Charles Chesnutt

The Ghosts of Slavery in Charles Chesnutt’s Fiction

What begins as a magical escape from the horrors of plantation life soon turns into a spine-chilling testament to slavery’s dehumanizing effects.
An abstract spectrum of colored dots on a black background that cohere together to represent sound waves or a music equalizer.

How to Hear Images and See Sounds

Artists Shannon Finnegan and Andy Slater talk accessibility, transdimensional hearing, alt-text as poetry, sound descriptions, and Instagram captions for McSweeney’s Audio Issue.
Handout for a 1776 performance of Oroonoko

Science and Slavery in Aphra Behn’s Oroonoko

In one of the first novels written in English, a West African prince, fascinated with navigation, boards a ship for a fateful journey.
Photograph: Still from  "Only Murders in the Building"

Source: Hulu

Why Mystery Fiction Is So Engaging

Tracking down the killer appeal of the hit show Only Murders in the Building.
Scholar Reclining and Watching Rising Clouds, an illustration of a poem by Wang Wei

Wang Wei, Poet of Buddhist Emptiness

Focusing almost exclusively on nature, the Tang Dynasty poet Wang Wei expressed the philosophy of the Chan school.
From left to right: Lorna Dee Cervantes, Rubén Darío, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Carlos Drummond de Andrade, Eugenio Montejo, Delmira Agustini

10 Poems for National Hispanic Heritage Month

One of the most meaningful ways to celebrate the month between September 15 and October 15 may be to lend our attention to verse.
Three cats singing by Louis Wain

Six Cat Poems That Aren’t That Owl and Pussycat One

There's nothing practical about these felines. Meow.
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mumler%27s_photographs_in_Harpers_Weekly.jpg

The Dressy Ghosts of Victorian Literature

Realism was exceptionally well suited (heh) for elaborate descriptions of spectral clothing.
Emily Brontë

Emily Brontë’s Lost Second Novel

The author of the English literary classic Wuthering Heights died tragically young, leaving her second novel unfinished.