harlem Renaissance more than any other writer?  Langston Hughes, of course.  This black poet created not only inspirational poetry, but poetry that is cool. Langston’s poem “Harlem” (more popularly known as “A Dream Deferred”) has been made into a Broadway stage play and a feature film.  Both adaptions have starred major black entertainers such as Phylicia Rashad, Sean “P. Diddy” Combs, Sanaa Lathan and Audra McDonald, thus carrying on the Harlem Renaissance tradition.

The poem “Harlem” continues to inspire a whole new generation of Americans with its jazzy rhythm and lyrical beats.  Perhaps this is arguably one of the most famous lines in American poetry to date:

What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?

The Harlem Renaissance continues to live on at Literary Traveler with our three articles featuring the great poet, Langston Hughes.  We have Hughes in Harlem, Hughes in Washington D.C. and even Hughes in Turkmenistan … with a surprise ending?!

Celebrate Black History with LT.  Happy Reading to all …

A New Kind of Renaissance: Touring Harlem

The Harlem Renaissance, Washington DC And The Rise of Langston Hughes

From Turkmenistan to America: How I Found Langston Hughes

Black History Month continues with Faith Ringgold, renown artist and author of the children’s classic Tar Beach.  Ringgold grew up in the Depression era in Harlem in the 1930s. As a young girl, she saw the injustices of money and race firsthand during the latter years of the Harlem Renaissance.

Ringgold not only created beautiful art from her experiences, but she decided to take a chance and write Tar Beach.  This book centers on little Cassie Lightfoot, a black girl protagonist.  She uses the rooftop of her Harlem apartment building (her “tar beach”) as a launch pad to fly all over Harlem, especially to segregated areas, which Cassie, as a black girl, would not have been allowed.

Tar Beach gives permission for black children, and all children for that matter, to dream and dream big.  That’s the beauty of Cassie’s story: she’s a dreamer and she can accomplish things others could never even fathom.  So take a trip down memory lane with us and think back to the time when you were a dreamer with our article entitled Faith Ringgold’s Tar Beach, A Literary Review.

And please note, this is just the start of our Harlem articles.  Next week will be entirely dedicated to the Harlem Renaissance on LT.net!  So stay tuned …

Black History Month is finally here.  And we’re celebrating it by highlighting all of our articles about African American writers.  We’ll also be throwing in a couple Caribbean writers and an article on Ghana, so stay tuned!

We’d like to start off Black History Month 2011 with a powerful, black writer by the name of Zora Neale Hurston.  Hurston was not only a staple in the Harlem Renaissance, but she can also be classified as a Southern writer as she spent much of her life in Eatonville, Florida.  The town honors her legacy each year by hosting the Zora Neale Hurston Festival in January.  Festival-goers celebrate her work and life as well as focus on a specific theme that varies from year to year.

Hurston is the author of Their Eyes Were Watching God, a classic in American literature.  We honor Hurston with our two articles entitled Zora Neale Hurston, A Literary Life and Zora’s Immortal South.

So kick off Black History Month with these two engaging articles on Hurston.  We promise you, there will be more to come …

Harry Potter is a phenomenon.  We all know that.  Even though J.K. Rowling put out her last Harry Potter book a while ago, readers still love him and want to believe in Harry and his magical powers.  His world is a world where anything can happen and you can be a hero, no matter how small, young or old you are.

When I first read Harry Potter, I believe I was in college.  But what I most remember is passing around Harry Potter books as a Peace Corps volunteer in Estonia.  Winters in Estonia ranged from around 0 degrees to -30 degrees.  The wind pummeled me every morning as I walked out the door.  It was cold and dark for eight months of the year, and one of the best activities was to read.  Therefore, several of us volunteers passed around the Harry Potter books to read for entertainment.

That’s when I got the idea to use Harry Potter in the classroom.  I taught English as a foreign language and knew my seniors, who were advanced English speakers, would love the world of Harry.  And they did.  It kept them learning and entertained on those cold, dark days of winter.

To cope with yet another winter storm, we proudly present our latest article entitled A Harry Potter State of Mind in Winter Alaska.  Make yourself a hot cup of tea and enjoy!

Just this past week, Nobel laureate Derek Walcott won Britain’s most prestigious award for poetry, the TS Eliot prize.  He won for his poetry collection White Egrets, which meditates on aging and dying.

White Egrets was published after Walcott suffered from allegations that he sexually harassed two female students at Harvard University.  One of the students alleges that Walcott said, “Imagine me making love to you.  What would I do?” (The Independent).  Walcott says he was a victim of a smear campaign because, at the time, he was up for the highly regarded Oxford Professor of Poetry at Oxford University.  He eventually dropped out of the race.

Walcott hails from the Caribbean, from the island of St. Lucia, the setting for White Egrets.  The poet chose to celebrate his 81st birthday on St. Lucia, instead of traveling to London to accept his award.  In Walcott’s absence, Anne Stevenson, a judge for the TS Eliot prize, described his collection as a, “moving, risk-taking and technically flawless book by a great poet” (The Independent).

To continue this celebration, please enjoy our LT article entitled The Helen of the West Indies: Derek Walcott’s St. Lucia.

Many of readers here at LT are aspiring authors.  Many of you are working on that first novel, and once you’re finished, you dream of reaping the rewards of fame and money like J.D. Salinger, J.K. Rowling, Stephen King, etc.  But no matter what your genre or aspiration, always beware of the old saying, if something seems too good to be true, it probably is.

This was the case in Devon, England.  Between 1999 and 2008, conman Robin Price admitted to six thefts in which he swindled £532,000 from aspiring authors.  He did so by convincing the writers that he would negotiate film deals and help turn their books into films.  In turn, the writers forked over hefty sums of money for exorbitant fees and investments in their “film deals.”  In actuality, Price used the money to buy drugs and the company of male prostitutes.

As of January 2011, 30 victims have come forward, but Devon police expect many more.  In one case, Price stole £293,000 from a man in his 80s.  Two others have lost their homes and one other victim quit his job, in hopes of becoming the next big thing in the literary world.

In the BBC article which reported on this story, Detective Colonel Martin Battershill said, “Price seemed to know how the industry worked which made [his scheme] more believable.”

To all our aspiring writers at LT, please approach getting published with extreme caution.  Remember, reputable agents do NOT ask for money upfront.  Also, reputable film producers rarely approach no-name authors.  Usually, all deals are negotiated through an agent.

If someone does approach you as an agent or film producer, check out her/his company thoroughly.  See what other authors they represent or what books they’ve produced.  You can also contact Publisher’s Weekly to check the person’s credentials and legitimacy.  Proceed with caution.

Best of luck to all our aspiring authors!