#borderlands-literature

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Books
fromwww.theguardian.com
23 hours ago

Ghost-Eye by Amitav Ghosh review a climate-crisis novel let down by its prose

Cliché-laden prose can undermine the impact of a well-crafted plot and important themes in a novel.
fromArtnet News
6 days ago

They Painted the American West. History Painted Them Out | Artnet News

These women artists were in museum collections, but they were barely shown. The challenge was to do enough research to find common themes and bring them together.
Arts
Books
fromwww.theguardian.com
1 day ago

Too hot to handle? Why it's time for straight male authors to rediscover sex

Straight male writers often avoid writing about sex, fearing it may seem exploitative or gratuitous, unlike their female counterparts.
#ursula-k-le-guin
Podcast
fromEngadget
1 week ago

Ursula K. Le Guin's blog has been turned into a podcast

Ursula K. Le Guin's blog is being rereleased as a podcast featuring all posts, including essays, poems, and cat pictures.
Podcast
fromEngadget
1 week ago

Ursula K. Le Guin's blog has been turned into a podcast

Ursula K. Le Guin's blog is being rereleased as a podcast featuring all posts, including essays, poems, and cat pictures.
Miami food
fromenglish.elpais.com
1 week ago

The tired faces of Cuban deportees to Mexico: I'm already old, I don't want to die here'

Deported migrants from the U.S. face dire conditions in Tapachula, struggling to survive and longing to return home.
Social justice
fromTruthout
1 week ago

It's Not Just Huerta. For Many Survivors, Silence Seems Like the Only Option.

Sexual abuse within movements, exemplified by Cesar Chavez, must be addressed to foster change and protect survivors' dignity.
Books
fromenglish.elpais.com
3 days ago

A crazy story of gringos and narcos in Mexico, written by one of the best novelists of his generation

Eduardo Ruiz Sosa's 'El paisaje es un grito' explores themes of migration, identity, and the search for belonging through a rich narrative style.
Books
fromwww.theguardian.com
3 days ago

The best recent science fiction, fantasy and horror review roundup

Marc Winters investigates a cult's past while facing existential threats in a climate-changed Britain.
Arts
fromHyperallergic
3 weeks ago

White Girls and the Global South

Spring offers a variety of art books to rejuvenate reading habits, featuring diverse themes and historical insights.
Social justice
fromSlate Magazine
3 weeks ago

I Was Raised to Be Accepting. Yet, I Find Myself Battling Strange New Thoughts About Immigrants.

Acknowledging and confronting personal prejudices is a crucial step towards becoming a better ally and challenging racism.
Madrid food
fromBOOOOOOOM!
3 weeks ago

"When the Desert Breathes Again" by Photographer Gonzalo Palaveccino

Photographer Gonzalo Palavecino documents La Tirana, Chile's largest religious festival, focusing on behind-the-scenes elements like food stands, abandoned objects, and improvised structures that reveal the sacred blending with everyday chaos and commerce.
fromThe Nation
6 days ago

The Worlds of Jamaica Kincaid

I find England ugly...I hate England; the weather is like a jail sentence...the food in England is like a jail sentence.
Books
Books
fromThe Atlantic
1 week ago

Unconventional Novels About Conventional People

Aging revolutionaries and conformists share parallel narratives of disillusionment and the loss of youthful dreams in recent literature.
Miscellaneous
fromenglish.elpais.com
1 month ago

Elmer Mendoza: The situation in Sinaloa is not a reason to feel sad or hopeless'

Elmer Mendoza's new novel 'The Mermaid and the Retiree' shifts focus from his detective Zurdo Mendieta to explore Mexican politics, violence, and machismo through a strong female protagonist from the mountains.
Books
fromThe Walrus
1 week ago

The HarperCollins "Canadian Classics" Is an American Side Hustle | The Walrus

HarperCollins Canada will release a series of Canadian reprints titled HarperCollins Canadian Classics on May 5, 2026.
Arts
fromwww.npr.org
4 weeks ago

There's room for everyone in 'Now I Surrender,' an epic American Western

Alvaro Enrigue's novel uses metafictional techniques and paranoid historiography to expose silences in official Western history, particularly regarding Apache survival and borderland experiences.
fromenglish.elpais.com
1 month ago

The shattered dream of migrating to the US and the odyssey of returning: I was in jail for four months. That's the only way I got to know New York'

Laime Arold, a 26-year-old Haitian, buys energy bars at a small shop on the side of the Pan-American Highway in southern Chiapas, Mexico. Jose Adan, a Honduran, prays aloud in a park in Tapachula, asking God to protect him from kidnappers and the police along the way. Gerardo Aguilar, a Venezuelan, travels at 60 miles per hour, lying across two seats on a bus headed for Guatemala. The three all have something in common: they are in Mexico and they are migrants. None of them are heading north. They are heading south.
Miami food
fromThe New Yorker
1 week ago

Valeria Luiselli Reads Julio Cortazar

Valeria Luiselli, an acclaimed author, discusses the intricacies of Julio Cortázar's 'The Night Face Up,' highlighting its themes and narrative structure that intertwine reality and dreams.
Books
fromThe Atlantic
1 month ago

A Western That Goes Where Cormac McCarthy Wouldn't

In 1836, Apaches raided a remote ranch near Janos, a tiny town on the northern fringes of the state of Chihuahua, in the newly independent republic of Mexico. The Natives absconded with some cattle, as well as with a young widow named Camila. Setting off in pursuit was José María Zuloaga, a taciturn lieutenant colonel in the Mexican army supported by a band of irregulars. Among them: a self-possessed teenager who served as an aide-de-camp, a pair of Yaqui brothers whose permanent address was the town jail, and a sharp-shooting nun named Elvira, who was actually a singer of zarzuelas dressed up in a habit.
History
East Bay food
fromHigh Country News
1 month ago

Badger signs: An essay from Terry Tempest Williams' new book 'The Glorians' - High Country News

Badgers embody the principle 'as above, so below' by living underground while hunting aboveground, reflecting the interconnection between different realms of existence.
Books
fromThe New Yorker
1 week ago

The Sci-Fi Novelist Who Disappeared for Decades

Cameron Reed's science fiction explores cognitive estrangement, revealing alien worlds that reflect and challenge our own societal norms and moral dilemmas.
World news
fromwww.theguardian.com
1 month ago

Chasing Freedom by Simukai Chigudu review a powerful memoir of postcolonial unease

Independence from colonial rule does not erase historical trauma; post-colonial identity remains shaped by unfinished business between former colonies and metropoles, manifesting in belonging struggles across generations.
Books
fromThe Atlantic
2 weeks ago

How Long Can You Live Your Ideals?

Pat Calhoun chooses parenthood over radicalism, paralleling Elsa Haddish's struggle between her militant past and raising her daughter safely.
Non-profit organizations
fromHigh Country News
1 month ago

An ode to Johnny Sagebrush - High Country News

Bart Koehler exemplifies the endangered role of community-based wilderness organizers in the rural West, protecting millions of acres through decades of grassroots advocacy and face-to-face engagement.
Books
fromThe New Yorker
2 weeks ago

Louise Erdrich on Novels of Parentless Children

Louise Erdrich's recent reading focuses on children's loss of parents, highlighting the urgent stakes of a chaotic world.
Books
fromBustle
2 weeks ago

The 10 Best New Books About Women Breaking The Mold

Successful women often defy expectations, and quieter forms of rebellion deserve recognition alongside visible rule-breakers.
US news
fromwww.theguardian.com
1 month ago

The American dream is a lie': Venezuelans left in limbo and losing hope in Mexico a photo essay

Trump's executive orders and anti-migration policies have stranded thousands of asylum seekers in Mexican migrant camps, unable to enter the US or safely return home.
fromApaonline
1 month ago

Recently Published Book Spotlight: Anticolonialism, Ontology, and Semiotics: A Cinematic Exploration

Anticolonialism, Ontology, and Semiotics draws upon Africana anticolonial philosophy-especially the work of Frantz Fanon and two of his most influential interpreters, Eldridge Cleaver and Sylvia Wynter-to develop a basic analytical model for doing anticolonial political theory. I wanted to show that there is something distinctive, something special, to be found in this tradition of thought that has not been fully appreciated by philosophers and theorists in other fields.
Philosophy
Books
fromwww.theguardian.com
2 weeks ago

A new world is being born': author Rebecca Solnit on the slow revolution' the far right cannot tolerate

Rebecca Solnit emphasizes a slow revolution in societal attitudes, contrasting it with the immediate crises of fascism and despair.
fromAdvocate.com
3 weeks ago

Heated Rivalry's success may reignite LGBTQ+ publishing

"I've heard some people say, 'Oh, I've watched the show,' or 'I've read the series, and that was the first queer romance I ever read,' says Stacy Boyd, executive editor at Harlequin Books, who works directly with Reid. 'So it's opening doors that haven't been opened.'"
Books
Science
fromHigh Country News
2 months ago

'My history is a blip' - High Country News

Personal lives feel like brief blips against cosmic deep time, prompting greater appreciation for present relationships, places, and limited time.
Writing
fromThe Atlantic
2 months ago

Literary Theory

Words carry multiple meanings; 'swallow' embodies both bird and ingestion, showing language's power to alter perception and emotional states.
Europe politics
fromThe New Yorker
2 months ago

The Country That Made Its Own Canon

Sweden released a national culture canon, sparking controversy over national identity as immigration rises and the nationalist Sweden Democrats gain political influence.
UX design
fromMedium
2 months ago

One Way Out: Standing at the Edge of the Map

Generative AI is rapidly reshaping content design, but human designers retain essential skills, judgment, and adaptability that tools alone cannot fully replace.
Books
fromThe Atlantic
3 weeks ago

What Very Different Places Have in Common

Marlon James and Gary Shteyngart reflect on how literary inspiration is shaped by both presence and absence in their respective works.
US politics
fromABC7 San Francisco
1 month ago

Santa Clara Co. poet laureate pens 'love letter' about immigrants facing threat of deportation

A play, No Llegamos Aquí Solos, portrays undocumented community balancing activism and everyday joy, drawing on a DACA poet's experience caring for his grandmother.
fromKqed
3 weeks ago

There's Room for Everyone in Epic American Western, 'Now I Surrender'

In the self-conscious hallucinatory tradition of historical novelists like E.L. Doctorow and Don DeLillo, Enrigue keeps intrusively reminding us that this overpacked tale of the past is something he's constructing, as much as resurrecting. And, like his predecessors, Enrigue subscribes to a paranoid reading of history.
Books
History
fromenglish.elpais.com
2 months ago

Andrea Martinez Baracs, historian: Indigenous allies saved the Spanish on the Night of Sorrows'

Tlaxcalans allied with the Spanish as strategic partners, maintaining autonomy and leveraging local knowledge to oppose the Triple Alliance during conquest.
Social justice
fromMedium
3 years ago

Confessions of a Race Writer

Race writers risk performing a narrowed, victimized 'blackness' while often holding privilege and a platform to speak for marginalized people.
Books
fromThe Atlantic
4 weeks ago

A New Direction for the Trans Novel

A dying woman's opioid-induced memories reveal her deep resentment toward her trans child, exposing how her accumulated life disappointments have narrowed her worldview to rigid gender expectations.
Social justice
fromThe Nation
2 months ago

The Truth About Interracial Intimacy

Racialized desire can make race itself the object of erotic attraction, producing unease and complex social and power dynamics within interracial interactions.
Books
fromThe Atlantic
1 month ago

Literature Has a Stay-at-Home-Dad Problem

Stay-at-home fathers are consistently portrayed as incompetent buffoons in literature, rarely depicted as skilled, engaged parents despite their growing real-world presence.
Books
fromLos Angeles Times
2 months ago

6 essential desert reads

The Southwest desert offers rich, wild, and complex landscapes showcased through lyrical essays, memoirs, folklore, and illustrated guides revealing beauty, fragility, wildlife, and resilience.
Books
fromThe Nation
1 month ago

Has Contemporary Fiction Ignored the Working Class?

Work's grip on life demands vigilance; allowing career to consume identity risks losing oneself entirely to labor's demands.
Books
fromThe Atlantic
1 month ago

When Did Literature Get Less Dirty?

Philip Roth's Zuckerman Unbound functioned as a response to the controversial reception of Portnoy's Complaint, with Roth's protagonist expressing regret over writing sexually explicit material that drew accusations of anti-Semitism and misogyny.
Books
fromwww.theguardian.com
2 months ago

White River Crossing by Ian McGuire review colonial greed drives a doomed hunt for gold

White River Crossing portrays greed, deception and imperial exploitation during the 1766 Hudson's Bay Company gold expedition from Prince of Wales Fort.
Books
fromThe New Yorker
2 months ago

Valeria Luiselli on Sound, Memory, and New Beginnings

Field recordings and attentive listening are integral to narrative creation, shaping the writing process and immersive listening experiences.
Books
fromThe Nation
2 months ago

George Whitmore's Unsparing Queer Fiction

A 1987 novel titled Nebraska uses the state's flat, isolating landscape to frame a family chamber drama that serves as an oblique allegory of AIDS.
fromwww.theguardian.com
1 month ago

The best recent science fiction, fantasy and horror review roundup

Subsequently, runaway children turned the valley into a fortress, surviving on food they could catch or grow, with occasional forays into the towns below. Riley has heard the rumours, but it is only when she sees a green-clad boy or is it a girl? hovering outside her bedroom window offering directions on how to find Nowhere that she realises this might be her chance to escape and save her little brother from their sadistic guardian.
Books
fromPublishersWeekly.com
2 months ago

WI2026: PW Talks with Xochitl Gonzalez

In addition to writing fiction, you're a staff writer for the and a screenwriter. How do you think of your career? I think of myself as a storyteller. I'm nosy, so once I'm telling a story, I want to know what happens. I do find, with fiction, I can't toggle in and out of it. It's like acting, where you have to stay with that character, in that world.
Books
#environmental-justice
fromKqed
2 months ago
Books

In Carolina Ixta's New Novel, Teens Fight Against Pollution for a 'Few Blue Skies'

fromKqed
2 months ago
Books

In Carolina Ixta's New Novel, Teens Fight Against Pollution for a 'Few Blue Skies'

fromKqed
2 months ago
Books

In Carolina Ixta's New Novel, Teens Fight Against Pollution for a 'Few Blue Skies'

fromKqed
2 months ago
Books

In Carolina Ixta's New Novel, Teens Fight Against Pollution for a 'Few Blue Skies'

fromenglish.elpais.com
2 months ago

Jung Chang, writer: If people thought China was so wonderful, they would go there'

Yes, because I grew up under Mao's rule and fear was ingrained in our hearts. Today I try to overcome it, not feel it and move on with my life, but it's still there.
Books
Books
fromThe Nation
2 months ago

Ishmael Reed on His Diverse Inspirations

A 1960s artist navigated and bridged Black cultural nationalism and the white counterculture while collaborating with multicultural avant-garde artists.
Books
fromDefector
2 months ago

They Publish Books By "Women And Weirdos" In Their Free Time | Defector

Mandylion Press reissues lost nineteenth-century works by women and eccentric authors with redesigned covers, forewords, visual glossaries, and protective packaging.
Books
fromwww.mercurynews.com
2 months ago

MAGA pop culture gets another boost fromThe Hunting Wives'author

East Texas settings and conservative social dynamics are fueling popular, lurid fiction and TV about wealthy oil families, sexual intrigue, and traditional gender roles.
Books
fromThe New Yorker
2 months ago

"Predictions and Presentiments"

Mother and daughter arrive on an island to begin again, observe a yawning sky, local winds, Etna's ash, and read the Levante as an omen.
fromThe New Yorker
1 month ago

Briefly Noted Book Reviews

This devastating début novel takes the form of an oral history about a tragedy that shatters a family. At its heart is a couple who arrived in the U.S. in the late nineteen-nineties as refugees from Afghanistan. They prospered, and brought up four children in an affluent suburb in Virginia. Rotating testimonies from people they know-family friends, a cousin, lawyers-offer theories about what led to the novel's central catastrophe.
Books
Books
fromwww.theguardian.com
2 months ago

Glyph by Ali Smith review bearing witness to the war in Gaza

Glyph confronts Israeli apartheid and genocide in Palestine, using Petra and Patch's names, etymology, and imagery to intensify ethical and linguistic urgency.
Books
fromwww.npr.org
2 months ago

Nina McConigley discusses her new novel and being an immigrant in rural America

Two mixed-race sisters in 1980s Wyoming plot revenge for sexual abuse and racialized displacement, channeling postcolonial anger into a planned murder.
fromwww.theguardian.com
2 months ago

The Puma by Daniel Wiles review a visceral tale of cyclical violence

After finding this seam of gold, miner Michael dreams that his son will be able to go to school, rather than join the other children who work in the mine, like blind, bald rodents unearthing themselves in search of scraps of candlelight. In the novel, which won the 2023 Betty Trask prize, everything closes in on Michael: lungs clog, tunnels collapse, horse-drawn narrowboats are attacked by robbers in the sooty dusk. It's a vivid reminder of the cost, in bodily suffering, of resource extraction.
Books
Books
fromKqed
2 months ago

In Carolina Ixta's New Novel, Teens Fight Against Pollution for a 'Few Blue Skies'

Few Blue Skies portrays environmental and labor injustices affecting a Latinx family in California, blending romance, familial drama, and expressive language aimed at young readers.
fromMedium
4 years ago

bell hooks saved me

bell hooks saved me. I say that in all sincerity. At a critical time in my life, when I was at my lowest point, it was bell hooks, through her books, who pulled me out of a hole of profound depression and set me on a path of self-renewal on which I have remained ever since. Newly divorced with two very young sons, I was determined to give a better fatherhood experience than the one I had.
Books
fromThe Atlantic
2 months ago

How to Portray a Wildly Unequal Society

Fiction can empathetically portray both wealthy elites and domestic servants with equal attention, bridging class divides through precise, uncondescending detail.
Books
fromDefector
2 months ago

Fanfiction's Total Cultural Victory | Defector

Fifty Shades of Grey's transition from fanfiction to mainstream publishing transformed the industry, proving fanfiction-originated romances can be highly lucrative and culturally influential.
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