Why Did Seeing a Strong Black Woman on ‘The Bear’ Make Me Cry?
On my sofa watching Season 2 of “The Bear,” I suddenly got tears in my eyes.
Three Fiction Debuts Examine the Steep Cost of Belonging
Lee’s enthralling book depicts Mook during each of these incarnations, from her escape from a North Korean village to a married life her restive spirit never quite settles into.
Five Minutes That Will Make You Love Avant-Garde Jazz
I admire artists who not only push the envelope but also tear it to shreds, and the jazz guitarist Sonny Sharrock was that kind of musician.
Laura Warrell on Publishing While Black
What’s key is not that authors of color talk about race the ‘right’ way, but simply that we’re here.
For Kashana Cauley, Doomsday Isn’t So Hypothetical
One might expect a novel about gun-toting, conspiracy-minded loners to lampoon its key players, but the book succeeds…
A Year in Reading: Laura Warrell
Maybe this is what can make solitude so precious, the way it shows us what’s possible.
Why Jazz? Laura Warrell on Devotion to a “Dying” Art Form
When we watch and listen to jazz musicians, we experience their full being, we watch them actualize on the stage, and we get to participate as our own bodies and spirits are moved.
Writing While Black
I can accept that poorly written or unmarketable books won’t be published. I can’t accept that some books are unmarketable because their authors are Black.
I Gave Up On Love, And It Was One Of The Best Decisions I Ever Made
A year after my last date, my world probably looks the same from the outside. What’s different is how I’m now experiencing my life.
The Pool
Fix your gaze on a point on the other side of the swimming pool instead of on your husband or the woman he’s watching.
Jacqueline Woodson’s Windows
Multi-genre author Jacqueline Woodson garners the energy of history and her own childhood to shape stories for young readers.
The Sadder It Gets The Funnier It Gets: Interview with Steve Almond
But beneath his deliciously witty, sometimes harsh tone lies an enduring faith in humanity. Almond loves us all though we occasionally piss him off with our tendency to ignore our better angels.