Book News & Features

The Aspen Words Literary Prize finalists, clockwise from top left: Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah's Friday Black; David Chariandy's Brother; Jennifer Clement's Gun Love; Tommy Orange's There There; and Tayari Jones' An American Marriage.

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Tayari Jones Takes Home Aspen Words Literary Prize For 'An American Marriage'

9:40pm April 11, 2019

by Colin Dwyer

The novel earned Jones the $35,000 award for tackling difficult social issues in fiction. The prize's head judge says the book is "going to have a place in the literary imagination for a long time."

Onwuachi cooks in the kitchen of his D.C. restaurant, Kith and Kin. His food encompasses a range of African, Caribbean, African-American and other influences.

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Chef's Memoir Tackles What It's Like To Be Young, Gifted And Black In Fine Dining

8:32am April 07, 2019

Kwame Onwuachi's new memoir, Notes From A Young Black Chef, isn't just about his rise from poverty to celebrated restaurateur. It's also a meditation on being a black man in a rarefied world.

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Salvador Dalí's idea for a Marx Brothers movie was never made — but it's been resurrected as a graphic novel.

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Salvador Dalí Meets The Marx Brothers In 'Giraffes On Horseback Salad'

8:05am April 07, 2019

by Peter Breslow

Salvador Dalí's friendship with Harpo Marx led him to write a Marx Brothers movie treatment, Giraffes on Horseback Salad. Studio head Louis B. Mayer killed it, but it lives again as a graphic novel.

Faulty 'Harry Potter' Manuscript Sells For $90,000

7:07am April 02, 2019

The first book in the series was titled "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone," and a copy with some typos went up for auction in London. The mistakes include misspelling the word philosopher.

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Milicent Patrick poses in the Universal Studios monster shop with her most famous creation: the Creature from the Black Lagoon.

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The Forgotten Woman Who Designed The Creature From The Black Lagoon

5:05pm March 28, 2019

by Mandalit del Barco

A new book by Mallory O'Meara explores the life of artist Milicent Patrick, who worked on Fantasia and costumed a legendary Hollywood monster — and then ran afoul of misogyny in the workplace.

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LifeWay Christian Store, the retail arm of the Southern Baptist Convention's publishing company, plans to close all 172 of its outlets by the end of 2019.

LifeWay Christian Closing Brick-And-Mortar Bookstores

1:59pm March 28, 2019

by Chas Sisk

Evangelical Christian book retailer LifeWay is closing its stores by the end of the year. Some lament the stores' end, while others say LifeWay sells too narrow an understanding of Christianity.

The 2019 Whiting Award recipients (clockwise from top left): poet Kayleb Rae Candrilli, poet Tyree Daye, novelist Hernan Diaz, playwright Michael R. Jackson, fiction writer Terese Marie Mailhot, nonfiction writer Nadia Owusu, playwright Lauren Yee, poet V

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'The Future Of Literature': Whiting Awards Celebrate 10 Emerging Writers

7:35pm March 20, 2019

by Colin Dwyer

The novelists, poets and playwrights won Wednesday partly for their work so far, but also for the promise they've shown. If previous winners are an indication, it's a promise they're likely to keep.

The writer Lawrence Ferlinghetti, pictured here in Berlin in 2004, will turn 100 years old this weekend.

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A Lost 'Little Boy' Nears 100: Poet And Publisher Lawrence Ferlinghetti

5:03am March 20, 2019

by Tom Vitale

The Beat Generation icon and owner of City Lights bookstore and press in San Francisco is still writing. He celebrates his centennial March 24, and his new autobiographical novel is out now.

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Evan Thomas breaks new ground with extraordinary access to Sandra Day O'Connor, her papers, journals — and even 20 years of her husband's diary.

From Triumph To Tragedy, 'First' Tells Story Of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor

4:19pm March 18, 2019

by Nina Totenberg

First is unlike any other book written about the justice. Evan Thomas breaks new ground with extraordinary access to O'Connor, her papers, journals — and even 20 years of her husband's diary.

W.S. Merwin found inspiration in his conservation work and in his home on the Hawaiian island of Maui.

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Poet W.S. Merwin, Who Was Inspired By Conservation, Dies At 91

5:21pm March 15, 2019

by Noah Adams

In the 1980s, the two-time U.S. poet laureate moved to Hawaii and began working to restore the rainforest. According to one contemporary, that's when he "morphed into a poet of praise."