The Spouter-Inn

Joan Didion’s essay The Year of Magical Thinking and David Demchuk’s novel Red X.

W.G. Sebald’s essay collection On the Natural History of Destruction and Samuel R. Delany’s novel Dhalgren.

Linda Rosenkrantz’s Peter Hujar’s Day and Colm Tóibín’s On Elizabeth Bishop.

We look at some old travel literature, with The Travels of Sir John Mandeville and Xavier de Maistre’s Voyage Around My Room.

The Gospel According to Mark (and some recent queer retellings of Jesus’ life story), and John Milton’s poem On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity.

Samuel Beckett’s play Waiting for Godot and Leanne Betasamosake Simpson’s new book Theory of Water: Nishnaabe Maps to the Times Ahead.

Suzanne talks with John Nicholas, whose parents Grey Owl and Little Pigeon wrote Cry of the Ancients (1974).

For Jane Austen’s 250th birthday, we’re rereading Pride and Prejudice and Northanger Abbey.

Emily Brontë’s novel Wuthering Heights and Laurie Colwin’s essay collection Home Cooking.

The poetry of Wallace Stevens and James Joyce’s experimental novel Finnegans Wake.

Beatrix Potter’s charming children’s book The Tale of Peter Rabbit and Edmund White’s novel Forgetting Elena.

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby on its 100th birthday, and Stanisław Lem’s science fiction classic Solaris.

L. Frank Baum's beloved The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Margareta von Oswald’s insightful Working Through Colonial Collections: An Ethnography of the Ethnological Museum in Berlin, and other explorations.

William Carlos William's book-length poem Paterson, Magda Szabó’s novel The Door, and oddly enticing book covers.

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, The Nine Tailors by Dorothy L. Sayers, and keeping up with the latest books.

Lee Maracle’s collection of essay-like pieces, Arthur Conan Doyle’s first Sherlock Holmes novel, and reading your friends’ books (or not).

The Spouter-Inn enters a new era! This month: Emily Wilson’s translation of Homer’s Iliad, Umberto Eco’s medieval mystery novel The Name of the Rose, and books as holiday gifts.

On the final part of J.R.R. Tolkien’s novel The Lord of the Rings.

Lyn Hejinian’s book of poetry (a curiously constructed autobiography of sorts) anchors a reflection on this cluster on Essays, Essaying, Stories, Storying.

On a collection of contemporary nonfiction essays by Indigenous writers.

Leanne Betasamosake Simpson’s 2011 book Dancing On Our Turtle's Back explores story and resurgence.

On Michel de Montaigne’s original collection of essays from the sixteenth century.

Geoffrey Chaucer's narrative poem Troilus and Criseyde.

Dick Davis, translator of Layli and Majnun, The Conference of the Birds, and other Persian poetry.

Nezami Ganjavi's 12th century poem, Layli and Majnun (also known as Layla and Majnun).

Mark Sundaram and Aven McMaster from The Endless Knot on etymology.

Isidore of Seville's medieval encyclopedia, The Etymologies.

The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius.

The erotic/devotional poetry of The Song of Songs.

Sophocles's play Antigone.

The ancient Mesopotamian poem The Epic of Gilgamesh.

We are joined by poet and scholar Sassan Tabatabai, who translated Blind Owl.

Sadeq Hedayat's hauting novel Blind Owl.

Bernadette Mayer's book-length poem Midwinter Day.

T.S. Eliot's poem The Waste Land on its 100th birthday.

Suzette Haden Elgin's feminist science-fiction novel Native Tongue.

Writer and artist Jared Pechaček joins in a discussion of Tolkien's The Two Towers.

The second part of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.

Louise Fitzhugh's children's novel Harriet the Spy.

Ralph Ellison's novel is, among other things, a portrait of New York City.

James Joyce’s novel takes place in a single day in Dublin.

Virginia Woolf's novel takes place in a single day in London.

Artist Sandow Birk joins us to discuss his work on the Divine Comedy and the American Qur'an.

The final section of Dante’s Divine Comedy.

W.G. Sebald's curious book The Rings of Saturn.

Augustine's autobiography reckons with time itself.

Frantz Fanon’s essay collection, on colonialism’s effects on the psyche.

Lee Maracle’s book, subtitled “A Native Perspective on Sociology and Feminism”.

The Hereford Mappa Mundi is a medieval map of the world — what does it mean to “read” it?

Watchmen, the comic book by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons.