Does a book seem small in influence compared to the monstrous forces of mean-spirited avarice that shadow our public life today? Sure. But why do we remember Leo Tolstoy, Walt Whitman, Virginia Woolf, or James Baldwin?
The next Milkweed Books Subscription pick is here! Read on for more about Edward McPherson’s The History of the Future, plus other books that explore American myths and misdeeds, boomtowns and Doom Towns.
In precise sentences and assured prose, all three of these writers have crafted singular works of personal nonfiction.
Today marks the official U.S. publication of Tim Winton’s acclaimed memoir, Island Home. The author of twenty-eight books for adults and children, Winton is known worldwide as one of Australia’s most acclaimed novelists. Island Home offers readers a more intimate view of Winton’s relationship to his home—to the sea, scrub, and swamp as vital to him as the blood relations of family.
My reading of novels is often framed by a theme, be it an idea or location or era. Lately, that theme is novels that contain both sadness and humor.
Like all of us at Milkweed Books, I like to read across genres, but I have a soft spot for books that are themselves cross-genre, and particularly those that mess up the lines delineating what is and isn’t fiction. The following selections are a few such titles I’ve loved. One I received at a party, one I bought on a whim at another independent bookstore (shout-out to Subtext Books, my neighborhood store), and another I read after seeing it in the social media feeds of a few other trusted bookstores and booksellers. I wouldn’t normally include two books from the same press, but The Gift comes out in early May and I want everyone to read it right away, so Coffee House gets two this time.
This month I picked three books I eyed for a while before finally picking up—ones I knew I would want to devote an entire, uninterrupted afternoon to read. Daley and I sometimes joke about how we aren’t sure whether we like books or whether we are just so haunted by them we can’t let them go. These are three I definitely enjoyed while reading but, more importantly, they are books that have been lodged in my brain for weeks, ones I find myself wanting to return to and talk about and share.
The upcoming March for Science is in many ways a March for Democracy, and if you like freedom and equality, or at least what’s left of them, you should march in support of science.
As indigenous scientists and allies, we endorse the March for Science and recognize that while Western Science is a powerful approach, it is not the only one. We need to engage the power of both Western and Indigenous Science on behalf of the living earth. Let Us March not just for Science but for Sciences!
St. Paul resident Caitlin Bailey is the winner of the 2017 Lindquist & Vennum Prize for Poetry. Her manuscript, Solve for Desire, was chosen from more than two hundred collections of poets across the Upper Midwest by this year’s independent judge, Srikanth Reddy. Bailey will receive $10,000 as well as publication by Milkweed Editions. She is the sixth recipient of this annual prize.
