Paradiso
The epic conclusion of Mary Jo Bang’s celebrated translation of Dante’s The Divine Comedy
Writing without fear
Alumna Lydia Paar weaves together personal tales of the American workplace while holding up a mirror to class mobility.
Novel approach: Performance artist types Elkin’s ‘The Dick Gibson Show’ live on KWUR
As part of his “100 Novels Project,” performance artist Tim Youd is retyping, word for word, “The Dick Gibson Show,” Stanley Elkin’s novel about a late-night disc jockey, on KWUR, WashU’s student radio station. Assuming the role as overnight DJ himself, Youd will type until 5 a.m. every morning until May 1. This will be the 84th novel Youd has typed in full.
Technified Muses
Reconfiguring National Bodies in the Mexican Avant-Garde
Sara Potter, PhD ’13, uses the idea of the muse from Greek mythology and the cyborg from posthuman theory to consider the portrayal of female characters and their bodies in Mexican art and literature from the 1920s to the present. Examining genres including science fiction, cyberpunk, and popular fiction, Potter finds that “technified muse” figures […]
Surprising donation of 513 letters opens window into life of late US poet laureate Nemerov
WashU Libraries has received a remarkable gift of 513 letters by U.S. poet laureate Howard Nemerov from a surprising source — the family of Nemerov’s lover. For two decades, Nemerov wrote to Joan Coale of Philadelphia about his work, family and life as a WashU faculty member. This month, Coale’s son presented the letters to Nemerov’s son.
Wholly matrimony
In The Wedding People, Alison Espach crafts a bestselling novel that celebrates and skewers our most beloved and absurd ritual, while offering wisdom on how start anew.
The Wedding People
A Novel
A propulsive and uncommonly wise novel about one unexpected wedding guest and the surprising people who help her start anew. It’s a beautiful day in Newport, Rhode Island, when Phoebe Stone arrives at the grand Cornwall Inn wearing a green dress and gold heels, not a bag in sight, alone. She’s immediately mistaken by everyone […]
Ullman receives literary article recognition
Alex Ullman, a postdoctoral fellow in WashU’s Center for the Humanities in Arts & Sciences, will receive a 2024 William Riley Parker Prize honorable mention from the Modern Language Association.
Van Engen wins Christianity Today book award
Abram Van Engen, the Stanley Elkin Professor in the Humanities in Arts & Sciences, has won Christianity Today’s 2024 Best Book Award in Culture, Poetry and the Arts for “Word Made Fresh: An Invitation to Poetry for the Church.”
Word Made Fresh
An Invitation to Poetry for the Church
Poetry has the power to enliven, challenge, change, and enrich our lives. But it can also feel intimidating, confusing, or simply “not for us.” In these joyful and wise reflections, Abram Van Engen shows readers how poetry is for everyone—and how it can reinvigorate Christian faith.
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