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The Art of Suffering: Artaud, Van Gogh, and the War on the Mind
Vincent van Gogh, The Potato Eaters, 1885, oil on canvas, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam To write an apologia, to lay blame on Theo, and to...
Jolie Boiadjieva
3 days ago


Death of the Author & Richard Siken’s Twitter Account
Cropped Image of Saint Jerome Writing by Caravaggio With the final sentence of Roland Barthes’ 1967 essay , “the birth of the reader must...
Paige Racine
3 days ago


Human to Human: The Modern Writing Center’s Value in the Age of AI
A photo of Tawes Hall, where UMD’s own Writing Center is located Would you rather a human or a computer give you one-on-one writing...
Matthew Gu
3 days ago


From A Recipe to The Odyssey: Why Documenting Oral Traditions and Storytelling Embodies the Power of Literature
Ancient recipes from cuneiform tablets (Yale Babylonian Collection) Hungry? Well, let me pull out the recipe book. It’s only 4 millennia...
Eitan Amster
3 days ago


Humbert v. Price: Child Sexual Abuse Across Gender Lines, or Wolves in Sheeps’ Clothing
A variant cover of Alissa Nutting’s Tampa (Amazon). Vladimir Nabokov’s 1955 classic Lolita is perhaps one of the most controversial works...
Victoria Xia
Mar 17


Don’t Wear It Out: What’s in a Name?
Art illustration by Zariah Taylor depicting the many mispronunciations of her name Hello! How are you? My name is… A classic way to meet...
Akua Appiah-Kusi
Mar 17


Throwing Gas on the Fire: How Trump, Putin, and Others 'Firehouse' You
President Trump speaking at 2018 Helsinki Summit with President Puti (Smialowski /Getty) In about a month, AP projections will transition...
Catherine Harris
Jan 3


The Bad & The Ugly: Writing About Violence in the American West
‘Man with No Name’ from Sergio Leone’s The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Two figures stand at the forefront of the Western novel: the...
Paige Racine
Jan 3


Paradise Lost: The Fall of Man and the Limit of Liberalism
The Fall of Adam and Eve, the biblical first parents of mankind Among the great forces which have dethroned tyrants, few stand so...
Christian Burke
Jan 3


Online Reading and Brainrot: An Analysis of Text Comprehensibility in the Digital
Representational Image of Brain Rot (Dhakatribune) “Books do furnish a room.” A quote from Virginia Woolf's essay A Room of One’s Own ....
Ariyana Brittingham
Jan 3


In Defense of Divergent
A scene from Divergent (2014 ) where Tris breaks the rules to look at herself in the mirror Divergent (2011) by Veronica Roth plays...
Akua Appiah-Kusi
Jan 3


How far can we butcher Hamlet? – An examination of the public domain's effect on new works.
A photo-edited portrait of William Shakespeare (University of Indianapolis) Are people actually creative anymore? Are we all just...
Eitan Amster
Jan 3


Does Diversity Sell?: Yellowface and Authenticity in the Publishing Industry
A cropped image from the cover of Yellowface by R. F. Kuang “And f—k it, I’ll just say it: taking Athena’s manuscript felt like...
Matthew Gu
Jan 3


Silent Voices: The Rise of Banned Books in an Era of Censorship
Metaphor of stacked books chained to resemble the term “banned books” Books offer readers the opportunity to explore and better...
Eden Malone
Jan 3


“It’s Not That Deep,” Except It Is: The Inherently Political Nature of Literature
A graphic indicating the danger of anti-intellectualism online To many Americans, reading is a simple fact of life. We read road signs,...
Sarah Rupprecht
Jan 3


How a Word Fits in a Mouth: The Wholeness of “Broken” English
A Chinese-English sign in Beijing, China (Wikimedia Commons). The author clarifies their use of “standard English” as “the most...
Victoria Xia
Oct 30, 2024


Her Hair is BLONDE: The Parasocial Relationship A Reader Can Have With Their Fictional Friend
Leah Sava Jeffries’ portrayal of Annabeth Chase in Disney+’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians Reading is imagination at play. Readers...
Akua Appiah-Kusi
Oct 30, 2024


The Idiot of American Politics
Image : The Idiot cover Fyodor Dosteyevsky didn’t define idiot the way that we do. An idiot isn’t someone without common sense. It’s...
Megan Mulligan
Oct 1, 2024


The Canterbury Tales: Lessons From Medieval England’s Greatest Poem
Geoffrey Chaucer, c. 1342 - 1400 If the name of Geoffrey Chaucer is not well known among today’s young readers, it deserves to be. His...
Christian Burke
Oct 1, 2024


Through Dorian's Eyes: A Look Into Social Attraction and the Privileges that Come With It
Art Inspired by The Picture of Dorian Gray “I am jealous of everything whose beauty does not die. I am jealous of the portrait you have...
Ariyana Brittingham
May 31, 2024
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