Dolen Perkins-Valdez on her new book, Take My Hand

“I believe that in order to heal, we must remember. Once we remember, we acknowledge. Once we acknowledge, we can take more significant action.”   Watch Dolen Perkins-Valdez discuss her inspiration for writing Take My Hand:   Montgomery, Alabama, 1973. Fresh out of nursing school, Civil Townsend intends to make a difference, especially in her African

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Psychologist Devon Price on Autism and the New Faces of Neurodiversity

Contributed by Devon Price, PhD, author of Unmasking Autism: Discovering the New Faces of Neurodiversity I didn’t find out I was Autistic until after I completed my PhD in psychology in my mid-20s. Aside from a few brief mentions of the disability in a graduate-level developmental psychology class, I hadn’t learned Autism in my psychology

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One World Presents Its First Ideas In Action Workshop: Poetic Writing/Editing with Yanyi

Penguin Random House’s One World imprint is thrilled to announce the Ideas In Action Workshop: an inclusive space to give creatives direct access to our authors, as well as strengthen the trust, resource-sharing, and support between readers and writers. The first workshop will be a six-week virtual poetry manuscript class, taught by Yanyi, author of

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Books for Mental Health support for Students

While students deal with the normal stress of college, the pandemic has introduced another level of distress and obstacles for them to take on. Senior college administrators have made assisting students in maintaining their mental health their number one priority. University Business recently reported about students from Connecticut College who shared their own experiences of

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The Turning Point: 1851—A Year That Changed Charles Dickens and the World By Robert Douglas-Fairhurst

Robert Douglas-Fairhurst discusses his recently published book The Turning Point   Thomas Hardy described the year 1851 as a “precipice in Time”; the Times newspaper saw it as the century’s pivot, the moment when the “Old World” became the “New World.” It was a period that was as inventive in terms of language as it

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Elizabeth Kolbert on Our Changing Climate and the Future Today’s Students Will Inherit

Contributed by Elizabeth Kolbert, author of Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future “I’m a realist,” Ruth Gates was saying. “I cannot continue to hope that our planet is not going to change radically. It already is changed.” Gates, then the head of Hawaii’s Institute of Marine Biology, had taken me out to

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“Genie in a Bottle,” a poem by Ian Manuel, author of My Time Will Come

Ian Manuel, author of My Time Will Come, was sentenced to life without parole at 14 years old. His memoir is a paean to the capacity of the human will to transcend adversity through determination and art—in Manuel’s case, through his dedication to writing poetry. Here is his brand new poem, “Genie in a Bottle”:

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Facts into Fiction: How genealogy and local history enriched the narrative of What Sammy Knew

By David Laskin   After a long career successful in narrative nonfiction (The Children’s Blizzard, The Long Way Home, The Family), I decided a few years ago to jump the fence to fiction. My first novel, What Sammy Knew, is the story of a high school senior named Sammy Stein who, in the first months

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Books for Women’s History Month

March is Women’s History Month, which recognizes the specific achievements women have made over the course of American history in a variety of fields. Beginning as “Women’s History Week,” a local celebration in Santa Rosa, California in 1978, the movement spread across the country as other communities initiated their own Women’s History Week celebrations the following year.

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Confessions of the Flesh, the fourth volume in Michel Foucault’s History of Sexuality

By Caitlin Landuyt, Editor, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group   I am being haunted by the ghost of Michel Foucault. Each time I think I’ve read or studied him for the last time, something conspires to bring him back into my life. My last foray into his philosophy was in grad school, where I was getting

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A Monthly Update from Penguin Classics

Because what you read matters.   Subscribe to the Penguin Classics Newsletter here.   Happy February! While winter persists outside, we’re staying warm inside with brand-new classics, a celebration of a favorite alternative holiday, and an exciting read-a-thon featuring a beloved Penguin Classic. Read on to see all the bookish happenings this month, and let us

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Comparative American Literature

  Are you teaching Comparative American Literature? You can find books across this discipline through the course lists on our website. Here is a small selection of the books available:   African American Fiction   Arab American Fiction   Asian American Fiction   Jewish American Fiction   Latino/a and Chicano/a Fiction     Native American

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