Huckleberry Finn is a product of its time. Hate it, debate it, deplore it, ignore it, but don't take it upon yourself to change it to suit your own mores and values.
The most talked-about mother in the world today is Amy Chua, a mom who says that if you call your kids "lazy, cowardly,self-indulgent and pathetic... garbage" they will make you proud at Yale in the years to come.
When venturing into a self-publishing project your mindset is all important. Keep the faith without going overboard. Set small, manageable goals regarding book sales. You may not sell millions, but what if you sold 3,000 books?
I was curious how the practice of philosophy, mankind's attempts to understand what it means to exist, has been affected by rapid scientific progress in understanding how our brains work.
Hours before her second book was due, Diane Dixon decided that it wasn't good enough. It was good -- fine, I believe is the exact word she used -- but not good enough.
Mohammed Hanif, the Pakistani novelist, is observing from Karachi that "even the believers" don't believe in the war in Afghanistan anymore.
Developers, jailbreakers and pirates are setting their sights on the Kindle, coming up with some surprisingly useful software for the purposefully stripped-down device. Will Amazon care?
Parag Khanna offers some strategies in his book How to Run the World: Charting a Course to the Next Renaissance that strays far from the Washington Consensus. We should all take heed.
Somehow, despite my childhood shortcomings and lack of discipline, I have had careers as an editor and journalist, and published a novel last year.
The search for answers to deceptively simple questions drove Alan Lomax to wander America -- and eventually the world. A new Lomax biography follows his journey.
Author royalties vary greatly from publisher to publisher but don't be swayed by higher royalties because the calculation might be a bit tricky. Let me explain.
I recently interviewed Sandy Powell, Director of Balboa Press, who talks to many struggling writers at conferences around the world. Her advice can best be summed up in this list.
The announcement of a new novel by John Lescroart is a cause for celebration. And this book investigates the effect powerful, moneyed people can have on the law and its implementation.
While racial insensitivity and avoidance of discussions about racism are real problems in classrooms, removing racially objectionable content from literature cannot possibly be effective in anything other than eliminating discomfort.
How should we live? I look for answers in books. And War and Peace is a source to be mined again and again, a book that will never grow dusty for the re-start it offers.
A staggering number of adults want to write books for kids. So we thought we'd get the inside skinny from one of our favorite children's book resources, Jennifer Laughram.
Historical novelist Susan Vreeland has a particular focus: art and artists. And her new novel, Clara and Mr. Tiffany, is about Clara Wolcott Driscoll, who must have been extraordinary.
Ever since news came of Twain scholar Alan Gribben's whitewashed reworking of Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer, the media have -- not completely unjustifiably -- beaten up on the poor, well-intentioned scholar.
The author of the first novel published by a black woman in the U.S. was also a leader of the Spiritualist movement that sought guidance from the dead.
J. Michael Welton, 2011.01.14
College Candy, 2011.01.14