When Lord Byron Tried to Buy a Twelve-Year-Old Girl
The English poet fell in love with Teresa Makri while he was traveling in Greece and subsequently tried to purchase her from her mother.
The Caricature Who Couldn’t Appear on American Born Chinese
The television adaptation of Gene Luen Yang's graphic novel called for significant changes to the character of Chin-Kee.
What if Robinson Crusoe was a Girl?
In nineteenth-century England, stranding a (fictitious) girl on an island made a good argument for imperialism.
Canada’s Most Controversial Novel
Marian Engel's 1976 novel Bear is famous for its embrace of bestiality, but it also offers a commentary on humans' relationship with the natural world.
A Literary Hit Job: Julian Hawthorne Takes Down Margaret Fuller
Fuller’s works, and works about her, sold very well until Hawthorne cast her as a “fallen woman” in his biography of his parents.
The Tricky Sentimentality of Lan Cao’s Monkey Bridge
The Vietnamese American literary classic undermines the readers’ expectations of a redemptive narrative of immigration and memory.
Digital Overload
How can contemporary biographers contend with the explosion of materials at their disposal?
Remembering H.D.
Hilda Doolittle, aka H.D., had her champions among modern scholars, but she's still often left off modern poetry course syllabi.
Monique Truong’s The Book of Salt
Centered on the Stein-Toklas household and written from the point of view of their gay Vietnamese cook, Binh, this novel tells a story of converging queer diasporas.
What Makes Foxes So Fantastic?
In stories from around the world, foxes offer rewards or punishments to humans, play tricks on their fellow animals, and sometimes transform into foxy ladies.