By Elodie Barnes | On March 21, 2023 | Updated March 15, 2025 | Comments (0)
The Moomins (Mumintroll in Swedish) were the most famous creation of Finnish-Swedish author and artist Tove Jannson. Though this beloved creator wrote and illustrated many other works for both children and adults, the names of Tove Jansson and The Moomins will be forever linked.
The family of round, white fairytale creatures — which resemble hippopotamuses — first appeared in 1946, and were the central characters in a total of nine novels, four picture books, and a comic strip that ran for more than twenty years.
Although Tove was a prolific illustrator, painter, and writer for adults, the Moomins are her enduring legacy, beloved across Finland and the world, and still hugely popular today. Read More→
By Nancy Snyder | On December 6, 2022 | Updated June 27, 2026 | Comments (2)
I gave myself the best holiday present ever: rereading A Wrinkle in Time by our new Christmas tree. Rereading Madeleine L’Engle’s masterpiece was like visiting my oldest and dearest friend.
A Wrinkle in Time is the book that ignited my reading obsession more than fifty years ago, and for that, I’m forever grateful.
I first experienced A Wrinkle in Time as it was read aloud by my fourth-grade teacher, Ms. Lloyd, at Overland Avenue elementary school. The book had received the Newbery Medal a few years earlier and captured the attention of thousands of elementary school librarians and teachers. Read More→
By Lynne Weiss | On October 21, 2022 | Updated June 15, 2026 | Comments (0)
How can writers reconcile the demands of the social and political moment with the demands of their craft? Caribbean women writers of color offer some models in the way they explore the rich intersection of concerns with gender, race, and colonialism through their work.
Anglophone writers with links to African and indigenous Caribbean cultures as well as to the United States or the United Kingdom (or both) express those connections with language, story, and rhythm.
Following are brief introductions to several classic Caribbean women writers, listed in order of their dates of birth — Rosa Guy, Paule Marshall (shown above), Georgina Herrera, Michelle Cliff, Mahadai Das, and Jean “Binta” Breeze. Read More→
By Lynne Weiss | On October 2, 2022 | Updated April 5, 2024 | Comments (0)
What is it that makes us long to see what the writers we love once saw? To stand in their footsteps? Do we imagine that some fairy dust will fall from nearby trees or rise from abandoned floorboards to bring us the wisdom or the art that flowed from their fingers to their manuscripts, whether through pens or pencils, typewriter keys, or pixels?
That’s what was on my mind on a visit to Cornwall, England, when I was determined to get to Godrevy Light, the lighthouse that inspired Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse. Read More→
By Nava Atlas | On August 27, 2022 | Updated September 4, 2024 | Comments (0)
When it comes to friendships between writers, common strivings and struggles have always benefited from mutual support. Some rivalry is often involved, though, since writers can be an envious lot.
This type of camaraderie has always had its delights as well as its complications — no matter the pairing or the writers’ genders (think: Hemingway and Fitzgerald). Friendships between women writers now considered classic authors were no exception.
There are few templates for friendships between writers, especially after either or both achieves some measure of success. Yes, there’s mutual support. And yes, a measure of envy and rivalry often exists as well. Here are some writerly pairings, some famous, others not so well known, all fascinating. Read More→
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