American author James Baldwin “This world is white no longer, and it will never be white again.” James Baldwin, “Stranger in the Village,” 1953. James Baldwin’s time in exile, as he refers to it, validated for him the uniqueness of the American people. Away from his home country, Baldwin offered a unique perspective from his new position of clarity, writing from the outside looking in. In Europe, he found a new type of white people — white people who had rarely, if ever, met

The Cover of Babel “Translation means doing violence upon the original, means warping and distorting it for foreign, unintended eyes. So then where does that leave us? How can we conclude, except by acknowledging that an act of translation is then necessarily always an act of betrayal?” -R. F. Kuang, Babel In her 2022 epic historical fantasy novel Babel, or The Necessity of Violence , R. F. Kuang explores the intersection of colonialism, language, translation, and racism, amo

The original cover of 13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher The majority of high school counselors are not licensed psychiatrists, but are mandated reporters. While some students may feel comfortable sharing with a counselor, getting the help they need is not guaranteed and can make matters worse. Reaching out for help is not easy when the problem is depression or suicidal ideation. Parents and educators would rather push toxic positivity, religion, and self-reliance than consider givi

Ali Baba, a character in 1,001 Nights Fairytales may help children fall asleep at night, but they are more significant than bedtime entertainment; they are more like capsules for cultural values. In the case of Shahrazad, they saved her life. The storyteller of the 1,001 Nights , Shahrazad, tells 1,000 stories, one each night, to delay her husband from killing her. One of these stories includes the renowned classic “Aladdin,” a story that teaches the importance of being mindf

The 4chan logo (Wikipedia) The Internet is a horrible place. One of the most horrible parts of the Internet is, as many are familiar with, 4chan, a mostly-anonymous online forum centralized around images to share ideas across a variety of topic boards, such as /k/ (a place for 4channers to gather and discuss weaponry, oftentimes those regarding the Rhodesian military ), /mlp/ (notorious for not just My Little Pony  discussions that are grossly inappropriate for the intended a

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...

Cropped Image of Saint Jerome Writing by Caravaggio With the final sentence of Roland Barthes’ 1967 essay , “the birth of the reader must...

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...

Ancient recipes from cuneiform tablets (Yale Babylonian Collection) Hungry? Well, let me pull out the recipe book. It’s only 4 millennia...

A variant cover of Alissa Nutting’s Tampa (Amazon). Vladimir Nabokov’s 1955 classic Lolita is perhaps one of the most controversial works...

Art illustration by Zariah Taylor depicting the many mispronunciations of her name Hello! How are you? My name is… A classic way to meet...

President Trump speaking at 2018 Helsinki Summit with President Puti (Smialowski /Getty) In about a month, AP projections will transition...

‘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...

The Fall of Adam and Eve, the biblical first parents of mankind Among the great forces which have dethroned tyrants, few stand so...

Representational Image of Brain Rot (Dhakatribune) “Books do furnish a room.” A quote from Virginia Woolf's essay A Room of One’s Own ....

A scene from Divergent (2014 ) where Tris breaks the rules to look at herself in the mirror Divergent (2011) by Veronica Roth plays...

A photo-edited portrait of William Shakespeare (University of Indianapolis) Are people actually creative anymore? Are we all just...

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...

Metaphor of stacked books chained to resemble the term “banned books”   Books offer readers the opportunity to explore and better...

A graphic indicating the danger of anti-intellectualism online To many Americans, reading is a simple fact of life. We read road signs,...