Category: literacy, literature, and language
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A Need to Read?
Gloria Edim’s (2024) new memoir is a project in search of a problem. The book is a series of thematic chapters loosely organized in chronological order. These offer clusters of experiences, and the ways that reading helped her think through and about these. Edim’s claim to fame is the the Well-Read Black Girl organization, which…
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Secularism Indeed
I had an unexpected experience at a recent secularism and literature mini-symposium. This event, which was moderated by the UIC English Department Head, included three other presenters, two local and one with some Chicago connection. The moderator offers initial observations, the presenters read papers aloud, and then the audience asked questions. I am genuinely interested…
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Saving Others and Ourselves
I recently reread Colson Whitehead’s (2019) The Nickel Boys, which seemed more compelling the second time. This story, which will appear on big screens as a new movie this fall, is based upon an actual Florida reformatory school, which Whitehead reportedly encountered on social media after a local university uncovered unmarked graves on its grounds.…