The Experience Takes Its Shape from You: Talking with Naima Coster
Naima Coster discusses her debut novel, Halsey Street, getting pushback on her use of Spanish, and the importance of equity and inclusion in higher education.
...more
Posts Tagged: Roald Dahl
Writer, Storyteller, Pilot, Spy
Though he fled the country as soon as possible, the writer would maintain an affection for Canada that lasted throughout his life. Over at The Walrus, Michael Hingston explores Roald Dahl’s time at Camp X—a World War II army base in Canada for the British Security Coordination, a covert intelligence organization. Dahl was sent there […]
...moreIt’s Scrumdiddlyumptious
The Oxford English Dictionary is doing its part to celebrate Roald Dahl’s 100th birthday by including some of his most memorable made-up words in the new edition, according to the Guardian: Michael Proffitt, chief editor of the OED, said: “The inclusion in OED of a number of words coined by or associated with Roald Dahl reflects […]
...moreRoald Dahl’s Hidden Village Home
Take a stroll through the storybook town of Great Missenden, a tiny village in the county of Buckinghamshire in Britain, and the home of children’s literature’s grand-wizard, Roald Dahl, in the latter half of his life. For Hazlitt, Michael Hingston tours Great Missenden and reflects on the similarities between the little town and the settings […]
...moreTinker, Tailor, Novelist, Spy
It is not so surprising that so many writers have worked in intelligence. Writers create plots; spies uncover them. In a sense, all writers function like spies—observing the people around them, studying character types, becoming flies-on-the-wall for the purpose of their art. Successful writers from Christopher Marlowe to Roald Dahl have led parallel careers in […]
...moreKloss, Kish, and the Great White Whale
Roald Dahl and Quentin Blake aside, it’s hard to imagine a more mutualistic artist-writer pair than Robert Kloss and Matt Kish. (The Rumpus also recommends the duo of Casey Scieszka and Steven Weinberg.) Kloss and Kish (who also illustrated every page of Moby Dick) have never met, but they still manage to talk about landscapes […]
...moreI’ll Have an Everlasting Gobstopper With My Big Mac, Please
Young British bibliophiles may have found the Golden Ticket. In a six-week campaign backed by the National Literacy Trust (NLT), McDonald’s will offer chapters from Roald Dahl’s books with its Happy Meals. The Rumpus would choose Matilda over a Lego toy any day—especially when 15.4% of British kids don’t have a book of their own, […]
...moreWhy Matilda Got Her Measles Shot
Since much of the rhetoric around recent outbreaks of the measles revolves around concern for the well-being of children, perhaps the strongest advocate to answer our concerns is a beloved author of children’s literature. The Guardian shares an emotional letter from Roald Dahl, who lost his seven-year-old daughter Olivia to the disease at a time […]
...moreEschew Beastly Adjectives
A rediscovered 35-year-old letter from Roald Dahl dispenses advice to a young writer in his trademark irascible fashion. After scolding the letter writer for “asking to much of [him],” Dahl offers this and other craft gems: . . . eschew all those beastly adjectives. Surely it is better to say “She was a tall girl […]
...moreAuthor Roboto
At Melville House, Liam O’Brien delves into the fictional and factual history of book-writing computers, from Roald Dahl’s “The Great Automatic Grammatizator” to the Russian computer that rewrote Anna Karenina in the style of Murakami. With some media outlets already using bots to pen articles, he wonders if the robots will be coming for literature […]
...moreRoald Dahl: Fighter Jet Pilot
Who would’ve thunk it? Though WWII explains the Oompa Loompas. All the same, it’s hard to imagine Dahl, Ian Fleming, and William Stephenson as contemporaries, yet the three were apparently acquainted by the war. It’s usually macho men like Ernest Hemingway or Jack London whom people think of when someone mentions intrepid 20th century writers, […]
...moreTo the Bar!
We’ve all gotten texts like these, though perhaps not from these particular writers… Jessie Gaynor’s “More Drunk Texts from Famous Authors,” over at the Paris Review, features the fictitious (and very buzzed) Roald Dahl, T.S Eliot, and William Blake, among others.
...moreAfter 1984, There Was 1983
Think of the year 1984 and your mind can’t help but jump to great books, thanks to George Orwell’s dystopic classic. But what about 1983? To put some sparkle back in 1983’s literary eye, the AV Club rounded up ten of the year’s excellent but underappreciated books. It’s true: despite being praiseworthy books by big-name […]
...morePrevious Letter for Kids: Elisabeth Dahl
Due to a printing error, the Letter for Kids that went out last week was not from Carolyn Cohagan, as we previously said. The Carolyn Cohagan letter will go out next time, but meanwhile, please enjoy a Letter for Kids from Elisabeth Dahl. Elisabeth is not related to Roald, but she is also an author […]
...moreThe Sensible Nonsense Project
What was your favorite book as a child? The Phantom Tollbooth? Little House on the Prairie? Something by Roald Dahl that was kind of grotesque and frightening but also a complete immersion in delight? The Sensible Nonsense Project collects short essays about favorite childhood books and how they continue to reverberate with us into adulthood. […]
...moreHitchcock’s “Man from the South”
There are lots of things to be happy about today. For instance, Open Culture unearthed Alfred Hitchcock’s adaptation of Roald Dahl’s dark short story “Man from the South” starring a young Steve McQueen who makes a wager for a convertible. Also starring a hatchet and several severed pinky fingers. Alfred Hitchcock Presents ran from 1955 […]
...moreThe Cleverest Man in the World
Donald Sturrock’s biography of Roald Dahl bridges the gap between the literary impresario and the troubled man.
...moreLiterary Fashionables: The Showman and The Muse
Two further reasons to drop your day job and write full time rather than watch all this literary glamor ringside are Jonathan Ames and Sophie Dahl. Unless, of course, you don’t have a hit show on HBO, Dave Letterman calling you for repeat visits, Mick Jagger at your heels, or the legacy of a literary […]
...more