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Siegfried Sassoon (1886-1967) was an English writer who is best remembered today for his stark poetry documenting the horrors of World War I. He drew from his own experiences in the trenches, having fought with the Royal Welch Fusiliers on the...

In 1987, a large storm hit England’s southern coast, where the poet Grace Nichols was living. This inspired her to write the poem “Hurricane Hits England,” in which a powerful storm sparks an epiphany for an unnamed speaker. Nichols characterizes...

Published in 1986 in Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o's native language, Gĩkũyũ, Matigari ma Njiruungi follows the story of a mythologized revolutionary who survives a revolution in an unnamed country. Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o wrote Matigari largely in exile in a...

Kamala Markandaya's Nectar In A Sieve is a 1954 novel about a family of Hindu farmers living in a remote Indian village over several decades in the first half of the twentieth century. During a period of urbanization, the family navigates...

Siegfried Sassoon was a British writer and poet whose work challenged common patriotic conceptions about World War One. "The Rear-Guard," published in Sassoon's 1918 collection Counter-Attack and Other Poems, follows a soldier making his way along...

Demon Copperhead is a 2022 novel by American author Barbara Kingsolver. It tells the story of a young boy who grows up in rural Appalachia, navigating numerous difficulties. Kingsolver has said it is a modern, Southern retelling of Charles Dickens...

Siegfried Sassoon was a British poet and novelist, best known for his antiwar poetry published after serving as a soldier in the First World War. "Attack," first published in 1918 in the collection Counter-Attack and Other Poems, gives a harrowing...

Siegfried Sassoon was a British poet and novelist who is best known today for his angry, satirical, and compassionate poems concerning the horrors of World War I. "Suicide In The Trenches," published in 1918 in a collection of poems called ...

Margaret Atwood's The Heart Goes Last (2015) is a dystopian novel about a desperate couple who sign away their freedom in exchange for the safety and comfort offered by an experimental walled community.

When a financial crash devastates the Rust...

Siegfried Sassoon was a British writer and poet who is remembered today for his angry, satirical, and compassionate poems concerning the horrors of World War I. "The Death Bed," published in the 1917 collection The Old Huntsman and Other Poems, ...

"Love Calls Us to the Things of This World" was published in Richard Wilbur's 1956 collection Things of This World, and part of its title forms the title of that volume. It has been, as critics have noted, much anthologized—that is, included in...

Siegfried Sassoon was a British poet and novelist who is best known today for his angry, satirical, and compassionate poems concerning the horrors of World War One. "Base Details," written in the poet's diary in 1917 and published in the...

Jurek Becker first imagined Jacob the Liar as a screenplay, "Jakob der Lügner," in 1965, intended for production by the East German state-sponsored film studio, Deutsche Film-Aktiengesellschaft (DEFA). However, DEFA rejected "Jakob der Lügner"...

Published in 1405, Christine de Pizan’s The Book of the City of Ladies is considered a landmark text for feminist rights. Structured as an allegory in which three ladies depicting Reason, Justice, and Rectitude call upon the author while in her...

An Apology for the Life of Mrs. Shamel Andrews, or better known simply as Shamela, is a satirical novel published in 1741. Published by Conny Keyber, it is believed that the writer is Henry Fielding and that he published the novel under a pen...

Samskara: A Rite for a Dead Man is a novel by Indian author U.R. Ananthamurthy, first published in 1965. The book tells the story of a man from India's highest social class who dies unexpectedly, thereby creating an internal conflict in his town.

Imtiaz Dharker is a poet, artist, and filmmaker whose work traverses the borders of Pakistan, her country of origin, and her adopted countries of India and the UK. "The right word,” originally published in Dharker's 2006 collection The terrorist...

Imtiaz Dharker is a poet, artist, and filmmaker whose work traverses the borders of Pakistan, her country of origin, and her adopted countries of India and the UK. "Tissue,” originally published in Dharker's 2006 collection The terrorist at my...

“Praise Song for my Mother” was published in Grace Nichols’ first poetry collection I is a Long-Memoried Woman (1983). The anthology was awarded the Commonwealth Poetry Prize in 1983 and was adapted into a Channel 4 film and BBC radio play. The...

Imtiaz Dharker is a poet, artist, and filmmaker born in Pakistan whose work often touches on issues of cultural displacement and the search for the feeling of home. Her poem "Blessing," first published in the 1994 collection Postcards from god, ...

"Nothing Gold Can Stay" is a composition by American poet Robert Lee Frost (1874–1963). Originally published in 1923 by the Yale Review, the poem was included in Frost's collection called New Hampshire, also published that year.

Frost was awarded...

Published by Harper Collins in Canada and Tin House in the USA, What Storm, What Thunder is a haunting and revelatory portrait of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. The publisher Tin House describes it as “a reckoning of the heartbreaking trauma of...

"Living Space," first published in 1997, is a poem by Imtiaz Dharker. Dharker is a poet, artist, and filmmaker whose work traverses the borders of Pakistan, her country of origin, and her adopted countries of India and the UK. Several themes in...

Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626) was a prominent figure in 16th-century Britain, and was known for his consistent efforts in creating an academic setting dedicated to the rigorous and meticulous pursuit of gathering knowledge. In his lifetime, he was...