For The Book Obsessed
[ad_1] Many times in the past tumultuous year, during moments of sadness and isolation, I comforted myself with James Baldwin’s oft-shared quote, “You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read.” It returned to me again when I picked up Cheryl Boyce-Taylor’s new collection Mama … Read more
[ad_1] At this year’s CHIRBy Awards, The TRiiBE Staff Writer Matt Harvey won the essay/short story prize for his article “When reporting on movement actions, revolutionary joy must be given the same space as the struggle.” What makes his essay particularly exceptional is also what makes it the journalistic standard at The TRiiBE. There are … Read more
[ad_1] One of the enduring pleasures of poetry is how like wine, or friendship, it improves as it—and you—age. Re-read the 2019s or the 2000s, or the 1966’s to savor the context of our past, through your present vantage point. Other than live theatre, there is no other medium such as poetry so well-situated for … Read more
[ad_1] Burning Worlds is Amy Brady’s monthly column dedicated to examining how contemporary literature interrogates issues of climate change, in partnership with Yale Climate Connections. Subscribe to her monthly newsletter to get “Burning Worlds” and other writing about art and climate change delivered straight to your inbox. Unlike most books explored in this column, Felicia Luna Lemus’s Particulate Matter … Read more
[ad_1] Being a debut author is overwhelming in any year, but those who published books in 2020 have dealt with challenges none could have ever imagined (a global pandemic, the news cycle from hell, and everything and everyone going online). Despite that, this year brought us many standout books by established trans, non-binary, and gender … Read more
[ad_1] There’s perhaps no adage more cliche than the phrase, “It’s not the destination, it’s the journey.” We can hear this, but so very few of us have actually taken it to heart; maybe we’ve simply reached our saturation point with it. Walking has taken on something of a new color in the quarantine year, … Read more
[ad_1] Works of criticism, or more broadly, texts that critically survey our world, often don’t subscribe to fixed genres or easily distinguishable forms. During a year that rattled our attention and pulled hard at our ability to concentrate, these books, in their varied forms, drew us in. Through their joy (and pessimism) and critical perspective, … Read more
[ad_1] John Muir said, “thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out going to the mountains is going home; that wilderness is a necessity.” Still true over a century later, I’ve turned to this phrase often during hard times and more often during 2020, which turned out to be one of the … Read more
[ad_1] The first sentence of Michael Bible’s latest novel, The Ancient Hours, is a lie. “We were innocent,” is an immediate provocation that gives the impression of someone in an interrogation room telling authorities a story agreed upon by a group of accomplices. Bible makes a bold statement beginning with this line, and also by … Read more
[ad_1] In Patricia Ann McNair’s newest collection Responsible Adults, many of the stories take place in a fictional town called New Hope. One can easily imagine a town with this name exists in the Midwest, and it’s also fitting for the theme: each story teems with an ache toward hope, a moodiness tinged with heartbreaking … Read more