Though she died in 2010, Lucille Clifton remains one of the most consequential poets in American literature. It requires only a few lines to understand her power. Clifton, a Buffalo native who spent years in Baltimore, chose clear, distilled language to articulate her meanings. “(T)hey ask me to remember,” she wrote in a 1987 poem, […]
Literature
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Children’s lit magazine ‘Magic Dragon’ looks to its future in an uncertain financial landscape
There’s a dragon in Joanne Andrews’ basement. He’s a few feet tall, brilliant green and clad in a wizard’s hat and a wand. He’s also made onto a foam board. Andrews created him as the mascot for Magic Dragon, the children’s literary magazine she assembles in her Pittsford home with editor Patricia Roesch. Andrews is […]
Posted inLiterature
Fanning the flames of romantasy in Rochester
As a young girl, Myla Rose kept a life-sized cardboard cutout of Legolas from ”The Lord of the Rings” in her bedroom. She spent hours reading fantasy novels or playing “RuneScape” on dial-up internet under his watchful gaze. These early obsessions grew into “Skyrim” marathons and Renaissance festival outings, cosplay and even fantasy “fae” balls. Threaded through […]
Posted inCulture
The search for truth among America’s trees
In his new book, Trent Preszler remembers cutting down a Christmas tree with his father on a snow-drifted South Dakotan prairie. He’s seven or eight years old, yet the memory remains vivid. He recalls that “the young pines stood motionless, waiting to learn which of them would die.” That moment, quiet and severe, opens “Evergreen: […]
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5 local-ish books for the reader in your life
Garrison Keillor, longtime host of the Minnesota Public Radio show “A Prairie Home Companion,” once said, “a book is a gift you can open again and again.” And while Kindles are convenient and alluring, nothing quite tops cracking a fresh book spine and breathing in the printed pages. Whether you’re stumped on what to buy […]
Posted inLiterature
Rochester native taps upstate New York’s mystery and magic in debut novel
Sparrow Hall is a diehard New Yorker — and, unlike many who adopt that moniker, he has made a life out of embracing the state in its entirety. He’s run a microblog touting hidden gems such as the stretch of Route 5 between Amsterdam and Little Falls, soft launched his debut novel by personally transporting […]
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Boa Editions unveils new logo to mark 50 years
For half a century, local press Boa Editions has published about a dozen poetry books per year, using a logo design pulled from Greek mythology. The bard Orpheus, best known as a storyteller and musician, became a fitting symbol for Boa, depicted in the publisher’s logo with his trademark lyre. Rochester-based Ukrainian artist Mirko Pylyshenko […]
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Oral tradition
The second annual Poetry Festival at the Highland Park Bowl hosted by Writers & Books gives voice to important matters.
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Talk of the town
Rochester Speaker Series will bring two nationally acclaimed authors to the region over the next year.
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Local YA author debuts second novel this month
Mackenzie Reed, who is in her mid-20s, has published “The Wilde Trials” with HarperTeen.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
A taste of memory
CITY sits down with Christine Green, managing editor of “(585) magazine” and author of the memoir “Sweet Tooth.”
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Community mourns loss of Writers & Books founder Joe Flaherty
After starting the literary center in 1981, Flaherty was at the helm for nearly three decades.
