Ernest Hemingway and Gender Fluidity
Despite his reputation for hypermasculinity, the author was fascinated by different forms of gender expression.
Victorian Botanical Paintings
Amateur botanist Margaret Rebecca Dickinson painted the wildflowers she collected in the English countryside.
When the CIA Was Everywhere—Except on Screen
Hollywood was just fine avoiding all portrayals of the Central Intelligence Agency for years after the agency's founding in 1947.
Sonnets by 11 Contemporary Poets
The name of this fourteen-line poetic form comes from the Italian sonetto, meaning "a little sound or song."
There Once Was a Poem Called a Limerick
Whose history, they say, isn't quick. It's all such a muddle, it can leave you befuddled, whether you like the clean or the sick.
Who Was Sesame Street’s First Black Muppet?
Since the beginning, the children's show has tried to represent the diversity of the nation. But Roosevelt Franklin was controversial.
Spectra: The Poetry Movement That Was All a Hoax
In the experimental world of modernist poetry, literary journals were vulnerable to fake submissions.
Celebrating National Poetry Month
Our best stories about poetry and poems offer free links to poems from contemporary and classic American poets.
