Next Monday, February 4, the 92nd Street Y hosts an event featuring Chris Abani and Elias Khoury, both of whose latest books focus on the horrors of war as experienced by children. I’m giving away five pairs of tickets to the event. To enter, email me at maudnewton [at] gmail [dot] com by noon (Eastern Time) on February 1, with . . .
Marianne Kjos, my beloved high school creative writing teacher, died last Friday after a protracted bout with ovarian cancer. My friend Carrie, another former student, passed on the sad news Tuesday afternoon. I could rave about Mrs. Kjos as an inspirational figure, about all the things she did that good writing teachers do. She introduced us to Joan Didion. She . . .
As a devout agnostic who’s as turned off by the proselytizing atheism of Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, et al. as by my mother’s blaming and weirdly self-congratulatory brand of Evangelical Christianity (think Jesus Camp), I was interested in much of what Peter Bebergal and Scott Korb had to say last summer at Jewcy in “What the Angry Atheists Get Wrong.” . . .
The Written Nerd has won $15,000 from the Brooklyn Public Library for her indie bookstore plan.
Translator Edith Grossman used to like to buy used books, but is wary now because of bed bugs.