Recommended Reading: On the history of literature about housewives, from Madame Bovary to Dept. of Speculation.
The Housewife Novel
Barack’s Book Club
George Pelecanos is the latest worthy writer to get the Obama bump.
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The Sound and the Fury and the Pretty Colors
Thanks to advances in printing technology, a limited edition run of The Sound and the Fury will now be printed just the way Faulkner wanted—in different colored inks.
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Duke University Press Goes Digital
Even though HathiTrust is currently being sued by The Authors Guild and a few others, it's recently partnered with Google and Duke University Press to digitize "a trove of older titles."
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Mr. Gay Syria
“We wanted to show a side of the migration crisis that is rarely portrayed, steering away from the depictions of nameless masses by certain media and politicians,” write the producers of Mr. Gay Syria, a documentary about Syrian refugees and their quest to shine a spotlight on the community of “Syrians who had to run away from war and homophobia,” and who have relocated to Turkey, “a place that did not accept them either.” Now, after two years of work, the filmmakers are raising money to fund post-production and community outreach. You can donate here, and visit their Facebook or Twitter pages for more information.
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Shakespeare in Asia
"It’s fair to say Shakespeare is having a cultural moment in Asia, with a “boom” of new film adaptations and dramatic stagings," and the Royal Shakespeare Company just received 1.5 million pounds to keep that boom going by translating all of the Bard's plays into Mandarin. Melville House has the full story, and it pairs well with both this diagram of a translated book's usual lifespan and this discussion of Shakespeare's best plays.
Everyone Is an Immigrant
Eliza Griswold's got a great essay up on The Poetry Foundation's website. It's about poetry and reportage in Lampedusa, the largest island in the Italian Pelagie chain.