Epic of Gilgamesh tablet to leave Hobby Lobby’s Bible Museum
The arts and crafts chain Hobby Lobby is known as much for its extra-retail pursuits as it is for model airplanes and macrame kits. The most widely publicized of these pursuits… Read more »
Let it be a book, rising from the ashes
Back in 2015, Julia Fleischaker and Kirsten Reach wrote about the bombing of Mosul Public Library in Iraq. It was once a centre of knowledge and a symbol of cultural… Read more »
Why hasn’t a single Kurdish novel been published in English until now?
Can you name a single Kurdish fiction writer? Probably not. For anyone who thinks that the US and UK have made sufficient progress bringing foreign literature into translation, it may… Read more »
About that open letter… Aleksandar Hemon responds
Last week, we wrote about a petition, at the time signed by 450 American authors, denouncing Donald Trump. In their “Open Letter to Fellow Americans,” the signatories, including notable authors like… Read more »
Novelist Michel Faber throws the book—his—at British P.M. David Cameron
In “a satirical gesture, just to let off some impotent steam,” author Michel Faber has sent a gratis copy of his latest (and, he says, his final) novel, The Book… Read more »
Can books and libraries help restore Baghdad’s cultural heritage?
A young government employee in Iraq has set out to bring the city of Baghdad back to its past, using books and a makeshift library to establish it once again… Read more »