We have become used to looking at art from a stance of detachment. In order to be objective, we create a "mental space" between ourselves and the objects of our investigation, separating internal and external worlds. This detachment dates back to the...

Hans Magnus Enzensberger takes the title for this collection of daring short essays on topical themes – politics, economics, religion, society – not from Jeremy Bentham's famous prison but from a mid-1930s Cabinet of Curiosities opened in Germany by...

In 1345, when Petrarch recovered a lost collection of letters from Cicero to his best friend Atticus, he discovered an intimate Cicero, a man very different from either the well-known orator of the Roman forum or the measured spokesman for the ancien...

"Bergeners" is a love letter to a writer's hometown. The book opens in New York City at the swanky Standard Hotel and closes in Berlin at Askanischer Hof, a hotel that has seen better days. But between these two global metropolises we find Bergen, No...

The kingdom of France was plunged into darkness. Weakened by war and famine, the country risked falling into English hands. As the dauphin Charles desperately aspired to one day become king, a young girl from Domremy, guided by mysterious voices, eme...

"A few months ago? the novelty mug frightened us all by spontaneously bursting into Viva Las Vegas and I took that? as a sign, did what any? Catholic would do – put up a shrine". from Burnfort, Las Vegas "The Windows of Graceland" gathers the cream...

The University of Iowa is a leading light in the writing world. In addition to the Iowa Writers' Workshop for poets and fiction writers, it houses the prestigious Nonfiction Writing Program (NWP), which was the first full-time masters-granting progra...

In this exquisite debut novel, Mary Emerick takes readers into the watery landscape of southeast Alaska and the depths of a family in crisis. An abusive father and a broken home forces a teenage Winnie to seek the safety of a neighboring bay and a pa...

Originated in 1919 to showcase the works of exceptional American poets under the age of forty, the Yale Series of Younger Poets prize is the oldest annual literary award presented in the United States. Ansel Elkins's poetry collection, "Blue Yodel",...

In contemporary Norwegian fiction Tomas Espedal's work stands out as uniquely personal; it can be difficult to separate the fiction from Espedal's own experiences. "Against Nature", a companion volume to Espedal's earlier "Against Art", is an examina...