By Skyler Gomez | On August 15, 2019 | Updated September 4, 2022 | Comments (1)
Toni Morrison (1931 – 2019) was an American novelist, editor, essayist, teacher, and professor. She was the recipient of numerous awards, including the Nobel Prize in Literature. Her body of work examined the black experience in America through great storytelling. Following is a selection of wise quotes by Toni Morrison on writing, living, and love.
Morrison was born and raised in Lorain, Ohio in a working-class African-American family that influenced her love and appreciation for black culture.
Growing up, she saw first-hand the horrifying reality of racism in America and used her understanding of racial history to connect it with the present.
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By Nava Atlas | On August 13, 2019 | Updated March 8, 2023 | Comments (4)
Tuck Everlasting is a 1975 novel by Natalie Babbitt (1932 – 2016) about a young girl who stumbles upon a family with an incredible secret. The quotes from Tuck Everlasting that follow demonstrate how the book balances a sense of fun and adventure with some truly thought-provoking concepts.
Originally intended for middle grade children, it’s a gracefully written story that has resonated with readers of all ages. It explores the idea of eternal life, and its flip side, mortality.
When 10-year-old Winnie Foster inadvertently comes upon the Tuck family, she learns that they became immortal after drinking from a spring on her family’s property. Read More→
By Nava Atlas | On August 6, 2019 | Updated September 4, 2022 | Comments (2)
Natalie Clifford Barney (1876 – 1972) was an American-born poet and novelist also known for her epigrams and pensées. Here you’ll find a selection of quotes by Natalie Clifford Barney on life and love, from a woman who lived and loved to the fullest.
Barney was an expat living the high life in early twentieth-century Paris where she presided over a famous literary salon.
Though she published ten critically acclaimed books, she seems to be equally remembered for her colorful personal life as one of the movers and shakers of the Parisian lesbian circles of the time. She also used the wealth and privilege she was born into as a means of promoting other talented writers and artists. Read More→
By Skyler Gomez | On August 1, 2019 | Updated September 4, 2022 | Comments (0)
Ntozake Shange (1948 – 2018) was an African American playwright, poet, and feminist. She is best remembered for her 1975 Obie Award-winning choreopoem, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow is Enuf. Following is a selection of inspiring and empowering quotes by Ntozake Shange, a valiant and unapologetic talent. Photo at right, 1978, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
Born in Trenton, New Jersey, she was the oldest of four children in an upper-middle-class family. She attended a white school where she endured racial attacks to receive a “quality” education. Shange’s family pushed her to find an artistic outlet which was how she discovered her love for poetry.
Heartbreak and racial attacks were influences in her work, which spans several genres addresssing injustice, violence, and oppression. Though her choreopoems have been criticized for using African American dialect and one-sided attacks on black men, many value her work for its flair and lyricism.
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By Nava Atlas | On June 13, 2019 | Updated September 4, 2022 | Comments (0)
Here, we’ll sample a selection of quotes from The Yearling, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings’ 1938 novel and her crowning literary achievement.
For many years, Rawlings desperately wanted to break into the literary world, she tried writing the kinds of stories she thought editors were looking for. Mostly, she racked up rejections.
The Yearling was the result of a radical change in her lifestyle and locale, as she immersed herself in an environment that was quite different from where she came from. Read More→
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