American writers may have made a poor showing in the Nobel sweepstakes these past few decades, with only the joke award to Bob Dylan last year to show for all their scribbling. Yet since the Man Booker Prize, Britain’s shiniest literary trophy, was opened to Yanks (and anyone else writing in English) in 2013, American writers have shouldered their way to prominence. George … [Read more...]
Arts Preview 2017-18: The season in books
Not so long ago, Palm Beach County readers had no choice, if they wanted to enjoy a book festival, but to drive to Fort Lauderdale or Miami. That’s no longer true. While events like Miami Book Fair International or the Literary Feast in Fort Lauderdale remain powerhouse attractions, Palm Beach County has a pair of well-established book and events right here: the Palm Beach … [Read more...]
Young writer’s stories of Florida raise her profile
Recently, Sarah Gerard started a new job at Books Are Magic, a Brooklyn bookstore owned by novelist Emma Straub. That was about the same time Gerard began touring in support of her second book, an acclaimed collection of essays titled Sunshine State. Gerard’s first book, the novel Binary Star, was a success, too, with rapturous reviews in The New York Times, and elsewhere, … [Read more...]
Lapham: History’s lessons may help us save our democracy
Lewis Lapham is not impressed by the anti-Trump demonstrations that have erupted since the inauguration. Democracy, says the former editor of Harper’s Magazine, has been under “systematic assault by a kind of plutocracy, a government for the rich by the rich,” for 30 years. Donald Trump, he says, is a symptom of of anti-democratic trends long brewing, not the cause of … [Read more...]
‘New Yorker’ cartoon editor offers caption contest before Boca festival
After these many decades as an elegant magazine of literature, politics, and culture, The New Yorker harbors one vestige of its origin as a humor magazine. That, of course, is the New Yorker cartoon. Droll and wry rather than laugh-out-loud funny, The New Yorker cartoon is not for every taste. Once that taste is acquired, however, the cartoons lurk amid the gray columns of text … [Read more...]
Charles Simic’s happy obsession with writing poetry
Some of the most perceptive commentary written since the shock of the presidential election has come on the daily website of the venerable New York Review of Books, under the byline of Charles Simic, who, in his day job, is a former U.S. poet laureate and the winner of many top literary prizes, including the Pulitzer. Given that Simic’s most recent book, The Life of Images, … [Read more...]
Politics weighed heavy on vibrant Miami Book Fair
On the way to the Miami Book Fair on Saturday, I was making the usual small talk with the Lyft driver when he suddenly began complaining about Donald Trump. You can’t believe anything Trump says, he offered in his rough English. He’s already going back on promises to working people. He’s not going to create jobs. He’s not going to build a wall, and he’s not going to make … [Read more...]
Sanders tells Miami Book Fair crowd to keep fighting
Speaking to a sell-out crowd that obviously wanted to feel the Bern again, Bernie Sanders brought a message of hard work and hope to the Miami Book Fair Saturday evening, delivered in tones of tough love. “I understand people are distressed,” Sanders said, referring to the election of showman billionaire Donald Trump to the White House last week. “But despair is not an … [Read more...]
Toobin: Comey email notice was about ego, not politics
Not known as a comedian, Jeffrey Toobin was nonetheless consistently funny Thursday evening at the Miami Book Fair, where he came to talk about this latest book, American Heiress: The Wild Saga of the Kidnapping, Crimes, and Trial of Patty Hearst. Effusively praising the book fair — “It’s not just a Miami institution, it’s a national institution!”— he mentioned the … [Read more...]
Novelist Brooks brings news from King David’s court to Miami Book Fair
After hearing from topical comedian Trevor Noah Sunday and Democratic strategist James Carville last night, book lovers at the third evening of the Miami Book Fair might have been looking for some literary relief from politics when the widely admired historical novelist Geraldine Brooks took the stage Tuesday. And so it was — until Brooks opened her mouth and spoke. “It’s … [Read more...]