Monday Miscellany

Death of Maya Angelou

The biggest story of the literary world this past week has been the death of Maya Angelou at age 86.

The coverage has been extensive, but here are a few stories I’ve chosen as providing a good overview of her influence and significance:

Maya Angelou: The essential reading list

From USA Today

13 of Maya Angelou’s best quotes

Also from USA Today. Scroll down below the timeline of her life and achievements.

A Farewell to Maya Angelou

Video from The New York Times. (Apologies for the unavoidable opening advertisement.)


Goodbye, Steinbeck; All Hail, Shelley

In the other big literary story of the past week, British minister of education Michael Gove has suggested the elimination of several works by U.S. authors from the reading list for British students.

10 authors who are brilliant at Twitter

Hannah Jane Parkinson thinks you should follow these writers on Twitter.

When literature goes to war: How Kurt Vonnegut, Norman Mailer and “Catch–22″ changed the novel forever

An excerpt from The Novel: A Biography by Michael Schmidt:

How the great American novels of the 20th century captured the horror, humor and devastating cost of modern warfare

Have Literary Prizes Lost Their Meaning? (Have They Ever Had Any?)

Cultural prizes notoriously reward the wrong works for the wrong reasons: On the long list of worthies deprived of the Nobel for literature are Tolstoy, Proust, and Joyce.

Discover more from Notes in the Margin

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading

Scroll to Top