Orange Prize Announced

  Britain’s Orange Prize, an annual literary award for women writers, was bestowed this evening on Marilynne Robinson for her novel Home.  Robinson, winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 2005 for her novel Gilead, revisits the setting and some of the characters from her previous work, creating in Home, as described by the judges,  “a kind, wise, enriching novel, exquisitely crafted.” Click [...]

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Edith Wharton ~ January 24, 1862

Today is the birthday of Edith Wharton (1862-1937) in New York City.  Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1921 for The Age of Innocence, Wharton was the first woman to receive an honorary degree of Doctor of Letters from Yale University and the Gold Medal of the National Institute of Arts and Letters. Some further reading: [...]

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Edgar Allan Poe ~ January 19, 1809

The Bicentennial of the birth of Edgar Allan Poe [1809-1849] is quite the celebration.  There are yearlong events in all of the cities that claim him as their “Favorite Son.”  The story of his life is as interesting and strange as most of his macabre tales.  Poe endures. One of the more memorable moments in my [...]

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Emily Dickinson: “I dwell in possibility…”

Today is the birth date of Emily Dickinson [December 10, 1830 - May 18, 1886] born in Amherst Massachusetts.  Her life was one of contemplation and increased seclusion.  A prolific writer, only a few of her poems were actually published in her lifetime; the nearly 1800 poems and 1000 letters that survive were published posthumously.  A small collection of [...]

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