JSTOR Daily Friday Reads

Margarita Engle, the Young People’s Poet Laureate

Cuban American Margarita Engle is the new Young People’s Poet Laureate. Engle has written many books for children, young adults and adults.
Chim Pom border art

Can Art Make a Difference at the US-Mexico Border?

Japanese artist collective Chim Pom has stirred up controversy at the US-Mexico Border, building numerous artistic interventions near Tijuana’s border.
Trump signature analysis

Sorry, Graphology Isn’t a Real Science

Despite Donald Trump's claim that he is a "handwriting analyst," it's not possible to read someone's mind through the curlicues of their writing.
Rita Hayworth

The Making of Rita Hayworth

To become a Hollywood star and icon, Rita Hayworth had to transcend not just her waistline or her hairline, but her own ethnicity.
Woolf Dreadnaught hoax

When Virginia Woolf Wore Blackface

In February 1910, Virginia Woolf, her brother, and some and friends pulled a prank known to history as the Dreadnought Hoax.
Marguerite Duras and mother

Marguerite Duras on Her Remarkable Mother

Noted novelist and screenwriter Marguerite Duras on how her fictional mothers are all really her own (complicated, difficult, inimitable) mother.
Anne of Green Gables Netflix

The Many Different Annes of Green Gables

Anne Shirley, created almost 100 years ago, has been reimagined countless times. Why do we still love Lucy Maud Montgomery's plucky orphan?
Screenshot of the film "It's a Wonderful Life"

The FBI Goes to the Movies

In its hunt for communists in Hollywood, the FBI criticized the 1946 classic It's "A Wonderful Life" as subversive propaganda.
13 Reasons Why

Can Fiction Really Spark Suicide?

The Netflix drama 13 Reasons Why is so powerful—and so controversial—it's sparked a national debate about teenage suicide.
Jean Stein

The Literary Life of Jean Stein

Among her other literary accomplishments, Jean Stein edited Grand Street for 14 years. Here are two of her interviews for the magazine.