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"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...

"Outlander" is a historical fiction novel with the element of time travel fantasy by the American author Diana Gabaldon. The first novel was published in 1991 with enormous success, and is a part of a ten-novel series.

The first novel introduces...

Although she was a groundbreaking pioneer in the field of investigative journalism, Nellie Bly's name is not widely known. But it should be. In her seminal book Ten Days in a Mad-House, which she initially wrote as a series of articles for a...

American author Nikki Grimes is one of the most prolific writers for children and young adults. Dark Sons, which was released in 2005, was written for young adults and follows a boy called Sam, whose father leaves his family to go and marry a...

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...

"Long Neglect Has Worn Away" is a poem by British author Emily Brontë that deals with decay and the passage of time. Originally written in 1837, the poem was published posthumously in 1902.

Brontë was born in the small village of Thornton, outside...

Margaret Ogola’s The River and the Source is a novel about four generations of Kenyan women. Through their lives, Ogola traces the history of a rapidly changing country and society. The novel was published in 1994, receiving the 1995 Commonwealth...

Written by author and activist Zetta Elliot, A Place Inside of Me deals with a number of incredibly complex topics, including police brutality, racism, and race. It follows an unnamed young black boy, who describes "a place inside of me" that...

"Hope" is a poem by British writer Emily Brontë about perseverance and adversity. Originally published in 1846, the poem personifies hope as the speaker describes its effect on her.

Brontë was born in the small village of Thornton, just outside of...

The author John Knowles, like his narrator Gene, was from the south (West Virginia, to be exact), and sent off to an uppercrust boarding school in New England for polish before university. However, unlike Gene, Knowles was no academic whiz at...

"On the Pulse of Morning" is a poem written and performed by Maya Angelou as part of the presidential inauguration of Bill Clinton in 1993. The poem is a call to recognize America’s history of slavery and racism, as well as the catastrophic...

"No Coward Soul Is Mine" is a poem written by author Emily Brontë about faith and bravery. Published in 1846, the poem appeared as part of a collection that Brontë put together with her sisters, Charlotte and Anne, called Poems of Currer, Ellis,...

"Remembrance" is a poem written by British author Emily Brontë that deals with memory and grief. It was published in 1846. Brontë is best known for her work as a fiction writer, particularly for her seminal novel, Wuthering Heights, which is...

Family (家 Jia) is the first installment of the Turbulent Stream trilogy (激流三部曲 Jili Sanbuqu), by Ba Jin. Before being published as a novel in 1933, Family was serialized in 1931-1932. It was Ba Jin's first novel-length work. The second and third...

Julian Barnes's The Sense of An Ending is a novel about a middle-aged man coming to terms with how a cruel letter he wrote as a young man precipitated the suicide of a close friend. The book won the 2011 Man Booker Prize.

Retired arts...

“Love Armed” is not an independent, standalone poem, but actually a poetic song that Aphra Behn freqeuently inserted into another type of writing at which she excelled: stage drama. “Love Armed” is a song that was originally conceived for the only...

Epicœne, or The Silent Woman, commonly referred to now simply as Epicene, is a comedy by early modern English playwright Ben Jonson. It was originally performed in 1609 by The Blackfriars Children but did not become popular until many years later,...

It is not a typo when you see the name of this author appear as bell hooks. The lack of capitalization of her name is a conscious choice intended, at one level, to be a statement consistent with her status as social critic. She is a writer famous...

True Biz is a novel published in March, 2022 by Sara Nović. It is the follow-up to her debut novel Girl at War published in 2015. With her other life as a noted activist for the rights of the deaf and hearing-impaired, it should come as little...

In many ways, this collection of short stories by Indonesian author Budi Darma is exactly what it says on the can - a book that tells the tale of people living in the Midwest college town of Bloomington, Indiana. The collection is set in the 1970s...

Negroland is a memoir by American writer Margo Jefferson. It was published in 2015 by Pantheon Books. Margo was born in 1947 in an affluent African-American neighborhood, to a pediatrician father and socialite mother. They made it possible for her...