Irish Writers: Why They’re Worth Reading

by Marylee MacDonald in For Readers

When I first read James Joyce, I walked the streets of Dublin. In college I met William Butler Yeats’s “Crazy Jane,” a woman accountable only to herself. I have not yet walked the cliffs of Ireland, except in the pages of books. For many Americans of Irish descent, Ireland is the Ur-land, the epicenter of […]

Giller Prize Shortlist: Canada’s Finest

by Marylee MacDonald in General

If you’ve ever gone to Stratford (Ontario) for the Shakespeare Festival, crossed the border to see Niagara Falls from the Canadian side, or taken the ferry to British Columbia, you’ve no doubt visited a Canadian bookstore and noticed prominent displays that feature Canadian authors, not just those writing in English, but the Canadians writing in […]

Photographs and Letters: Mining the Past

by Marylee MacDonald in For Beginning Writers, For Readers

Who’s going to want all those photographs of our grandparents and great-grandparents? What will our children, raised in the Instagram age, make of the stiff postures and posed portraits, the sepia tones and formal attire? And yet we know these images are important. We know in our hearts that the lives buried in these studio […]