For seventy consecutive days from the onset of the coronavirus, An Author a Day featured author photographs, some never before published, and sold prints and books to benefit writers in need through the Authors League Fund. The Fund helped more than 500 writers in March and April alone. You can still order prints and buy books below, with all proceeds going to the Authors League Fund. Your generosity to help writers is greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Christmas, the day after, in 2004, following the presidential re-election of George W. Bush. I am staring out of the window in extremely dark mood, feeling helpless. Then a friend, a fellow artist, calls to wish me happy holidays. He asks, “How are you?” And instead of “Oh, fine—and you?”, I blurt out the truth: “Not well. Not only am I depressed, I can’t seem to work, to write; it’s as though I am paralyzed, unable to write anything more in the novel I’ve begun. I’ve never felt this way before, but the election….” I am about to explain with further detail when he interrupts, shouting: “No! No, no, no! This is precisely the time when artists go to work—not when everything is fine, but in times of dread. That’s our job!”
—Toni Morrison, from "No Place for Self-Pity, No Room for Fear", The Nation, March 23, 2015
With the coronavirus, times of dread are very much upon us - so it's time to go to work. For many artists, however, there isn't any. Now is the time to support artists and each other. You can help with An Author a Day. By 10:00AM EDT each day I'll post a photograph of an author on Instagram and below with links to purchase that author's book(s) and purchase photographic prints. 100% of proceeds support the Authors League Fund. Since 1917, the Fund has helped professional writers in emergency financial need. You're also welcome to make a donation directly to the Authors League Fund.
There will come a time when we'll need to reflect upon, heal, and progress from our global challenge. Writers will meet that need then. Thank you for coming to their aid now.
Yours,
Beowulf
#anauthoraday
@beowulfsheehan
beowulfsheehan.com/anauthoraday
authorsleaguefund.org
And please visit An Author a Day LIVE on YouTube to take in talks with special literary voices:
Colum McCann, Saturday, May 30. View the talk here.
Yeonmi Park, Saturday, May 16. View the talk here.
Leslie Jamison, Sunday, May 10. View the talk here.
Jason Reynolds, Saturday, May 2. View the talk here.
Maya Shanbhag Lang, Jessica Pearce Rotondi, and Stephen Kiernan, presented by House of Beautiful Business, Sunday, April 26. View the talk here.
Min Jin Lee, Saturday, April 18. View the talk here.
Harlan Coben, Saturday, April 11. View the talk here.
Mira Jacob, Sunday, April 5. View the talk here.
Sunday, May 31, 2020
Neil Gaiman, New York State, May 7, 2016
"Life is sometimes hard. Things go wrong, in life and in love and in business and in friendship and in health and in all the other ways that life can go wrong. And when things get tough, this is what you should do: Make good art."
-Neil Gaiman, from "Make Good Art," Art Matters
Today marks 70 consecutive days of An Author a Day. It has been and is a joy to celebrate storytellers in photographs. Things are tough. It's time to make more art. Thank you all for doing your part.
Select works:
Good Omens, 1990
Neverwhere, 1996
Stardust, 1997
American Gods, 2000
Caroline, 2002
The Absolute Sandman, 2006
The Graveyard Book, 2008
Unnatural Creatures, 2013
The Ocean at The End of the Lane, 2013
Trigger Warning, 2015
How to Talk to Girls at Parties, 2016
The View from the Cheap Seats, 2016
Norse Mythology, 2017
Art Matters: Your Imagination Can Change the World, 2018
All book and print sale proceeds and donations support the Authors League Fund. Thank you.
Prints are available! Click here to order yours.
Friday, May 29, 2020
J.K. Rowling, New York, April 16, 2016
“We do not need magic to transform our world. We carry all of the power we need inside ourselves already.” J.K. Rowling invites us to share in magic with each Harry Potter book and more, including asking children to help make her new book The Ickabog just this week. Dive into the world of J.K. Rowling, hep writers, and let magic transform yours.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, 1997
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, 1998
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, 1999
Quidditch Through the Ages, 1999
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, 2000
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, 2001
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, 2001
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, 2005
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, 2007
The Tales of Beedle the Bard, 2008
The Casual Vacancy, 2012
The Cuckoo's Calling, 2013
The Silkworm, 2014
Career of Evil, 2015
Very Good Lives: The Fringe Benefits of Failure and the Importance of Imagination, 2015
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Parts I & II, 2016
Hogwarts Library, 2016
Lethal White, 2018
The Ickabog, 2020
Thursday, May 28, 2020
Margaret Atwood, New York, December 10, 2019
"In times like ours, there are only two directions: up or plummet,” writes Margaret Atwood in The Testaments: The Sequel to the Handmaid's Tale, her fiction now our truth. Read The Testaments, help writers in need, and step up.
Select works:
The Handmaid’s Tale, 1985
Cat’s Eye, 1988
The Robber Bride, 1993
Alias Grace, 1996
The Blind Assassin, 2000
Negotiating with the Dead: A Writer on Writing, 2002
Oryx and Crake, 2003
The Penelopiad, 2005
Moral Disorder, 2006
The Door, 2007
The Year of the Flood, 2009
MaddAddam, 2013
Stone Mattress: Nine Wicked Tales, 2014
The Heart Goes Last, 2015
Hag-Seed: William Shakespeare's the Tempest Retold, 2016
The Testaments: The Sequel to the Handmaid's Tale, 2019
Monday, May 25, 2020
Téa Obreht, Beowulf Studio, New York, June 5, 2010
The new frontier can be a boom town - but it was once someone's ghost town. In Téa Obreht's Inland: A Novel, out in paperback tomorrow, going West demands the best. Or ghosts will rise again. Read Inland, help writers in crisis, and see that no frontier is final.
The Tiger's Wife: A Novel, 2011
Inland: A Novel, 2019
Sunday, May 24, 2020
Suzan-Lori Parks, New Haven, Connecticut, September 14, 2018
When I asked her about plateaus, Suzan-Lori Parks told me to dive deeper. With each work Parks writes (and sings), she does. If you missed White Noise at the Public Theater, see it as a reader. Read White Noise, help writers in crisis, and get below the surface. (And visit the Public Theater website to learn about Parks' Watch Me Work program to help your creativity.)
The America Play and Other Works, 1994
Venus, 1996
Topdog/Underdog, 1999
The Red Letter Plays, 2001
365 Days/365 Plays, 2002-2003
Getting Mother's Body, 2003
The Book of Grace, 2010
Father Comes Home From the Wars, 2014
100 Plays for the First Hundred Days, 2018
White Noise, 2019
Saturday, May 23, 2020
Lucas Hnath, Beowulf Studio, New York, March 6, 2015
Henrik Ibsen passed away on this day in 1906, but his work lives on. In the art of Lucas Hnath, Ibsen's house gets remodeled when Nora comes back. For now we can't see great theater on the stage, but we have the gift of reading it on the page. Read Hnath's A Doll's House, Part 2, help writers in need, and give great stories their encore.
The Christians, 2016
A Doll's House, Part 2, 2019
A Public Reading of an Unproduced Screenplay About the Death of Walt Disney, 2020
Hillary and Clinton, 2020
The Red Speedo, 2020
Friday, May 22, 2020
Binyavanga Wainaina, New York, May 4, 2015
"If a writer falls in love with you, you can never die," wrote author Mik Everett. If a writer loved his country as Binyavanga Wainaina did, then it couldn't die, either. Wainaina, who passed away a year ago yesterday, wrote for Kenya and its freedoms. The cause lives on in One Day I Will Write About This Place: A Memoir. Read Wainaina's memoir, support writers in need, and see the past come to life.
Discovering Home, 2003
Beyond the River Yei, 2004
How to Write About Africa, 2006
One Day I Will Write About This Place: A Memoir, 2011
Nguva Na Nyoka, 2014
Thursday, May 21, 2020
Jennifer Finney Boylan, New York, April 30, 2014
Everyone's best friend is guided by unconditional love. In Jennifer Finney Boylan's Good Boy: My Life in Seven Dogs, published a month ago today, we learn we can be, too. Read Good Boy: My Life in Seven Dogs , support writers in need, and let love be your guide.
She's Not There: A Life in Two Genders, 2003
I'm Looking Through You: Growing Up Haunted: A Memoir, 2008
Falcon Quinn and the Black Mirror, 2010
Falcon Quinn and the Crimson Vapor, 2011
Stuck in the Middle with You: A Memoir of Parenting in Three Genders, 2013
You Are You, 2015
Falcon Quinn and the Bullies of Greenblud, 2016
Long Black Veil, 2017
Good Boy: My Life in Seven Dogs, 2020
Wednesday, May 20, 2020
Kayleb Rae Candrilli, Beowulf Studio, New York, May 21, 2019
"I want to return home just so I might remember something good," writes poet Kayleb Rae Candrilli in their new collection All the Gay Saints, published just two weeks ago. Home, within our environments, within ourselves, is where we're to stay and, in Canrilli's poetry, be happy. Read All the Gay Saints, support writers in need, and get comfortable.
What Runs Over, 2017
All the Gay Saints, 2020
Tuesday, May 19, 2020
Mahogany L. Browne, New York, April 30, 2019
How brilliant is your rainbow? There are infinite colors in the spectrum of life. It's on us to embrace them all because, as poet Mahogany L. Browne writes,
The smallest things that make us up
are the largest strokes of beauty that color us brilliant!
—from "The Ability to Be", Woke: A Young Poet's Call to Justice
Read Woke, published in March, help writers in need, and paint your world with beauty.
Redbone, 2016
Kissing Caskets, 2017
Black Girl Magic: A Poem, 2018
Woke Baby, 2018
Woke: A Young Poet's Call to Justice, 2020
Monday, May 18, 2020
Carolin Emcke, New York, May 6, 2019
Our eyes don’t give all away when there’s so much more to say. Carolin Emcke’s When I Say Yes, publishing today in the US, speaks to our need to open up, to empower the silenced, and to equate the conversation. Read When I Say Yes, help writers in need, and help everyone have his, her, and their say.
Echoes of Violence: Letters from a War Reporter, 2007
How We Desire, 2018
Against Hate, 2019
When I Say Yes, 2020
Sunday, May 17, 2020
Richard Ford, New York, April 30, 2010
There are departures and arrivals we will miss. We’ll miss some of those we make, too. Richard Ford’s Sorry for your Trouble: Stories, published last Tuesday, looks at loss, of a loved one, of an opportunity, of time, and helps us gain what’s left. Read Sorry for your Trouble, help writers in need, and appreciate how precious time and we are.
A Piece of My Heart, 1976
The Ultimate Good Luck, 1981
The Sportswriter, 1986
Rock Springs: Stories, 1987
Wildlife, 1990
Independence Day, 1995
Women with Men, 1997
A Multitude of Sins,
The Lay of the Land, 2006
Canada, 2012
Let Me Be Frank With You, 2014
Between Them: Remembering My Parents, 2017
Sorry for Your Trouble: Stories, 2020
Saturday, May 16, 2020
Yeonmi Park, Beowulf Studio, New York, February 4, 2015
“We tell ourselves stories in order to live,” wrote the great Joan Didion. Yeonmi Park's memoir In Order to Live, her journey to the joy of living freely, is the story you must read for yourself. Help storytellers in need, read In Order to Live, and see Yeonmi Park's interview on An Author a Day LIVE here.
In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl's Journey to Freedom, 2015
Friday, May 15, 2020
Kathleen Donohoe, Beowulf Studio, New York, August 27, 2015
A parade comes to town, and with it a girl disappears. In Kathleen Donohoe's Ghosts of the Missing, published this February, we learn that finding her takes more than a village. Love and the truth are out there. Help writers in need, read Ghosts of the Missing, and find yours.
Ashes of Fiery Weather, 2016
Ghosts of the Missing, 2020
Thursday, May 14, 2020
Anne Enright, New York, May 25, 2016
Big stars cast long shadows. In Anne Enright's Actress, published this February, Norah is born under one, and her journey to see her mother without celebrity challenges her own identity. Read Actress, support writers in need, and see what makes you a shining star.
The Wig My Father Wore, 1995
What Are You Like?, 2000
The Pleasure of Eliza Lynch, 2002
The Gathering, 2007
Yesterday's Weather, 2009
The Forgotten Waltz, 2011
The Green Road, 2015
Actress, 2020
Tuesday, May 12, 2020
Sebastian Barry, New York, May 3, 2009
When the world she knew was taken from her, orphan Winona Cole turned to the sharpest weapon she had left to fight on. In novelist, playwright, and poet Sebastian Barry’s A Thousand Moons, published in March, that weapon was love. Buy A Thousand Moons, support writers in need, and read - and fight - on, too.
The Whereabouts of Eneas McNulty, 1998
Annie Dunne, 2002
A Long Long Way, 2005
The Secret Scripture, 2008
On Canaan's Side, 2011
The Temporary Gentleman, 2014
Days Without End, 2016
A Thousand Moons, 2020
Monday, May 11, 2020
David McCullough, New York, May 2, 2016
The promised land. Freedom of religion. Free universal education. The prohibition of slavery. These were among the assurances of the Treaty of Paris in creating the Northwest Territory in 1788. As settlers moved west, were the promises kept? Historian David McCullough looks back in The American Spirit: Who We Are and What We Stand For, published last week in paperback. Let history show you who we're meant to be so we can look to a new reality.
The Johnstown Flood: The Incredible Story Behind One of the Most Devastating Disasters America Has Ever Known, 1968
The Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge, 1972
The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870–1914, 1977
Mornings on Horseback, 1981
Brave Companions: Portraits in History, 1991
Truman, 1992
John Adams, 2001
1776, 2005
In the Dark Streets Shineth: A 1941 Christmas Eve Story, 2010
The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris, 2011
The Wright Brothers, 2015
The American Spirit: Who We Are and What We Stand For, 2017
The Pioneers: The Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West, 2019
All book and print sale proceeds and donations support the Authors League Fund. Thank you.
Prints are available! Click here to order yours.
Sunday, May 10, 2020
Leslie Jamison, Beowulf Studio, New York, August 15, 2017
“You must do something to make the world more beautiful,” wrote Leslie Jamison in writing about reading to her daughter in her Covid-19 essay “Since I Became Symptomatic”. Read Jamison's landmark essay collection Make It Scream, Make It Burn, support writers in need, and learn how to make the world more beautiful, too. And enjoy Leslie Jamison's An Author a Day LIVE interview here.
The Gin Closet, 2010
The Empathy Exams, 2014
The Recovering: Intoxication and its Aftermath, 2018
Make It Scream, Make It Burn, 2019
Saturday, May 9, 2020
Bejamin Moser, New York, October 9, 2018
When you can’t see the future, look to the past. Benjamin Moser’s Pultizer-Prize-winning Sontag looks at the life of an icon and the New York, art, literature, and culture Susan Sontag reflected and helped shape. Give today to yesterday with Sontag and help writers in need.
Why This World: A Biography of Clarice Lispector, 2009
Sontag: Her Life and Work, 2019
Friday, May 8, 2020
Colson Whitehead, Portland, Oregon, November 5, 2016
Great challenges can beget great courage. In Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning The Nickel Boys and The Underground Railroad, they do. Read these great books, support writers in need, and be courageous.
The Intuitionist, 1999
John Henry Days, 2001
The Colossus of New York, 2003
Apex Hides the Hurt, 2006
Sag Harbor, 2009
Zone One, 2011
The Noble Hustle: Poker, Beef Jerky & Death, 2014
The Underground Railroad, 2016
The Nickel Boys, 2019
Thursday, May 7, 2020
Wayne Koestenbaum, New York, September 20, 2013
The ecology of the cacophony of life is rarely written because it requires a rare voice to Figure It Out. Wayne Koestenbaum does. His essay collection Figure It Out was published on Tuesday. The artist is present, ready for you to read the present of his essays, thanking you for supporting writers in need.
Ode to Anna Moffo and Other Poems, 1990
The Queen's Throat: Opera, Homosexuality, and the Mystery of Desire, 1993
Rhapsodies of A Repeat Offender, 1994
Jackie Under My Skin: Interpreting An Icon, 1995
The Milk of Inquiry, 1999
Cleavage: Essays on Sex, Stars, and Aesthetics, 2000
Andy Warhol: A Biography, 2001
Model Homes, 2004
Best-Selling Jewish Porn Films, 2006
Hotel Theory, 2007
Humiliation, 2011
Blue Stranger With Mosaic Background, 2012
The Anatomy of Harpo Marx, 2012
My 1980s and Other Essays, 2013
The Pink Trance Notebooks, 2015
Notes on Glaze: 18 Photographic Investigations, 2016
Camp Marmalade, 2018
Figure It Out: Essays, 2020
Wednesday, May 6, 2020
Jennifer Steil, Beowulf Studio, New York, April 16, 2019
Carry a song in your heart – but what do you sing when home and heart are so far apart? War takes young Orly across the ocean, to refuge and new life. When war ends, is the past enough to go home again? Jennifer Steil's Exile Music was published just yesterday. Support writers in need by letting Exile Music carry you away.
The Woman Who Fell From the Sky, 2010
The Ambassador's Wife, 2015
Exile Music, 2020
Tuesday, May 5, 2020
Kimberly McCreight, Beowulf Studio, New York, September 27, 2019
The high wire that connects courthouse steps to brownstone stoops teeters on truth. On the line are attorney Lizzie Kitsakis’ marriage, all she thought was real, a murder, and the prime suspect, her neighbor. Kimberly McCreight’s A Good Marriage is out today! Suspend your beliefs, read A Good Marriage, and help writers in need.
Reconstructing Amelia, 2013
Where They Found Her, 2015
The Outliers, 2016
The Scattering, 2017
The Collide, 2018
A Good Marriage, 2020
Sunday, May 3, 2020
Anna Solomon, Beowulf Studio, New York, September 24, 2015
A woman holds a mirror, but is her vision hers or another’s for her? Three roads to (in)dependence meet in Anna Solomon’s The Book of V., publishing this Tuesday, May 4. Literature can help find the way. Read The Book of V. and help writers in dire need.
The Little Bride, 2011
Leaving Lucy Pear, 2016
The Book of V., 2020
Friday, May 1, 2020
David Baldacci, New York, November 15, 2017
Growth is healthy. Overnight growth is suspicious. And has its costs. Murder and Amos Decker come to boom town in David Baldacci’s Walk the Wire, published March 21, 2020. Help writers in need by making your day a Baldacci thriller night.
The Sixth Man, 2011
One Summer, 2011
Zero Day, 2011
The Innocent, 2012
The Forgotten, 2012
The Hit, 2013
King and Maxwell, 2013
The Target, 2014
The Escape, 2014
Memory Man, 2015
The Guilty, 2015
The Last Mile, 2016
No Man's Land, 2016
The Fix, 2017
End Game, 2017
The Fallen, 2018
Long Road to Mercy, 2018
Redemption, 2019
One Good Deed, 2019
A Minute to Midnight, 2019
Walk the Wire, 2020
Thursday, April 30, 2020
Paul Muldoon, New York, March 2, 2020
The great horse of the world stamps and champs at the bit
and lays back one ear
as I approach
from the rear
to hitch it to the world-coach
mindful of keeping at least one hand on it
so it knows I’m still here
—Paul Muldoon, from “The Great Horse of the World”, Frolic and Detour: Poems, 2019
The world may seem to run rampant, but it’s the steady hand that will be triumphant. Hold on with poetry, and help writers in need.
Madoc: A Mystery, 1990
The Annals of Chile, 1994
Hay, 1998
Poems 1968-1998, 2001
Moy Sand and Gravel, 2002
Horse Latitudes: Poems, 2006
Maggot, 2010
One Thousand Things Worth Knowing, 2015
Selected Poems 1968-2014, 2016
Frolic and Detour: Poems, 2019
Wednesday, April 29, 2020
Nathalie Handal, New York, December 19, 2009
there are beauties we
can’t inhabit immediately
like the stars the moon the universe,
places that force us to draw
a knot to our names
so we can better understand
what it means to hesitate.
—Nathalie Handal, from "A New Era in Space", Life in a Country Album
Today it’s healthy to hesitate, to see the beauty all around you. Support writers in need, and let poetry help you see.
The Neverfield Poem, 1999
The Lives of Rain, 2005
Love and Strange Horses, 2010
Poet in Andalucía, 2012
The Republics, 2015
Life in a Country Album, 2019
Tuesday, April 28, 2020
Ishmael Beah, New York, October 13, 2009
Home is where we make our family. Family is where make our home. The world—as it might be doing now—can undo both. Ishmael Beah’s Little Family: A Novel, out today, tells how to (and how not to) start anew. Support writers in need and give Little Family a read.
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, 2007
Radiance of Tomorrow: A Novel, 2014
Little Family: A Novel, 2020
Monday, April 27, 2020
Camille Dungy, New York, May 30, 2019
Ask me what I know of longing and I will speak of distances
between meadows of night-blooming flowers.
I will speak
the impossible hope of the firefly.
You with the candle
burning and only one chair at your table must understand
such wordless desire.
—Camille Dungy, from “Characteristics of Life”, Trophic Cascade, 2017
There is much for which we now long. Keep your candle burning. Help writers in need by reading poetry.
What to Eat, What to Drink, What to Leave for Poison, 2006
Suck on the Marrow, 2010
Smith Blue, 2011
Trophic Cascade, 2017
Guidebook to Relative Strangers, 2017
Sunday, April 26, 2020
Maya Shanbhag Lang, Beowulf Studio, New York, October 17, 2019
"It occurs to me that diamonds aren’t made voluntarily. What lump of coal would choose so much time and pressure? It could be that what shapes us against our choosing is what makes us shine."
—Maya Shanbhag Lang, from What We Carry; A Memoir, 2020
Support writers in need by buying your copy of What We Carry, publishing Tuesday in the USA, and let literature help carry you through to shine, too.
Be sure to catch Maya Shanbhag Lang reading from What We Carry and speaking about storytelling with writers Stephen Kiernan and Jessica Pearce Rotondi on An Author a Day LIVE here.
The Sixteenth of June: A Novel, 2014
What We Carry: A Memoir, 2020
Thursday, April 23, 2020
Cathy Park Hong, New York, September 20, 2018
Difference is dwinding as new circumstance is binding. For all life’s brutality, we still dream to just be. Learn from history, and we can find harmony. “What art can do,” writes poet Cathy Park Hong, “is be somehow diagnostic. It can look deeply and truthfuly into what happened, and what could have led to this moment.” Take this moment to read Minor Feelings, published February 25, 2020, and find the empathy to help come out of this a better society.
Translating Mou’um, 2002
Dance Dance Revolution, 2007
Engine Empire: Poems, 2012
Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning, 2020
Tuesday, April 21, 2020
Jessica Pearce Rotondi, New York, June 26, 2019
We are here today for the gifts of our families’ yesterdays. But what do we do when a life is given and the government hides the truth? Jessica Pearce Rotondi’s riveting debut What We Inherit searches for family taken by a secret war, grieves the greatest of losses, and never relents against efforts to silence. What We Inherit is on sale today. Support writers in need by buying your copy through An Author a Day. And never give up.
What We Inherit: A Secret War and a Family's Search for Answers, 2020
Monday, April 20, 2020
Marie Ponsot, New York, October 15, 2007
We stand at the edge of opportunity, to face our divisions and dream into action a new vision. Or, as the late poet Marie Ponsot wrote, we swim:
In a skiff on a sunrisen lake we are watchers.
Swimming aimlessly is luxury just as walking
loudly up a shallow stream is.
As lean over the deep well, we whisper.
Friends at hearths are drawn to the one warm air;
Strangers meet on beaches drawn to the one wet sea.
What would it be to be water, one body of water
(what water is is another mystery) (We are
water divided.)
—from “Springing”, 1962
Decades later, the question remains. With poetry, with now, we can answer.
Springing: New and Selected Poems, 2002
Easy: Poems, 2009
Sunday, April 19, 2020
Adonis, New York, April 28, 2014
In our new solitude, there’s so much to see inside your windows. From the poet Adonis, the wisdom of reflection:
Oh, my past days—
they used to walk in their sleep
and I used to lean on them.
Love and dreams are two parentheses.
Between them I place my body
and discover the world.
—from “Celebrating Childhood”, Selected Poems, 2010
See your world anew with poetry.
Songs of Mihyar the Damascene, 1961, (newly translated 2019)
If Only the Sea Could Sleep: Love Poems, 1989
Sufism and Surrealism, 2005
Selected Poems, 2010
Saturday, April 18, 2020
Min Jin Lee, Beowulf Studio, New York, January 22, 2018
Our fortunes, our worldviews, and our very beings are built on the shoulders of those who came before us. We carry their triumphs, their tragedies, their histories, and their secrets. Min Jin Lee’s Pachinko is the landmark metaphor for our becoming. Read Pachinko, see Min Jin Lee on An Author a Day LIVE, and see where we're going.
Free Food for Millionaires, 2007
Pachinko, 2017
Thursday, April 16, 2020
Nicole Sealey, Brooklyn, December 15, 2017
The landscape of gray must one day give way. Poet Nicole Sealey knows how colorfully it will:
notwithstanding
thousands of oleanders
and dandelions
handpicked
and
sandalwood
and mandrake
and random demands
the bystander
wanders
in
wonderland.
—from "And", 2020
Stay radiant. Read poetry, and see how vibrant the future will be.
The Animal After Whom Other Animals Are Named: Poems, 2016
Ordinary Beast: Poems, 2017
Wednesday, April 15, 2020
Muriel Barbery, New York, April 29, 2009
Over a wall of darkness are worlds of beauty. Can splintered peoples unite to wonder and harmony? Muriel Barbery’s A Strange Country was published in the US yesterday. Her novel is poetry and fantasy. Read and see how we can shape our reality.
Gourmet Rhapsody, 2000
The Elegance of the Hedgehog, 2006
The Lives of Elves, 2015
A Strange Country, 2019
Tuesday, April 14, 2020
Rowan Ricardo Phillips, Siasconset, Massachusetts, June 15, 2019
The heart rate of the nation slows, and with it poets check our pulse. Of quieted New York, Rowan Ricardo Phillips writes:
Just a few miles ahead I can see Central Park, the dark, secretive rectangle at the heart of Manhattan.
Lit streets run from it, electric arteries and veins. Manhattan’s never seemed so empty, so narrow, a pupil of a cat’s eye.
I breathe in deeply.
—from “1776”, Living Weapon: Poems, 2020
Rowan Ricardo Phillips’ Living Weapon was published February 18. Weeks later, we’re all asked to slow our hearts. Read his work and fill yours, too.
When Blackness Rhymes with Blackness, 2010
The Ground: Poems, 2012
Heaven: Poems, 2015
The Circuit: A Tennis Odyssey, 2018
Living Weapon: Poems, 2020
Monday, April 13, 2020
Joy Harjo, New York, May 3, 2013
In art, the individual is universal, the cultural the spiritual. History is reflected to show the way forward. For Joy Harjo, that art is poetry, it is music, it is Native and all our America. Read An American Sunrise: Poems by Joy Harjo, our US Poet Laureate, and see our way to a new day.
She Had Some Horses: Poems, 1983
In Mad Love and War, 1990
The Woman Who Fell from the Sky: Poems, 1994
How We Became Human: New and Selected Poems 1975-2002, 2004
For a Girl Becoming, 2009
Crazy Brave: A Memoir, 2012
Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings: Poems, 2015
Wings of Night Sky, Wings of Morning Light, 2019
An American Sunrise: Poems, 2019
Sunday, April 12, 2020
Ron Chernow, Brooklyn, April 27, 2017
Heroes live among us. They save lives, fight for what’s right. Some serve entire nations, labor for the better for generations. They are not infallible. They, too, are people. Ron Chernow chronicles complicated heroes, most recently in his books Alexander Hamilton (the book that, yes, inspired the musical Hamilton) and in Grant. Chernow wrote about those heroes so you may read about them. And be heroic, too.
The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance, 1990
The Warburgs: A Family Saga, 1995
The Death of the Banker: The Decline and Fall of the Great Financial Dynasties and the Triumph of the Small Investor, 1997
Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, 1998
Alexander Hamilton, 2005
Washington: A Life, 2010
Grant, 2017
Thursday, April 9, 2020
Jason Rezaian, Beowulf Studio, New York, April 11, 2018
Endurance, says Merriam-Webster, is “the ability to withstand hardship or adversity.” Next to the definition could easily be the portrait of Jason Rezaian, journalist who survived 18 months of solitary confinement an Iranian prison for no crime at all. Coronavirus doesn’t confine us. It requires we self-isolate.
Read Rezaian’s Prisoner: My 544 Days in an Iranian Prison, and watch his advice on surviving. Together, we will endure.
Wednesday, April 8, 2020
Elie Wiesel, New York, December 1, 2008
“The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference.” Today, every day, is the day to make a difference.
Night, 1960
Dawn, 1961
The Accident/Day, 1962
The Town Beyond the Wall, 1964
The Gates of the Forest, 1966
Souls on Fire: Portraits & Legends of Hasidic Masters, 1972
The Oath, 1973
Messengers of God: Biblical Portraits and Legends, 1976
The Trial of God, 1979
The Testament, 1980
Twilight, 1988
The Forgotten, 1992
All Rivers Run to the Sea: Memoirs, 1995
And the Sea is Never Full: Memoirs, 1999
A Mad Desire to Dance, 2009
Open Heart, 2012
Monday, April 6, 2020
Casey Schwartz, Beowulf Studio, New York, February 25, 2020
Life sometimes asks more than we can give. And sometimes we turn to forms of help before we discover they’re forms of harm. The giving, then, has to be to our own lives, to see all we can overcome and all we can be. Casey Schwartz’s Attention: A Love Story publishes in the USA tomorrow. Read on, and get on with, cherish, life.
In the Mind Fields: Exploring the New Science of Neuropsychoanalysis, 2015
Attention: A Love Story, 2020
Sunday, April 5, 2020
Bryce Courtenay, Melbourne, Australia, September 3, 2010
When all around you seems dark, know you have a light within. Johannesburg-born Bryce Courtenay’s The Power of One, the only of his 22 books published in the United States, is a testament to what one can achieve with determination, dreams, and friends. Imagine what you can achieve for having read one great book.
The Power of One, 1989
Saturday, April 4, 2020
Mira Jacob, Beowulf Studio, New York, September 16, 2018
Though we’re closed off from each other, we can be open together. We face the same challenge, and with it we have the chance to put many divisions to bed. Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations by Mira Jacob shows us who we are and who we can be.
The Sleepwalker's Guide to Dancing, 2014
Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations, 2019
Friday, April 3, 2020
Jacqueline Woodson, Brooklyn, December 6, 2017
Jacqueline Woodson’s books see heroines and heroes finding their way through the world, genuine, open as they become their best selves. And that, in Woodson’s The Day You Begin, is the morale of the story: It’s beautiful just to be. And to read.
Last Summer with Maizon, 1990
The Dear One, 1990
Maizon at Blue Hill, 1992
Between Madison and Palmetto, 1993
I Hadn't Meant to Tell You This, 1994
From the Notebooks of Melanin Sun, 1995
The House You Pass on the Way, 1997
If You Come Softly, 1998
Miracle's Boys, 2000
The Other Side, 2001
Hush, 2002
Visiting Day, 2002
Coming on Home Soon, 2003
Behind You, 2004
Show Way, 2006
Feathers, 2007
After Tupac and D Foster, 2008
Peace, Locomotion, 2009
Locomotion, 2010
Pecan Pie Baby, 2010
Beneath a Meth Moon, 2012
Each Kindness, 2012
This Is the Rope, 2013
Brown Girl Dreaming, 2014
Another Brooklyn, 2016
The Day You Begin, 2018
Harbor Me, 2018
Red at the Bone, 2019
Thursday, April 2, 2020
Sandeep Jauhar, New York, February 23, 2018
A flair for the heart sees Dr. Sandeep Jauhar practice cardiology and, with writing, empathy. Heart: A History chronicles our discovery of the wonder inside us all. Read Jauhar’s story of this universal miracle, and yours will be full.
Intern: A Doctor’s Initiation, 2007
Doctored: The Disillusionment of an American Physician, 2014
Heart: A History, 2018
Tuesday, March 31, 2020
Edward Albee, New York, February 24, 2009
“Sometimes it’s necessary to go a long distance out of the way in order to come back a short distance correctly,” wrote Edward Albee in The Zoo Story in 1959. That wisdom is now 61, and there’s work to be done. See the morals in the quarrels in Albee’s plays, and let’s shorten the long way.
The Zoo Story, 1959
The Death of Bessie Smith, 1960
The Sandbox, 1960
The American Dream, 1961
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, 1962
A Delicate Balance, 1966
Three Tall Women, 1991
Occupant, 2001
At Home at the Zoo (Act One: Homelife. Act Two: The Zoo Story), 2004
The Collected Plays of Edward Albee, Volume 1: 1958-1965, 2004
Stretching My Mind: The Collected Essays of Edward Albee, 2005
Monday, March 30, 2020
Arundhati Roy, New York, May 12, 2019
“Will we ever be able to re-imagine beauty?” asked Arundhati Roy, not now, not in the face of a pandemic, but in 2001, following another time most tragic. Today the question returns. The answer we learn from Roy’s The God of Small Things and more writing. To “worlds of incredible courage and grace” we must go. And there, we’ll know, beauty will have its place.
The God of Small Things, 1997
The End of Imagination, 1998
Public Power in the Age of Empire, 2004
Listening to Grasshoppers: Field Notes on Democracy, 2010
Walking with the Comrades, 2011
Capitalism: A Ghost Story, 2014
The Doctor and the Saint: Caste, Race, and Annihilation of Caste, the Debate Between B.R. Ambedkar and M.K. Gandhi, 2017
The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, 2017
My Seditious Heart: Collected Nonfiction, 2019
Sunday, March 29, 2020
John Lewis, New York, November 15, 2016
For those without love, violence is a means to an end. Heroes rise above, for there is humanity to defend. John Lewis’ life of service defines a life of purpose. On this day we’re meant to rest, let the books by Congressman Lewis show, for all the challenges before us, we are blessed. And we will overcome. Order below.
Across That Bridge: Life Lessons and a Vision for Change, 2012
March: Book One, 2013
March: Book Two, 2015
Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement, 2015
March: Book Three, 2016
March Trilogy, 2016
Saturday, March 28, 2020
Philip Roth, New York, May 19, 2009
An artist questions. A master also answers. In 2004, Philip Roth penned a view to a USA that made (and in 1940 could have made) an isolationist and anti-Semite president, to the menace that grew, and to the pain that followed. The Plot Against America was republished March 3. The first of six episodes of HBO’s series of the same name screened March 16. There is time to act. To form your own vision first. To read The Plot Against America or any of the below masterworks. And, yes, to watch.
Goodbye, Columbus, 1959
Letting Go, 1962
When She Was Good, 1967
Portnoy's Complaint, 1969
Our Gang, 1971
The Breast, 1972
The Great American Novel, 1973
My Life as a Man, 1974
The Professor of Desire, 1977
The Ghost Writer, 1979
Zuckerman Unbound, 1981
The Anatomy Lesson, 1983
The Prague Orgy, 1985
The Counterlife, 1986
The Facts: A Novelist's Autobiography, 1988
Patrimony: A True Story, 1991
Operation Shylock: A Confession, 1993
Sabbath's Theater, 1995
American Pastoral, 1997
I Married a Communist, 1998
The Human Stain, 2000
The Dying Animal, 2001
The Plot Against America, 2004
Everyman, 2006
Exit Ghost, 2007
Indignation, 2008
The Humbling, 2009
Nemesis, 2010
Friday, March 27, 2020
Adrienne Miller, New York, August 9, 2006
For years, Adrienne Miller went to the mat for the glossies. As the first female literary editor at Esquire, Miller was as swiftly in the company of the icons of literature and she was the select sexism of a male-dominated culture. Maturing among the immature, David Foster Wallace came into her professional and personal lives. And her life, completely literary, became her memoir extraordinary. In the Land of Men: A Memoir was published February 11. Adrienne Miller’s book tour might be cut short, but her journey and lessons can still be taken to heart with your support. Order your copy today.
The Coast of Akron, 2005
In the Land of Men: A Memoir, 2020
Thursday, March 26, 2020
Nick Flynn, New York, April 30, 2009
The greatest irony is reality, very much the story of poet, essayist, and novelist Nick Flynn's career and Stay: Threads, Conversations, Collaborations, his newest book. The title and work for our day, Stay is a compendium of the ruins and riches of life, addiction, homelessness, loss, friendship, kinship, and art. From isolation to engagement comes the revelation of the place of art and the place of us. Stay was published on March 17, and it's not had its day in the sun. Order Nick Flynn's Stay, and be enlightened.
Some Ether: Poems, 2000
Blind Huber: Poems, 2002
Another Bullshit Night in Suck City, 2004
Alice Invents a Little Game and Alice Always Wins: A Play , 2008
The Ticking Is the Bomb: A Memoir, 2010
The Reenactments: A Memoir, 2013
My Feelings: Poems, 2015
I Will Destroy You: Poems, 2019
Stay: Threads, Conversations, Collaborations, 2020
Wednesday, March 25, 2020
Kimiko Hahn, Beowulf Studio, New York, March 1, 2016
Sometimes a line composes a lifetime, and this art is at the heart of Kimiko Hahn’s poetry. Foreign Bodies, her newest collection, sees the journey across nations and generations, embraces mother and culture, explores a cabinet of wonders made by nature, man, and woman. Hahn’s first reading was to have taken place this past Sunday. Though undone by the virus, there is another way. Support new poetry, order Foreign Bodies, and let this artistic expression be your inspiration.
The Unbearable Heart, 1997
Mosquito and Ant: Poems, 1999
The Artist's Daughter: Poems, 2002
The Narrow Road to the Interior: Poems, 2006
Toxic Flora: Poems, 2010
Brain Fever, 2014
Brood, 2018
Foreign Bodies, 2020
Tuesday, March 24,
Evan James, East River, New York, June 12, 2018
Evan James weaves yarns of wit and humor into the loom of life, with eyes on absurdity, family, romance, pain, and sex, together the cacophony of gay and straight worlds colliding and intertwining. His new collection I've Been Wrong Before: Essays was published March 3, 2020. James' first reading took place at Brooklyn's Greenlight Bookstore days later, and then the virus canceled his book tour. You can help. Support new literature by ordering your copy of Evan James' I've Been Wrong Before: Essays today.
Cheer Up, Mr. Widdicombe, 2019
I've Been Wrong Before: Essays, 2020
Monday, March 23, 2020
Toni Morrison, New York, May 1, 2010
The heroine, the icon, the conviction of voice for the voiceless.
The Bluest Eye, 1970
Sula, 1973 hardcover paperback
Song of Solomon, 1977
Tar Baby, 1981
Beloved, 1987
Jazz, 1992
Paradise, 1997.
Love, 2003
A Mercy, 2008
Home, 2012
God Help the Child, 2015