When Sweden named its national treasures, the list was condemned as blinkered and dated. But it was also a chance to see the ...

Today I want to talk about the literary canon, the texts that have been judged to be worthwhile and enduring and therefore deserving of special status in our culture. I’m also going to talk about the ...

Too often, we forget that fights about what we shouldn’t read are also battles over what we should read. And that every time someone attempts to ban Toni Morrison or Ta-Nehisi Coates, they’re also ...

Throughout the history of Latin America, writers have challenged notions of a white-dominated literary canon by leaving an undeniable mark on literature in their home countries and across the world.

Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook When you hear “Willa Cather,” you might think, “Oh yeah, I had to look up My Ántonia on SparkNotes ...

Why do certain books become classics while equally brilliant novels vanish into obscurity? The answer involves universities, ...

When Percy Shelley called poets “the unacknowledged legislators of the world” he was perhaps anticipating the future argument in poetics that pitted those who are interested in the form as primary a ...

As a writer born in San Antonio, I have always felt myself anointed, or perhaps branded, by the conflicted literary legacies of the Lone Star State. I was never sure whether my origins—as a descendant ...