In The Water Defenders, Victory Reminds Us That Water Is More Precious Than Gold

Left: Robin Broad; right: John Cavanagh   In the early 2000s, many people in El Salvador were at first excited by the prospect of jobs, progress, and prosperity that the Pacific Rim mining company promised. However, farmer Vidalina Morales, brothers Marcelo and Miguel Rivera, and others soon discovered that the river system supplying water to

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The Diary of a Young Girl: The Definitive Edition

Discovered in the attic in which she spent the last years of her life, Anne Frank’s remarkable diary, a powerful reminder of the horrors of war and an eloquent testament to the human spirit, has since become a world classic beloved by generations of students. As of March 2021, all Penguin Random House editions of

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Introducing New Editions of The Great Gatsby from Penguin Random House

With the entrance of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby into the public domain this month, Penguin Random House is thrilled to announce that we now publish a variety of new editions of the beloved American classic. Each features exclusive ancillary materials, including introductions by many of today’s foremost writers and thinkers that contextualize the

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Read Kevin Young’s Introduction to African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle & Song

From the introduction:  The Difficult Miracle                                  This is the difficult miracle of Black poetry in America:  that we persist, published or not, and loved or unloved: we persist.                                                                                                 –June Jordan For over 250 years, African Americans have written and recited and published poetry about beauty and injustice, music and muses, Africa and America, freedoms

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A Note to Teachers From Pity the Reader Author Suzanne McConnell

By: Suzanne McConnell As a teacher of fiction writing at Hunter College, I was always on the look-out for a book to use in classes that was instructive but not academic.  I wanted a non-textbook text that was compelling, entertaining, encouraging, and practical – one that delivered helpful news about writing in such a way

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Our Next Big Ideas Night Centers on the Crucial, Timely Topic of Criminal Justice Reform

Join us on Wednesday, October 21 at 8:00 PM ET on Zoom for a crucial, timely Big Ideas Night on Criminal Justice Reform with a panel of expert authors: Brittany K. Barnett, attorney, entrepreneur, and author of A Knock at Midnight: A Story of Hope, Justice, and Freedom; Emily Bazelon, New York Times Magazine staff writer and author of Charged: The New Movement to Transform American Prosecution and End

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Using They Called Us Enemy to Supplement Canon in American Literature Curriculum

By Joel Brigham   I have taught American Literature for 16 years, and for most of my career, that has meant doing what has always been done. I’ve taught Ralph Waldo Emerson and Mark Twain and F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway, just like any other self-respecting American Lit teacher in this country, but it

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John Lewis: 1940 – 2020

Rep. John Lewis, nonviolent political activist, key leader of the Civil Rights Movement, long-serving member of the House of Representatives, recipient of the Presidential Medal of Honor, and author of the best-selling March trilogy, died July 17th, 2020. In 2013, Lewis, along with Andrew Aydin, a longtime member of his congressional staff, and comics artist

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FREE edWebinar: “Change Lives with Empathy and Resilience in the Classroom: UNBROKEN, A Victory for Hope”

Mark your calendars! You are invited to attend the FREE edWebinar “Change Lives with Empathy and Resilience in the Classroom: Unbroken, A Victory for Hope” (July 29th, 4:00-5:00pm) featuring Heather Fuller, high school educator and creator of the Unbroken Curriculum, and Darri Stephens, Resilient Educator Editor in Chief. Heather will discuss how you can transform

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Bryan Washington Wins the 2020 Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize

Bryan Washington has been named the 2020 Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize winner for his story collection LOT. In LOT, Washington explores his hometown of Houston—a sprawling, diverse microcosm of America—where the son of a black mother and a Latino father is coming of age. He’s working at his family’s restaurant, weathering his brother’s blows,

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Colson Whitehead has won his second Pulitzer Prize for THE NICKEL BOYS

Colson Whitehead has won the Pulitzer Prize for his novel, The Nickel Boys. This is his second Pulitzer Prize (his novel The Underground Railroad won in 2017) and he is only the fourth writer—alongside Booth Tarkington, William Faulkner, and John Updike—to win two Pulitzer Prizes each in the Fiction category. Winner, ALA Alex Award In

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From Memoir to Movie: Michelle Obama’s Becoming Arrives May 6 on Netflix

Arriving May 6 on Netflix, Becoming is a documentary feature film following Michelle Obama during the worldwide book tour for her bestselling memoir of the same name. Produced in association with Barack and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground Productions and Big Mouth Productions, the documentary is directed by Nadia Hallgren and provides an up-close look at

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