Recommended Reading: “Bitter Night in the Country” by Hayden Saunier.
“Requisite dog bark. Far off.”
The Bolshoi is Back
If consecutive profiles in The New York Times and The New York Review of Books are any indication, the reopening of Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre is a very big deal. To celebrate from the comfort of your chair, however, you can listen to the overture from Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky‘s opera The Voyevoda, which opened in the Bolshoi in 1869.
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Mariama Bâ, Grande Dame of African Literature
Mariama Bâ, hailed as the pioneering feminist voice of a continent, was one of the first black African women to achieve international renown as an author.
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100 Plays for the First (Trump) Hundred Days
Suzan-Lori Parks wrote a play every day during Trump’s first 100 days as president which will be published next year as 100 Plays for the First Hundred Days. She talks to American Theatre about why she decided to undertake such a project, how difficult the process was and the importance of showing up and being present. Includes excerpts from the book.
Drunk Writing
Recommended Reading: Michelle Dean writes for The New Republic about the image of the tortured, alcoholic writer — and the “different kind of weight attached to a woman drinker.”
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Truly the Best Contest Ever
The New Yorker Book Bench is having a contest. Submit a photo of your pet dressed as a character from literature. My kittens are in for the worst two weeks of their young lives. Dante and Fur-gil? Tess of the O’Paw-bervilles? Jay Catsby?
Oh my god. So many possibilities.