Michael Schaub –

"Walking on Cowrie Shells," by Nana Nkweti.

In her wide-ranging debut collection of short stories, Nana Nkweti seems like a writer who can do anything

June 23, 2021 at 12:10 p.m.

If you regularly read book reviews, you're probably familiar with the phrase "promising debut." Critics use it as shorthand for a first book that suggests a bright future career for...

Dave Barry’s dog Lucy is living her best life — and teaching him to be happier too

April 9, 2019 at 12:47 p.m.

We are not making this up: Dave Barry has made a career out of making readers laugh, and he’s gotten only funnier over the past several years. The author of...

Sandra Cisneros attends the the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books at USC on April 13, 2014.

Chicago native Sandra Cisneros to receive PEN/Nabokov Award for international literature

May 9, 2019 at 6:56 p.m.

Sandra Cisneros, the Mexican American novelist whose books "The House on Mango Street" and "Woman Hollering Creek" are widely considered contemporary classics of American literature, has won the PEN/Nabokov Award...

Author Rebecca Makkai poses for a photograph at the Printers Row Lit Fest earlier this year. She has been named a finalist for a National Book Award.

Chicagoan Rebecca Makkai among finalists for the 2018 National Book Awards

December 17, 2018 at 4:02 p.m.

The finalists for the National Book Awards were announced on Wednesday, with writers Terrance Hayes, Lauren Groff and Elizabeth Acevedo all contending for the prestigious literary prizes. Groff, previously nominated...

Ischia Porto is one of the settings in Elena Ferrante's novel "My Brilliant Friend."

Elena Ferrante, whoever she is, will be a columnist for the Guardian

May 9, 2019 at 6:46 p.m.

Elena Ferrante, the reclusive, internationally bestselling Italian novelist, will write a weekly column for the Guardian. The tricky part is “Elena Ferrante” isn’t a person — it’s a pen name....

Nick Cave has been singing about mortality for decades, and he's really good at it. Whether the narratives are biblical or pulpy, the victims innocents or death row convicts, the circumstances comprehensible or cruelly random, Cave's songs are on intimate terms with the infinite ways a life can be extinguished. And yet, "Skeleton Tree", his latest album with his estimable band, the Bad Seeds, is a relatively concise song cycle shadowed by death that feels different than all the rest. <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/music/kot/sc-music-nick-cave-skeleton-tree-ent-0916-20160916-column.html" target="_blank">Read the full review.</a>

EL James hits back at comparison of Trump’s comments to ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’

August 18, 2019 at 3:55 p.m.

The author of "Fifty Shades of Grey" and other Twitter users had strong words for a former congressman who compared Donald Trump's comments on women to the bestselling erotica novel....

Texas prisons ban books by Langston Hughes, Bob Dole — but ‘Mein Kampf’ is OK

May 9, 2019 at 6:19 p.m.

If you're one of the more than 140,000 people doing time in a Texas state prison, you're not allowed to read books by Bob Dole, Harriet Beecher Stowe or Sojourner...

‘Eat, Pray, Love’s’ new surprise ending: another woman

May 9, 2019 at 6:18 p.m.

In July, author Elizabeth Gilbert announced that her relationship with Brazilian businessman José Nunes — he was called Felipe in the "love" part of her bestselling 2006 memoir "Eat, Pray,...

Print dictionaries like this one get revised online at Dictionary.com

New entries added to Dictionary.com: ‘dox,’ ‘gender-fluid,’ ‘lifehack’

June 22, 2019 at 3:52 p.m.

Good news for both linguistic completionists and basic lexical slacktivists: Dictionary.com added dozens of new words to its database Wednesday, many of which reflect changes in technology and changing attitudes...

Daniela Chavarriaga holds her daughter as pediatrician Jose Rosa-Olivares administers a measles vaccination during a visit to the Miami Children's Hospital. There are still millions of children around the world who don't have access to the measles vaccine.

Anti-vaccine book draws ire on Amazon

August 18, 2019 at 6:44 p.m.

As the California measles outbreak spreads to other states, with at least 123 reported cases, many vaccine supporters are expressing their frustration on the Amazon page of an anti-vaccination children's...

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