Literary Arts
IOUs from Baghdad
The day Sergeant Cartwright’s Humvee rolled over an improvised explosive device (IED) and detonated on notorious Route Irish, we returned to the outpost to learn that Stinky, our goat, was inside bleeding, and screaming. The outpost was an abandoned school in the center of Bagdad. A large, concrete structure with echoing halls, two guard towers and a barbed wire perimeter. We lived in what was once the gym, our cots lined up like dominos; ammo, rifles, body armor and pads crowding the slim walkways between beds. I was in the yard,...
read moreA Conversation with Author Debra Dean
Introduction to Debra Dean. 0:46 sec. Photo & Design: Raymond Elman. Music: Soul and Mind by E’s Jammy Jams Debra Dean is the bestselling author of four critically acclaimed books that have been published in twenty-one languages. Her debut, The Madonnas of Leningrad, was a New York Times Editors’ Choice novel, a #1 Booksense Pick, a Booklist Top Ten Novel, and an American Library Association Notable Book of the Year. It was long listed for the IMPAC International Dublin Literary Award. Confessions of a Falling Woman, a...
read moreA Video Conversation with
Poet Campbell McGrath
Introduction to Campbell McGrath. 1:39 min. Video montage: Jade Cheek. Campbell McGrath grew up in Washington, D.C. where he attended Sidwell Friends School. He received his B.A. from the University of Chicago in 1984 and his MFA from Columbia University’s creative writing program in 1988. He currently lives in Miami Beach, Florida, and teaches creative writing at Florida International University. McGrath has been recognized by some of the most prestigious American poetry awards, including the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award (for...
read moreKilling Griffin
By Anne Bernays
Excerpt from Killing Griffin, chapter one. “The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.” — Ernest Hemingway Union Square is to Somerville what Harvard Square is to Cambridge, that is, its very heart. There all similarities end. But that’s not quite accurate: there’s no store that sells underwear in either place. For an idea of the international character of Somerville, all you have to do is look at the range of places where you can sample the international cuisine — such as it is — of Portugal,...
read moreA Video Chat with Pulitzer Prize-Recipient Jane Smiley
Introduction to Jane Smiley. 3:00 min. Photo & Design: Raymond Elman. Video Montage: Jade Cheek. Music: Hard Times Come Again No More · Stephen Collins Foster · Alisa Jones Wildwood Flower. Jane Smiley (b.1949) was born in Los Angeles, California, and grew up in Webster Groves, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis. She obtained a BA in literature at Vassar College, then earned an MA, MFA, and PhD from the University of Iowa. While working toward her doctorate, she also spent a year studying in Iceland as a Fulbright Scholar....
read moreCelebrating National Poetry Month 2018
To celebrate National Poetry Month 2018 and O, Miami 2018, Inspicio has mashed together video recorded readings by notable poets Campbell McGrath, Marie Howe, Richard Blanco, Denise Duhamel, and Mark Doty. For more information about O, Miami and National Poetry Month activities, check out the following websites: O, Miami Poetry Festival The Betsy Hotel The videos below are organized by poet and run between 44 seconds and 4 minutes. Tap on any video. You must be connected to the Internet to view the videos. CAMPBELL MCGRATH: 4:08 min. From...
read moreMorton Dean: A Noble Career in Broadcast Journalism
Introduction to Morton Dean. 2:23 min. Painting: Raymond Elman. Pictured Above Is At Least One Person Who Loves the Boston Red Sox and Edward Hopper’s House. 60 x 40 inches. Oil & digital collage on canvas. Morton Dean (b.1935) is an award-winning American television and radio news anchor, broadcast news correspondent, documentary film director, and author. Dean is a former weekend news anchor for CBS Evening News, as well as ABC’s Good Morning America. While a correspondent for CBS News for 20 years and ABC News for...
read moreThe Remarkable Jonathan Plutzik
Introduction to Jonathan Plutzik. 5:53 min. Drone video: Zachary Plutzik. Music: The (New) Beethoven Quartets. The 32 Piano Sonatas Reimagined. By Jeffery Briggs. Piano Sonata in C-minor, op. 13. Performed by the Amernet String Quartet. Photo & Design: Raymond Elman. How does the son of a poet become the owner of the most culturally advanced hotel in the world? Practice, practice, practice. (The hyperbole is mine until proven otherwise.) And with a “little” help from his family and friends — for the glorious cultural...
read moreThe Classic That Changed Christmas
The Man Who Invented Christmas trailer. 2:40 min. Editor’s Note: Mitchell Kaplan, the founder of both Books & Books and the Miami Book Fair, joined forces with award-winning Hollywood producer Paula Mazur to create The Mazur/Kaplan Company, with the objective of identifying, optioning, and producing literary properties for film and TV. The Man Who Invented Christmas is their first film to be distributed nationwide, beginning November 22, 2017. The film is based on the book The Man Who Invented Christmas: How Charles...
read moreInto the Deep with Author Patricia Posner
Introduction to Patricia Posner: 1:58 min. Photo & Design: Raymond Elman. Music: Orlando Jacinto Garcia, Music for Berlin. Patricia Posner was born in London and spent half of her life in the U.K. and half in the U.S.A. For thirty years Posner worked on 12 books of investigative historical nonfiction with her husband, bestselling author Gerald Posner. On those projects, she conducted every interview with him, sifted through thousands of pages of original documents in government and private archives, and worked on the early...
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