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Natasha Trethewey (1966-) is one of the most celebrated contemporary American poets of the last twenty years. Her poetry is recognized for its formal inventiveness and deep explorations of the legacy of race and prejudice in American history. She...

"Saturday's Child" is a poem by American writer Countee Cullen about economic and racial inequality. Originally published in 1925, the poem appeared in Cullen's first collection, Color. Cullen claimed to be born in Louisville, Kentucky, though...

Another Country is a novel by noted American author James Baldwin, first published in 1962 by Dial Press. It took Baldwin over thirteen years to write, and he finished it in Istanbul on a trip he had taken to break out of his creative stalemate.

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All American Boys is a young-adult novel, co-written by American authors Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely and published in 2015. They were motivated to write the book after Michael Brown was killed in Ferguson, Missouri by a white police officer...

E. Lockhart's We Were Liars is a young-adult novel about Cadence Sinclair Eastman, a privileged teenager whose carefree summers at her grandfather's private island are disrupted by a traumatic accident she can't recall. After returning to the...

“Truth” is a short poem by the English poet Geoffrey Chaucer. Often referred to as the father of English literature, Chaucer is best known today for The Canterbury Tales, a sequence of tales told by pilgrims fleeing the plague. However, during his...

“Prayer Before Birth” is a poem written by Irish poet Louis MacNeice in 1944, published as the first poem in his collection Springboard. In the poem, MacNeice expresses concerns about the ongoing conflict of World War II. "Prayer Before Birth"...

Gabriel García Márquez was a Colombian author, diplomat, and journalist best known for his novels One Hundred Years of Solitude and Love in the Time of Cholera. He is often considered the father of "magical realism," a literary device that infuses...

“A Country Doctor” was initially published in its original German in Franz Kafka’s collection of stories Ein Landartz: Kleine Erzählungen in 1919. An English translation first appeared in the 1945 in the volume The Country Doctor: A Collection of...

Meera Syal’s 1996 debut novel, Anita and Me, is the coming-of-age story of nine-year-old Meena Kumar, a drama-seeking, pop-song-singing, slime-trail-extolling, British-Indian school girl.

In part inspired by Meera Syal’s upbringing in the West...

"A Meeting in the Dark" is a short story by Kenyan author Ngugi wa Thiong'o. The story is set in his native country, specifically among the Kikuyu people, and the title refers to the innocent meeting between boyfriend and girlfriend that spirals...

Published in 1999 in Great Britain by Indian author Anita Desai, the novel is set in two countries, India and the United States, and tells the story of a sister, Uma, and her brother, Arun. Uma, an unmarried woman, endeavors to eke out a life for...

“To Rosamond” is a love poem written by the medieval English poet Geoffrey Chaucer. Chaucer is best known for his long-form poems, especially The Canterbury Tales. At three short stanzas, "To Rosamond" is strikingly brief in comparison. However,...

"Myth" is a poem by American author Natasha Trethewey that uses an unusual structure to retell the story of Orpheus. Originally published in 2006, the poem appeared as part of her collection Native Guard, which received the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for...

"Enlightenment" is a poem by American writer Natasha Trethewey that links the story of Thomas Jefferson's life to her relationship with her father. The poem was originally published as part of her 2012 poetry collection, Thrall. Trethewey was born...

"Incident" is a poem by America writer Natasha Trethewey that recounts an unsettling story told by a family every year. The poem was originally published as part of her 2006 collection, Native Guard, which went on to receive the Pulitzer Prize for...

“Native Guard” is a sonnet sequence by American poet Natasha Trethewey about a member of the Louisiana Native Guard, one of the first Black regiments to serve in the U.S. military. The poem is from her collection of the same name, Native Guard,...

The Sea of Monsters is the second book in the critically acclaimed, New York Times Bestseller series, Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan. Published in April 2006, The Sea of Monsters is a middle-grade American fantasy novel for...

"Backwards" is a poem by writer Warsan Shire about familial strife and the desire to reverse time. First published in 2011 by flipped eye publishing, the poem appeared in Shire's collection Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth. Shire is a poet and...

"For Women Who Are 'Difficult' to Love" is a poem by British writer and poet Warsan Shire about the problems experienced by women whose partners seek to limit their expression of self. Published on Shire's blog in 2012, the poem describes a...

The Rainbow is a novel as difficult as it is rewarding. At times, the intergenerational saga of the Brangwen family may seem tedious and over-stuffed with characters, many of whom share the same names. Yet in equal measure, Lawrence presents...

Emily Jane Brontë (1818-1848) is widely recognized as one of the greatest writers of the Victorian era. Her novel, Wuthering Heights, is considered an essential part of Gothic literature. At the same time, Brontë was also a very prolific poet...

Louis Sachar's Fuzzy Mud is a 2015 novel about a fifth-grade girl who discovers a mysterious rash-causing substance in the forest and unwittingly saves the world from a pandemic.

On a Tuesday in November, protagonist Tamaya Dhilwaddi is ready to...

"A Daydream" is a poem by British author Emily Brontë about the transition of the seasons. Published in 1846, the poem appeared as part of a collection that Brontë released with her sisters Anne and Charlotte, titled Poems by Currer, Ellis, and...