Author Archives: Gabrielle Dean
Stephen Crane’s War
If you’ve read anything by Stephen Crane, there’s a pretty good chance it was The Red Badge of Courage. Crane’s Civil War story is renowned for its insider perspective on combat experience—what it was like to be surrounded by gunsmoke, … Continue reading
Stephen Crane’s Career
How do you become a professional writer? It helps to have a family member provide a model—or better yet, both parents and a couple of siblings. It also helps to have access to a good public library—and to read voraciously, … Continue reading
Goodbye Chinua Achebe
Chinua Achebe, the renowned Nigerian novelist and essayist, died on March 22, at age 82. Achebe was best known for his ground-breaking novel of 1958, Things Fall Apart, which dramatizes the tensions between indigenous African culture and British colonial values. … Continue reading
The Writing Life
If you’re a professional writer, you probably think a lot about how to get your work under the eyes of readers. You may weigh the advantages and disadvantages of self-publishing—using a service like CreateSpace on Amazon—against traditional publishing. (With self-publishing, … Continue reading
Jacques Barzun, 1907 – 2012
Back before Frankenstorm Sandy took over the air-waves, academia met its demise. Well, not academia as it is today–we are all still here, obviously!–but academia as it existed in the mind of Jacques Barzun, who died on October 25 at … Continue reading
Zombies, Vampires and the New Library Website
Sorry, I lied. The new library website has nothing to do with zombies or vampires. Zero, nada, nil. But seriously, how much attention would you give to a blog post called “Getting the Most Out of the New Library Website”? … Continue reading
Readers as Illustrators
Human beings are hard-wired to rely on visual perception; perhaps this explains why we really, really like to look at pictures. And when we read, we often want to see the subject we are reading about. Nevertheless, once upon a … Continue reading
Murder in the Archives
Hey all you fictioneers: I’m waiting with bated breath to read a book with the above title. Please, can someone write it? Of course, an archive is in many ways the ideal setting for a murder mystery: in popular imagination … Continue reading
Summer Reading: On the Go!
Hooray, you’re off! It’s summer and you’re heading out of town—or maybe you’re planning a trip to the far reaches of your very own backyard for an imaginary afternoon getaway. Either way, you’re going to want something to read. Traveling … Continue reading
Summer Reading: Experiment!
In a recent blog post, I made some suggestions for good summer reads that offer a relaxing break from the academic routine—a way to shift your mind into summertime gear. But of course, what counts as a break depends on … Continue reading