A life of words
Alumna Leslye Lyons founded the nonprofit Words Alive to help children and teens find joy in reading.
‘Best American Essays 2024’ cites Common Reader piece on Nemerov
A remembrance of poet and WashU English professor Howard Nemerov has been named to the Notable Essays list in “Best American Essays 2024.” The piece, by Nemerov’s son Alexander, was first published by The Common Reader, the journal of essays and ideas housed at WashU.
James Baldwin Review marks 10th anniversary
The James Baldwin Review, co-founded by WashU’s Justin A. Joyce and Dwight A. McBride, celebrates its 10th anniversary, as well as Baldwin’s centenary. A feature essay by WashU’s William Maxwell explores an unexpected connection between Baldwin and Susan Sontag.
Blessings
Set in Nigeria, “Blessings” is an elegant and exquisitely moving story that asks how to live freely in a country that forbids one’s truest self, and what it takes for love to flourish despite it all.
Nottage to receive Washington University International Humanities Prize
Internationally acclaimed playwright, screenwriter, installation artist and MacArthur “genius grant” recipient Lynn Nottage will receive the 2025 International Humanities Prize from Washington University in St. Louis.
WashU Libraries celebrates centenary of acclaimed writer William Gass
The William H. Gass Centenary Celebration and exhibit “William H. Gass: Fifty New Acquisitions” will shed new light on one of America’s most inspired — and intimidating — writers. Gass was author of the masterpieces “Omensetter’s Luck” and “Middle C” as well as three essay collections that won the National Book Critics Circle Awards for criticism.
WashU faculty taking part in Catholic Enlightenment symposium
Rebecca Messbarger, in Arts & Sciences, is among the organizers of a symposium on “The Catholic Enlightenment in Europe, the Americas and Australia (1700-1840),” which will take place at WashU and at Saint Louis University Sept. 20 and 21. Some other faculty also are speaking.
The Mythmakers
The Remarkable Fellowship of C.S. Lewis & J.R.R. Tolkien
From New York Times bestselling, award-winning creator John Hendrix comes “The Mythmakers,” a graphic novel biography of two literary lions—C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien—following the remarkable story of their friendship and creative fellowship, and how each came to write their masterworks.
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 […]
Scattered Snows, to the North
Poems
An arresting study of memory, perception, and the human condition, from the Pulitzer Prize winner Carl Phillips. Carl Phillips’s Scattered Snows, to the North is a collection about distortion and revelation, about knowing and the unreliability of a knowing that’s based on human memory. If the poet’s last few books have concerned themselves with power, this one […]
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