May 9, 2008

Keith Woods on How the Media Has Covered Race in the Presidential Campaign

Earlier this week, Keith Woods, coauthor of The Authentic Voice: The Best Reporting on Race and Ethnicity, appeared on the Newshour to discuss how the media has covered and talked about the issue of race in this year’s presidential race....

May 8, 2008

The Sixtieth Anniversary of the Nakba: A Posting by Ahmad H. Sa’di and Lila Abu-Lughod

Ahmad H. Sa’di and Lila Abu-Lughod are the editors of Nakba: Palestine, 1948, and the Claims of Memory. Across the world, people are marking the sixtieth anniversary of the Palestinian’s “nakba” (catastrophe). The Palestine/ Israel conflict has occupied center stage...

May 8, 2008

Herve This's 10 Elements of Basic Kitchen Knowledge

In a recent interview in the Toronto Globe and Mail, Herve This discusses such matters as the difference between molecular gastronomy and molecular cooking, the relative importance of having the right equipment in your kitchen, and some of the scientific...

May 7, 2008

Infinity Through Language:A Conversation With Ch'oe Yun

The text of this interview with Ch’oe Yun ran in Korean Culture. Many thanks to Korean Culture for their permission to use the text here. Ch’oe Yun is the author of There a Petal Silently Falls: Three Stories. She will...

May 6, 2008

A Possible Peace between Israel and Palestine: A Posting from Menachem Klein

Menachem Klein is a senior lecturer in the Department of Political Science at Bar-Ilan University, Israel, and was a team member of the Geneva Initiative negotiations of 2003. He has advised both the Israeli government and the Israeli delegation for...

May 5, 2008

Music, Madness, and the Unworking of Language by John T. Hamilton event at Book Culture

In Music, Madness, and the Unworking of Language John Hamilton investigates the way literary, philosophical, and psychological treatments of music and madness challenge the limits of representation and create a crisis of language. Hamilton traces the linkage of music and...

May 5, 2008

The Song of Everlasting Sorrow: New York Times Book Review

This Sunday’s New York Times Book Review featured Francine Prose’s glowing review of Wang Anyi’s The Song of Everlasting Sorrow: A Novel of Shanghai. In the review Prose writes, “Wang Anyi’s complex and penetrating portrayal of her heroine … best...

May 2, 2008

The Politics of Chaos in the Middle East

Last Sunday, the New York Times Book Review weighed in on the new Olivier Roy book, The Politics of Chaos in the Middle East. Reviewed alongside Noah Feldman’s new book, the Times declares, “At only 167 pages, Roy’s book provides...

May 1, 2008

Springtime in Riverside Park: A Posting from Ed Grimm

Ed Grimm is the author of Riverside Park: The Splendid Sliver. It’s not as if Riverside Park hibernates all winter. The hardiest of the joggers and cyclists are out on its paths, children continue to flock to its 15 playgrounds,...

April 30, 2008

The Wright/Obama Controversy: Perspectives from Houston Baker and Todd Gitlin

In a very interesting post yesterday, Salon asked a panel of political and cultural experts, including Houston Baker and Todd Gitlin, to weigh in on the debates surrounding Rev. Wright’s remarks and what Obama should respond. Todd Gitlin defended Obama...

April 30, 2008

Barbara Mensch, "South Street," and the Fulton Fish Market

In the posting Loaders, Lumpers and the Smell of Fish the New York Times blog the “City Room” writes about South Street by Barbara Mensch. The post coincides with a new exhibition of Barbara Mensch’s photographs of the Fulton Fish...

April 29, 2008

Kim Sowôl, Korean Poetry, and the Boston Red Sox: A Blog Posting from David McCann

As national poetry month comes to a close and the Pen World Voices Festival set to begin we are fortunate to have a posting from David R. McCann a translator and scholar of Korean poetry. McCann is also the Korea...