Anne Bernays and Justin Kaplan, The Language of Names: What We’re Called and Why It Matters, nonfiction: Bernays and Kaplan present a fascinating and very readable account of names and naming in contemporary society, touching on class structure, ethnic and religious practices, manners, and everyday life. (Simon & Schuster)
Rita Dove, The Darker Face of the Earth, a play: Dove’s adaptation of Oedipus to a Southern plantation in 1840 premiered at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival this past summer, and this second edition reflects major changes made to the script as it was brought to the stage. (Story Line)
George Garrett, The King of Babylon Shall Not Come Against You, a novel: A reporter goes to a Florida town to reinvestigate a series of shocking crimes that occurred twenty-five years ago during the week that Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated. (Harcourt Brace)
Marilyn Hacker, Edge, translations of poems by Claire Malroux: Sandra Gilbert comments: “Claire Malroux’s piercing and subtly nuanced poems have been sensitively mediated for English readers in Marilyn Hacker’s poised translations. Malroux has put such American and British writers as Emily Dickinson and Emily Brontë into French with style and grace; her own work has…
Charles Simic, Walking the Black Cat, poems: In his thirteenth collection, a National Book Award finalist, Simic melds folklore and black magic with everyday life. (Harvest)
Tobias Wolff, The Night in Question, short stories: The fourteen tales in this book, Wolff’s first collection in over a decade, amply confirm his place as one of the best storytellers of our time. (Knopf)
Maxine Kumin: Connecting the Dots. In her eleventh poetry collection, Kumin wisely and unforgettably expands on her favorite themes: the ties and losses of family and friends, and the natural world. (W.W. Norton)
Jane Shore: Music Minus One. Shore’s third collection of poetry movingly traces a woman’s life from childhood to coming-of-age to parenthood, the poems striking for their jazzy melancholy and intimacy. (Picador USA)
James Carroll: An American Requiem. A stirring, generational memoir about Carroll’s many lives as the son of an Air Force general, a priest, civil rights and antiwar activist, novelist, husband, and father. (Houghton Mifflin)
Winter 1979 - Digital