Tagged Literature
Dracula at 125
Written by Edward P. On May 26, 1897, visitors to bookshops in London found a new book, for just six shillings, published by Constable and Co., bound in a lurid yellow cloth cover with blood red letters announcing its strange…
Rosemary for Shakespeare
Written by Isabel S. April 23 marks the day that we traditionally celebrate William Shakespeare’s birth and deathday, though neither of those occasions are confirmed to have actually been on the 23rd. Shakespeare was baptized on…
The lyrical speaker: Finding your own voice through poetry!
“La poesía es un espacio de libertad/ Poetry is a space of freedom”. Carlos José Pérez Sámano, Mexican poet and writer Poetry explores the language and its limitations. It’s a way to get…
Newspapers: A Guide Into the Past
Many of us may get our news from online sources these days—social media feeds provide a constant source of information about everything from policy proposals, the weather, celebrity news, and more, as the events unfold in…
A Continued Discussion on the Topics of Surrealism and Gender
Written by Lewis Shaw, who conducted extensive research in the Art Department as part of a Friends Select School Senior Internship Project. The following is a continuation of a previous blog post on the topics of Surrealism and Gender.…
Celebrating Jacqueline Woodson
Born in Columbus, Ohio, Jacqueline Woodson grew up in Greenville, South Carolina, and Brooklyn, New York, graduating from college with a B.A. in English. She is the author of dozens of award-winning books for young adults, middle…
Surrealism and Gender
Written by Lewis Shaw, who conducted extensive research in the Art Department as part of a Friends Select School Senior Internship Project. During the extended fever dream which we all refer to as COVID quarantine, I picked up a love of…
Create Something New During National Sewing Month
September is National Sewing Month and a great opportunity to create something new this year for everyone on your D.I.Y gift-giving list. Both the Art and Literature and Science and Wellness departments at Parkway Central Library have…
¡Celebremos la Fiesta del Libro en Español!
The love for the Spanish language and culture can transcend frontiers! The stories, poems and illustrations of the books can reflect personal narratives that touch our collective unconsciousness. A team of talented community…
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Uncovering the Real James Bond in the Rare Book Department
From Sean Connery to Daniel Craig, the intrepid agent of the British Secret Intelligence Service—James Bond, designated Agent 007—has epitomized masculine cool. Everyone knows how he likes his vodka martinis. Everyone knows…
Celebrating Pakistan's Independence Day with Music, Film, and Literature!
Jashn-e-Azadi Mubarak! Happy Independence Day! This past Saturday, August 14, was Pakistan’s Independence Day. Formed in 1947, Pakistan celebrated 74 years of its independence and freedom from British colonialism and the formation…
Summer Reading with Dena!
Yes, it’s that time of the year again, to head to the beach (or a heavily air conditioned reading nook) and dive into some fun reading! Here are some new and newish books that are perfect for giving yourself a mental vacation:…
Central Senior Services Joins Moore College of Art to Fight Social Isolation During Pandemic
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has studied the impact of loneliness and social isolation on American seniors and the results are deeply disturbing. Extensive studies of the subject reveal that social isolation of…
10 Great Reads from the Holmesburg Library Book Club
Since 2019, the Holmesburg Library's Book Club has met biweekly to discuss great modern literature, nineteenth-century classics, and historical nonfiction, to name just a few genres. Not even the pandemic could stop the book club…
Creative Writing: Discovering Your Inner Voice
I always wanted to explore creative writing! It’s fascinating to understand what tools and mechanisms writers use to craft a story or a poem. Creating with words is an amazing and fun experience! The pandemic gave me the…
Making Her Mark Spotlight: Poetry and Movement Building
by Suzanna Urminska and Sam Perduta Our words carry power—whether as balm or as burnish, our words have the power to come together to form poetry that recalls and reconnects a range of human experiences both personal and…
Newest Episode of "Book Feast" Invites Women to the Table
Coinciding with Women’s History Month, the newest episode of Book Feast uses the luncheon in Virginia Woolf ’s proto-feminist essay A Room of One’s Own (1929) to discuss women’s legacy in literature. The…
Let Culinary Explorations of Literature Nourish You with Book Feast!
Have you ever thought about why we use the same vocabulary to describe consuming food and consuming knowledge? How we’re hungry for the truth, devour a good book, and digest information? Intellectual nourishment has been so…
Story Search from Special Collections: An Interview by Hannah Cho
Hannah Cho is a University of Pennsylvania Work-Study student from Davis, CA. During the Fall semester, she studied, recorded, and edited the Story Search podcasts remotely from South Korea. I’ve always been more of a talker…
Healing Verse Philly: a Project from the Poet Laureate
Through the challenges of 2020, one of the abiding sources of relief for many of us has been poetry. More people than ever are looking to the written word for strength, wisdom, and comfort. Even before the pandemic struck, Trapeta B.…
Love Surpassing | Bibliococktails in the Rosenbach Garden
oin us for a special evening celebrating Pride Month in our newly renovated garden. Expect fun literary activities, inspired toasts, cocktail demonstrations, and great bookish conversation.
Rebellious Love: Exploring Queer History, Art, and Literature at The Rosenbach | Behind the Bookcase
For many centuries, Queer people have faced marginalization by mainstream society. Yet their obstacles have also given them unique perspectives on the human experience, and inspired important…
IN-PERSON - Kali Fajardo-Anstine | Woman of Light
REGISTER A story collection featuring Latinas of Indigenous heritage experiencing the challenges of friendship and family in the American West, Kali Fajardo-Anstine’s Sabrina & Corina won an American Book Award and was a…
VIRTUAL - Maxine Hong Kingston | The Woman Warrior, China Men, Tripmaster Monkey, Other Writings
REGISTER In conversation with Viet Thanh Nguyen Acclaimed for her contributions to feminism and Chinese American literature, Maxine Hong Kingston won the 1976 National Book Critics Circle General Nonfiction Award for her first book, The…
Poetry in Translation
Take pleasure in reading poets from other languages and cultures.
Poetry - Novels in Verse
Poetry with special appeal for tweens and teens.
Poetry - Great Contemporary Poetry
Selections from the Literature Department.
NewsBank Hot Topics
Trending news and hot topics for your next assignment! Hot topics covers Current Events, Business & Economics, Civics, Government, & Politics, Social Issues, Science, Technology & Health, Sports, Arts & Literature, and People in the News.
LitFinder *
Discover literature content from more than 150,000 full-text poems, 840,000 poem citations and excerpts, 7,100 full-text short stories and novels, 3,800 full-text essays published in the 16th-20th centuries, 2,400 full-text speeches, and…
Literature Criticism Online
This extensive compilation of literary commentary represents a range of modern and historical views on authors and their works across regions, eras, and genres. Covers Children’s, Classical, Contemporary, Drama, Poetry, Shakespearean,…
Gale OneFile | High School Edition (formerly InfoTrac Student Edition) *
High school students will have access to age-appropriate content from magazines, journals, newspapers, reference books, and engaging multi-media covering a wide range of subjects, from science, history, and literature to political…
Gale Literary Sources (formerly Artemis)
Cross-search all of Gale’s literature databases from a single digital space to find biographies, primary sources, contextual reference, and criticism. Includes Dictionary of Literary Biography, Something About the Author, LitFinder,…
Gale in Context | Middle School (formerly Research in Context) *
Discover reliable and trusted information on a variety of topics to support middle school student research for government, U.S and world history, geography, literature, sciences, and social issues. Research In Context offers…
Gale in Context | Elementary (formerly Kids InfoBits) *
Elementary students in kindergarten through grade five will find age-appropriate content covering a broad range of educational topics such as animals, arts, geography, health, literature, people, social studies, technology, etc. Kids…
Books & Authors *
Discover fiction and non-fiction books that match your interests! Books and Authors (powered by Gale's popular What Do I Read Next? series) is for readers from every level of reading proficiency and enables users to explore the endless…
America's Historical Imprints
Explore the nation’s past in unprecedented ways. Includes books, pamphlets, broadsides and other scarce printed material, centuries of American history, literature, culture, and daily life, and extensive indexing and full bibliographic…
Academic OneFile *
More than 18,000 peer-reviewed journals and more than 9,200 in full text Full text of The Economist ranging from 1988 to the present, with no embargo Full text of The New York Times from 1985 to present, updated daily Full text of The…
Chloé Cooper Jones | Easy Beauty: A Memoir
In conversation with Isaac Fitzgerald Freelance journalist Chloé Cooper Jones was a 2020 Pulitzer Prize finalist in feature writing for “Fearing for His Life,” a profile of the man who filmed NYPD officers killing Eric Garner. Also a…
Ken Kalfus | 2 A.M. in Little America
In conversation with Nathaniel Popkin The “rare writer who can combine keen, grounded, psychological observation with visionary headiness” ( Salon ), Ken Kalfus is the author of the novels The Commissariat of Enlightenment , a New York…
Margo Jefferson | Constructing A Nervous System: A Memoir
In conversation with Tamala Edwards, anchor, 6ABC Action News morning edition “A national treasure” ( Vanity Fair ), Margo Jefferson won the National Book Critics Circle Award for her memoir Negroland , an examination of her upbringing…
Lawrence Jackson | Shelter: A Black Tale of Homeland, Baltimore
In conversation with Solomon Jones. Lawrence Jackson ’s award-winning books include The Indignant Generation: A Narrative History of African American Writers and Critics , biographies of Chester Himes and Ralph Ellison, and a memoir…
Raquel Salas Rivera | antes que isla es volcán / before island is volcano
Introduced by Denice Frohman In conversation with Cynthia Dewi Oka The 2018–19 Poet Laureate of Philadelphia, Raquel Salas Rivera is the author of five full-length books of poetry. These poetry collections include lo terciario/the…
Jennifer Egan | The Candy House
In conversation with Ariel Delgado Dixon Jennifer Egan won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award for the novel A Visit from the Goon Squad , “a new classic of American fiction” ( Time ) that follows an aging punk…
Hannah Tinti, Mira Jacob, Jai Chakrabarti, and Marie-Helene Bertino | Small Odysseys: Selected Shorts Presents 35 New Stories
Hannah Tinti is the author of the bestselling novels The Good Thief and The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley and the short story collection Animal Crackers . A creative writing professor in New York University’s M.F.A. program, she…
Garrett Hongo | The Perfect Sound: A Memoir in Stereo
In conversation with Major Jackson Garrett Hongo was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for the poetry collection The River of Heaven . His other books of poetry include Yellow Light and Coral Road . The distinguished professor in the…
Jabari Asim | Yonder
In conversation with Lise Funderburg The director of the M.F.A. Creative Writing program at Emerson College, Jabari Asim is the author of the novel Only the Strong , the story collection A Taste of Honey , and several works of…
Tessa Hadley | Free Love
In conversation with Geoffrey Dyer Tessa Hadley ’s many “strange, unsettling—eerily beautiful, discomfiting, stay-up-late-addictive, sometimes hair-raising” ( San Francisco Chronicle ) novels about the complexities of family…
Barbara Chase-Riboud | The Great Mrs. Elias: A Novel Based on a True Story
In conversation with Nell Irvin Painter Barbara Chase-Riboud’s watershed 1979 novel Sally Hemings told a fictionalized story based on the true account of the life of Sally Hemings, an enslaved woman with whom Thomas Jefferson had…
Lan Samantha Chang | The Family Chao with Elizabeth McCracken |The Souvenir Museum
Co-promoted with Asian Arts Initiative and Blue Stoop In conversation with Elizabeth McCracken A debut “work of gorgeous, enduring prose” ( The Washington Post ), Lan Samantha Chang ’s Hunger explored the lives of immigrant…
Jessamine Chan | The School for Good Mothers
In conversation with Liz Moore Co-sponsored by Blue Stoop A former reviews editor at Publishers Weekly , Jessamine Chan has published short stories in Tin House and Epoch . She has received residencies and fellowships from various…
Bernardine Evaristo | Manifesto: On Never Giving Up
In conversation with Tamala Edwards, anchor, 6ABC Action News morning edition Bernardine Evaristo won the 2019 Man Booker Prize and the Dublin Literary Award for Girl, Woman, Other , “a breathtaking symphony of Black women’s…
Hanya Yanagihara | To Paradise
In conversation with Andy Kahan, Ruth W. and A. Morris Williams, Jr. director of author events “A wrenching portrait of the enduring grace of friendship” (NPR), Hanya Yanagihara’s bestselling novel A Little Life is a story of tragedy…
Nadifa Mohamed | The Fortune Men
In conversation with Rabih Alameddine, National Book Award nominated author of An Unnecessary Woman , The Angel of History , The Hakawati , and most recently, The Wrong End of the Telescope . Somali-British author Nadifa Mohamed is…
Elif Shafak | The Island of Missing Trees with Siri Hustvedt | Mothers, Fathers, and Others
The most widely read woman female writer in Turkey and acclaimed worldwide for her work’s “vision, bravery and compassion” ( The New York Times Book Review ), Elif Shafak is the author of 12 bestselling novels, including The Bastard…
Rumaan Alam | Leave the World Behind
In conversation with Carmen Maria Machado Rumaan Alam is the author of the New York Times instant bestseller Leave the World Behind , “a genuine thriller, a brilliant distillation of our anxious age, and a work of high literary…
Kevin Birmingham | The Sinner and the Saint: Dostoevsky and the Gentleman Murderer Who Inspired a Masterpiece
In conversation with Michael Gorra, the Mary Augusta Jordan Professor of English Language and Literature at Smith College and the editor of the Norton Critical Editions of As I Lay Dying, and The Sound and the Fury , and most…
Rabih Alameddine | The Wrong End of the Telescope with Claire Vaye Watkins | I Love You but I've Chosen Darkness
Rabih Alameddine was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the National Book Award for An Unnecessary Woman , a “paean to the transformative power of reading” ( LA Review of Books ). His many other works include the…
Bestsellers
Find out about the latest bestsellers from many well known resources.