JSTOR Daily Friday Reads

Paul Beatty, Man Booker Prize Winner

Paul Beatty has become the first American author ever to win the Man Booker Prize. Beatty won the award for his sharp satirical novel The Sellout.
Ghostly road

A Belief in Ghosts: Poetry and the Shared Imagination

An essay from poet Dorothea Lasky on poetry, ghosts, and the shared imagination.
Maggie Nelson

MacArthur Genius Fellow Maggie Nelson Writes Poetry, Too. Here’s Some Of It.

She can pack a room with her prose, but Maggie Nelson's got a poet's ear.
Langston Hughes

The Drag Aesthetic of Langston Hughes

Langston Hughes' poetry was influenced by the drag scene in 1920s Harlem.
Pocket Magazine, 1895

Put This Poem in Your Pocket

The Academy of American Poets has declared it Poem in Your Pocket Day. We’re not complaining; we’re suggesting you ...
Ossian Receiving the Ghosts of Fallen French Heroes, Anne-Louis Girodet, 1805

Ossian, Rude Bard of the North

Ossian once rivaled Homer in the Western literary canon. Whatever happened to him?
Cover of English Renaissance Poetry: A Collection of Shorter Poems

Revisiting John Williams, Novelist and Editor

Today marks the publication of English Renaissance Poetry, an anthology of poems selected by the novelist John Williams. 
Book of love

Who Wrote the Book of Love?

Did the troubadours write the book of love, or just a kind of love poetry? 
Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning Was Both a Celebrity and a Superfan

As celebrity culture developed in nineteenth-century England, authors were at turns celebrated and celebrators of artists they admired. 
Reprint of engraving by Martin Droeshout

The Artist Behind Shakespeare’s Most Famous Portrait

Though considered a limited artist, Martin Droeshout engraved the only portrait of Shakespeare, which appeared on the cover of the first folio.