Tag Archives: Toni Morrison

Passing On: Amiri Baraka, Suzan-Lori Parks, Claudia Rankine

January 22, 2014 James Baldwin probably felt a tinge of jealousy at the sight of Amiri Baraka, Maya Angelou, and Toni Morrison at his funeral. Thousands of people there, and those three in particular, so eloquent in their tribute, but … Continue reading

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Writers getting old: Ashbery, Angelou, Morrison

November 13, 2013 I was standing at the very back, and saw only a wall of people in front.  I’d also missed the introduction.   For most of reading, all I got was the voice, surprisingly strong, vigorous, the voice … Continue reading

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James Baldwin’s friends

July 31, 2013 Well, at least they went to high school together, that accounts for it: DeWitt Clinton High School, in the north Bronx.   By the time James Baldwin and Richard Avedon brought out Nothing Personal (1964), they’d known … Continue reading

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Children’s literature as World Literature

July 10, 2013 Is there a special connection between children’s literature and world literature?  I’ve always wondered about this. Langston Hughes, Gertrude Stein, and Toni Morrison are just individual examples, and maybe they’re all flukes.   Still, there they are: … Continue reading

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Toni Morrison, Maxine Hong Kingston, Leslie Silko: The Chinese Connection

February 6, 2012 In 1985 Toni Morrison, Maxine Hong Kingston, and Leslie Silko traveled together to China, going up the Li River in a boat. Kingston and Silko have now come out with new books — Kingston, I Love a … Continue reading

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Jane Austen’s Philadelphia, Toni Morrison’s Denver

January 30, 2013 2013  is the bicentennial of Pride and Prejudice, so I’ve been learning new things about Jane Austen — for instance, the fact that her aunt was named Philadelphia, Phila for short.  Phila never saw Philadelphia; no, at … Continue reading

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Toni Morrison, Slade Morrison: More Children’s Books

September 12, 2012 Toni Morrison also had trouble with publishers.   At least she managed to get it in print — The Big Box, the first of several coauthored with her son Slade, first appeared in Ms. Magazine in 1980 and, … Continue reading

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Gore Vidal (1925-2012): 2006 Letter on the Palestinian nation.

August 1, 2012 Gore Vidal’s passing is marked worldwide by a citational frenzy: all those quips, those acidic one-liners, from the past 86 years.  The New York Times, the Washington Post, the LA Times, all have their favorites; the Guardian … Continue reading

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All Saints Bookstore, Beijing

June 13, 2012 We were in Hong Kong on June 4, the anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown.  A candlelight vigil had been held in Victoria Park for the past 23 years.  This year, 180,000 people showed up. There … Continue reading

Posted in Asia, Boostores, China, Cities, collaboration, Comparative literature, Contemporary novel, Diaspora, Dissidents, Educational institutions, literary magazaines, macro politics, Media, Nobel Prize, print medium, public universities, Publishers, Translation, Twentieth century literature, Universities, world literature | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

African-Native-American: Langston Hughes, Toni Morrison

February 15, 2012 Langston Hughes. African-American, of course. Yet a not insignificant fact about his biography is that his both his maternal grandparents, Mary Patterson and Charles Henry Langston, were of mixed races: African-American, Native American, and European. Hughes did … Continue reading

Posted in African-American literature, contemporary poetry, mixed races, Native-American literature, slavery, Twentieth century literature | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 65 Comments