The Most Translated Writer You’ve Never Read: Stefan Zweig and His Austria

June 22, 2016 · by JS Epstein | in Field Trips, Profiles | tagged Austria or Vienna or Salzburg, Books in translation, Chess Stories, Jewish culture and Austria, Jewish Writers and the Holocaust, Literature about Central Europe, Maria Schrader and Von Der Morgenrote, Most translated writers, New York Review of Books, Novellas or Short stories, Once famous now obscure writers, Stefan Zweig, Stefan Zweig Centre, Travel reading, Wes Anderson and Stefan Zweig, Writer's Relationship with Hometown, Writers and suicide | 11 Comments

Before I travel, I like to immerse myself in some of the culture of the place. Soon to embark on a trip to Central Europe, I’ve been watching foreign films and discovering the work of authors I’ve never read. One of these authors is Stefan Zweig, prolific writer and especially master of the art of […]

Light of the World: A Memoir of Loss and Continuing Love

October 21, 2015 · by Susan Diffenderfer | in Book Reviews, Poets/ Poetry/ Performances, Profiles | tagged "Praise Song for the Day" by Elizabeth Alexander, African American Poets, African American Praise Songs, American Sublime by Elizabeth Alexander, Dealing with Death of a Spouse, Elizabeth Alexander, Elizabeth Alexander and Barack Obama, Ficre Ghebreyesus, Grief Memoir, Light of the World and Derek Walcott, Light of the World by Elizabeth Alexander, Poets and Presidential Inaugurations, Writing as a Means of Dealing with Grief | 9 Comments

This amazing memoir begins with tragedy—Ficre Ghebreyesus, husband of renowned poet Elizabeth Alexander, dies suddenly of a massive heart attack while on a treadmill at their home just four days after his 50th birthday party. Although it may be categorized as a “grief memoir,” Light of the World is not a book that dwells solely on the […]

Three Long Mountains and a Wood

August 5, 2015 · by Brenda Lloyd | in Poets/ Poetry/ Performances, Profiles | tagged Camden Maine, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Edna St. Vincent Millay and Feminism, Edna St. Vincent Millay early death, Edna St. Vincent Millay Lyric Poetry, Edna St. Vincent Millay Vassar College, Millay and "Renascence", Millay and "The Ballad of the Harp Weaver", Millay and Camden Maine, Millay and the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry | 11 Comments

When I was in Camden, Maine, in late May, I took the Edna St. Vincent Millay walking tour. Granted, more than 100 years after this Pulitzer Prize-winning poet left the town where she grew up, there isn’t much left to see of her. The small house where she lived on Chestnut Street, a block away […]

Hilary Mantel Re-invents the Historical Novel with Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies

April 29, 2015 · by Susan Diffenderfer | in Profiles | tagged Bring Up the Bodies, Fascination with Henry VIII, Henry VIII, Henry VIII and 500th Anniversary of Coronation, Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII and Thomas Cromwell, Hilary Mantel, Man Booker Prize, Thomas Cromwell and Cardinal Wolsey, Tudor Dynasty, Wolf Hall, Wolf Hall on Broadway, Wolf Hall on PBS | 16 Comments

British writer Hilary Mantel has taken the literary world by storm by writing back to back award- winning novels Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies, which have not only sold in huge numbers but have been developed into a highly touted PBS series and Broadway stage plays. Although she has been made a Dame of the […]

On the Southern Literary Trail: Yoknapatawpha County

September 30, 2014 · by Christina Kaylor | in Field Trips, Profiles | tagged Count No 'Count, Faulkner and Falkner family, Faulkner and Hollywood, Faulkner and Malcolm Cowley, Faulkner and mythmaking, Faulkner and Nobel Prize, Faulkner and Post Office, Faulkner and reception of novels, Faulkner and Stream-of-consciousness, Faulkner and the Past, Oxford Mississippi, Rowan Oak, Southern Literary Trail Mississippi, The Sound and the Fury, William Faulkner, Yoknapatawpha County | 15 Comments

I discovered that my own little postage stamp of native soil was worth writing about and that I would never live long enough to exhaust it… –William Faulkner Faulkner’s little postage stamp was his hometown of Oxford, Mississippi, immortalized as Jefferson, located in Yoknapatawpha County. Yoknapatawpha, from the Chickasaw yocona petopha, meaning water runs slow through […]

Ann Frellsen: Emory University Book Conservator

September 24, 2014 · by Susan Diffenderfer | in Profiles, The Story of Books | tagged Ann Frellsen, book conservation, Book earrings, bookbinding, Emory Library Poetry Collection, Emory University book conservation department, Emory's Irish Studies Program, James Flannery, MARBL, rare books, repairing rare books, Robert W. Woodruff Library at Emory, Seamus Heaney poetry collection at Emory | 18 Comments

My initial contact with Ann Frellsen at the first Decatur Book Festival had nothing to do with book conservation and everything to do with jewelry. She and several friends had a booth at the festival selling tiny book earrings, which were quite well made with lovely covers and even a few “pages” inside. Books are […]

A Quick Peek at a Favorite Author: Anne Lamott

July 16, 2014 · by Susan Diffenderfer | in Profiles, The Writing Life | tagged Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird, Challenges of Sobriety, Dreadlocks, Epiphany and Conversion, Finding Out Who You Are, Kenneth Lamott, Operating Instructions, Search for Life's Meaning, The Necessity of Books, The Struggles of Faith, Writing Manuals | 15 Comments

Email: Please click on the blue title to read in your browser. When I started working at a small local independent bookstore 17 years ago (still there!), I soon learned that even though I considered myself fairly well-read, there were many, many authors yet to discover. Part of my job is to suggest books to […]