Literary Biography

En una hacienda a la falda de los volcanes, Juana Inés vive con su entrañable abuelo, su madre y su querida hermana Josefa, rodeada de libros y siempre acompañada por su perro xoloitzcuintle. Pronto Juana Inés se enamora del maravilloso mundo que se esconde detrás de las letras y, al pie de la pintura de la virreina, escribe los más hermosos poemas. Descubre cómo fue la niñez de sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, ¡la poeta más destacada que dejó Nueva España!

Moody and restless, teenage Louisa longed for freedom. Faced with the expectations of her loving but hapless family, the Alcotts, and of 19th-century New England society, she struggled to find her place. On long meandering runs through the woods behind Orchard House, she thought about a future where she could write and think and dream. Undaunted by periods of abject poverty and enriched by friendships with some of the greatest minds of her time and place, she was determined to have this future, no matter the cost.

Charles was stuck putting labels on bottles! He kept dreaming of going back to school. Everyone told him to forget his dreams. But instead of letting go of his dreams, Charles held on to them and turned his dreams into something that changed the world.

What happens when freedom of expression comes under threat? In frank and wide-ranging interviews, historian and critic Leonard S. Marcus probes the experience of thirteen leading authors of books for young people.

A collection of timeless fairytales for children from around the world. Now available in Hindi.

"We all need a hero or two to help us stand fast and think right," says William J. Bennett, author of The Book of Virtues, the #1 best seller that millions of American families turn to for moral inspiration. A new treasury chosen for young children, presents splendid tales of the valor and indomitable spirit.

Ernest Hemingway wasn't just a novelist. He was a hunter and a fisherman; he became an ambulance officer in Paris, France, during World War I; and he worked as a reporter during the civil war in Spain in the 1930s. All of these experiences had such an important impact on Ernest's life that he used them as inspiration for some of his most notable works of fiction, including The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to Arms, and For Whom the Bell Tolls.

Acclaimed novelist Ibi Zoboi illuminates the young life of the visionary storyteller Octavia E. Butler in poems and prose. Born into the Space Race, the Red Scare, and the dawning Civil Rights Movement, Butler experienced an American childhood that shaped her into the groundbreaking science-fiction storyteller whose novels continue to challenge and delight audiences 15 years after her death.

Travel back in time to the 1920s and 1930s to the sounds of jazz in nightclubs and the 24-hours-a-day bustle of the famous Black neighborhood of Harlem in uptown Manhattan. It was a dazzling time when there was an outpouring of the arts of African Americans - the poetry of Langston Hughes; the novels of Zora Neale Hurston; the sculptures of Augusta Savage; and that brand-new music called jazz as only Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong could play it.

Una vida tan llena de genialidades como de escándalos múltiples. Tremendo escritor, poeta y dramaturgo, este notable irlandés autor de clásicos como El retrato de Dorian Gray, o El gigante Egoísta, fue considerado una figura de brillo pleno en el Londres victoriano tardío y toda una celebridad de la época debido a su ingenio y corrosivo sentido del humor.

In Russian literary marriages, the wives of some of the most famous authors of all time did not resent taking a "secondary position", although to call their position secondary does not do justice to the vital role these women played in the creation of some of the greatest literary works in history. Living under restrictive regimes, many of these women battled censorship and preserved the writers' illicit archives, often risking their own lives to do so. They established a tradition all their own, unmatched in the West.

Reconocido mundialmente como uno de los más importantes e influyentes del siglo XX, este escritor irlandés nacido en 1882, es mundialmente aclamado por su obra maestra, la espectacular y altamente simbólica Ulises (1922), y luego por su controvertida novela posterior, Finnegans Wake (1939).

Escritor rebelde, ensayista crítico y reportero innovador, Norman Mailer fue el creador de un nuevo género: el periodismo literario, a través del cual denunció con fiereza los males de la sociedad norteamericana. Testigo activo e implacable de su época, la vida de Mailer es un catálogo de aventuras, luchas, escándalos, fracasos y por supuesto, triunfos que lo convirtieron en uno de los autores más controvertidos e importantes de los últimos tiempos.

Fue un novelista, dramaturgo y poeta francés nacido en 1910, cuya obra expresa una profunda rebelión contra la sociedad y sus costumbres, hablando sin pudor de la criminalidad, los prejuicios, el homosexualismo, etcétera, por lo que su lectura fue muy resistida en muchos países, pero alabado en otros.

In the opening of Holding Silvan: A Brief Life, Monica Wesolowska gives birth to her first child, a healthy-seeming boy who is taken from her arms for "observation" when he won't stop crying. Within days, Monica and her husband have been given the grimmest of prognoses for Silvan, and they must make a choice about his life. The story that follows is not a story of typical maternal heroism. There is no medical miracle here. Instead, we find the strangest of hopes.

A series of random sniper attacks, sexual assaults and murders continued at a relentless pace with no end in sight. The victims were both men and women, young and old, of all races and ethnicities. Most disturbingly, they had done nothing to place themselves in harm's way. They'd not visited the "bad" parts of town, frequented a gambling den, solicited prostitutes or sought out drug dealers. They were assaulted and murdered as they went about the routine activities of their lives, the kinds of things we all do without a second thought.

Mirinda Kossoff took one flight in her father’s Cessna Skyhawk as he piloted and navigated by landmarks that revealed themselves through openings in the trees below. A short three years later, he was dead at age 56. Memory of that ride fueled Kossoff’s desire to understand who her father was and the forces that shaped him. And by extension, how he shaped her life. Her need to know and to understand became a life-long pursuit.

What happens when a Canadian radio host gets together with a Nigerian actress, a bisexual Jew, a break-up coach, an American thought leader, an Indian men’s rights activist, a religious minister, an African American brand strategist, a Brazilian law professor, an African single mother of 21 orphans.... It is an anthology written by 21 brave and unstoppable women. It guarantees you laughter and tears, but more than that...it guarantees your freedom.

Evil Intentions explores to depravity of this crime, taking the listener into the lives and minds of the killers, relating the tragic consequences to her family and loved ones. Written by the court investigator who prepared the presentencing reports on the killers, it offers rare insight into the criminal investigation, plea bargaining, and trial.

Toni Morrison, born Chloe A Wofford, was a towering figure in the world of literature when she entered A.J. Verdelle’s life. Their literary friendship was a young writer’s dream—simultaneously exhilarating, intimidating, fulfilling, and challenging. The relationship crossed generations, spanned several cycles in life, exhibited high and low notes, reached and dipped and found its way. Like many women friends, these two writers imagined and built a relationship that was responsive, inventive, and engaged.