Podcast appearances and mentions of Toni Morrison

Toni Morrison's debut novel traces the tragedy of a young girl named Pecola Breedlove and the community that failed her. By splintering the book's perspective across the community of Lorain, she humanizes everyone and exonerates no one. Not an easy book, but a rewarding one.This episode is sponsored by Squarespace. Go to squarespace.com/overdue for 10% of your first purchase of a website or domain.Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.Follow @overduepod on Instagram and BlueskyAdvertise on OverdueSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Otoo, Sharon www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de, Lesart

Otoo, Sharon www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de, Lesart

Otoo, Sharon www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de, Lesart

This week we're digging into the complicated way that Toni Morrison presents Sethe's tragic choice here in the middle of the book and especially the psychological implications and ramifications—both character-wise and aesthetically. Plus: Paul D's response and Beloved's haunting. There's a lot to dig into here so join the conversation! Happy listening! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit closereads.substack.com/subscribe

Official commemorations of the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Declaration of Independence have now ended, with anticipated federally subsidized, countrywide conversations about the meaning of the U.S. never materializing. Instead, much of the commemorative and contemplative energy was consumed by a federal government temporarily captured by a White nationalist regime intent on narrowing rather than expanding both polity-wide memory and imagination.The country's ongoing inability to either manufacture or negotiate consensus, or forcefully reject its resurgent and desperate White nationalist virus, tells us something more important about the moment itself. We are living through the end stages of a roughly five-century period of Western global strength. As the order it birthed becomes increasingly brittle, narratives that sustain its power require ever more aggressive forms of maintenance.Donald Trump's Freedom 250 State Fair was a fitting illustration. Rather than presenting a negotiated national vision, it projected an anemic, market-driven EuroFuturism detached from the lived realities of the people being assaulted within and beyond it.Against that thin and fitfully curated spectacle stands far more vibrant and complicated social worlds produced through Governance formations of family, community, Cultural Meaning Making, Movement, and Memory.In Class With Carr has spent significant time displacing "250" as an anchoring historical marker, using an Africana Studies method and lens to break through narrowing Social Structure narratives in order to make space for self-determining forms of Governance, Ways of Knowing, and understanding time, belonging, and community.That work makes it increasingly possible to say, publicly and without apology, that Western-style polities need not define or contain our common humanity while remaining fully engaged with the institutions and social formations with and through which we must still struggle.Last week, in Session 330, we proposed moving "Beyond 250." Today, we use ongoing years of collective work informed by deep study and real-time responses to increasingly desperate acts of White political violence to engage in a thought exercise grounded in another way of organizing historical time.The question is not simply what happened in 1776 or even in 1865. The deeper question is why those dates organize our thinking in the first place.What are the odds that we can use this season of endings to harness a momentum of memory for a different and better collective purpose?Are you a member of Knarrative? If not, we invite you to join our community today by signing up at: https://www.knarrative.com. As a Knarrative subscriber, you'll gain immediate access to Knubia, our growing community of teachers, learners, thinkers, doers, artists, and creators. Together, we're making a generational commitment to our collective interests, work, and responsibilities. Join us at https://www.knarrative.com and download the Knubia app through your app store or by visiting https://community.knarrative.com.To shop Go to:TheGlobalMajorityMore from us:Follow on X: https://x.com/knarrative_https://x.com/inclasswithcarrFollow on Instagram IG / knarrative IG/ inclasswithcarr Follow Dr. Carr: https://www.drgregcarr.comhttps://x.com/AfricanaCarrFollow Karen Hunter: https://karenhuntershow.comhttps://x.com/karenhunter IG / karenhuntershowSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Some of the leadership patterns that resist every intervention were never yours to begin with. In this episode of Wired to Win, Fernanda Lind explores the neuroscience of epigenetics and intergenerational trauma: how the brain inherits stress-response patterns across generations, why your deepest and most stubborn patterns can feel older than your own life, and how neuroplasticity makes even inherited wiring changeable. Have you ever noticed a pattern that keeps showing up no matter how much work you have done on yourself? You understand it. You have analysed it, talked it through, even changed it, until the next high-pressure moment brings it straight back, exactly as strong as before. This episode makes a surprising and more forgiving argument. Some of those patterns were not built by your own experience at all. They were inherited, through the same biological mechanisms that epigenetics research is now documenting, and they can be rewired. Drawing on Toni Morrison's novel Beloved and landmark epigenetics research from Rachel Yehuda at Mount Sinai, Michael Meaney at McGill, and the Dutch Hunger Winter studies, Fernanda unpacks why the neural patterns that most resist change often carry a history that precedes your own, and what shifts when you stop asking "what is wrong with me" and start asking "what history is running here, and what does it need in order to be updated." In this episode, you'll learn: What epigenetics reveals about how stress responses are inherited across generations Why your most persistent leadership patterns can feel ancient rather than personal How intergenerational trauma shapes cortisol and the brain's threat response, from Rachel Yehuda's research on Holocaust survivors and their children Why these inherited patterns are biological inheritances, not character flaws How epigenetic marks, though heritable, are not fixed, and what neuroplasticity makes possible The single shift in orientation, from self-judgment to historical recognition, that makes deep change more effective Why insight and understanding alone rarely move a deeply grooved pattern How to approach your most resistant patterns with the compassion that makes rewiring actually work The most profound neuroplastic work available is not only updating the patterns you built in your own career. It is updating the ones you inherited before it began. Your Next Steps:Watch the Free MasterclassIf success still feels heavier than it should… this masterclass will help you understand why.Watch The Rewired Method™ in action How we help women executives end burnout and build sustainable success in less than 90 days...I recorded a step-by-step training for you here: The Sustainable Success Plan for Executive Women LeadersExplore The Rewired Woman™https://therewiredwoman.com/Follow on InstagramConnect on LinkedInCorporate Partnerships & Leadership Programshttps://rewiredglobal.com/corporates/

Welcome back to our series on Toni Morrison's novel. In this episode we focus on Morrison's engrossing prose, including the way she uses threaded metaphors and symbols, and how it enhances the pathos of the story. Plus, the trauma narrative and whether or not the novel is experimental. As always, happy listening! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit closereads.substack.com/subscribe

From Marian Anderson's 1939 concert at the Lincoln Memorial to Marvin Gaye singing the National Anthem at the NBA Finals, the theme of patriotism can be heard throughout African American music. Benjamin Ross offers selections from this rich musical heritage. Also: Ann Petry's The Street, published in 1946, was the first million-selling novel by an African American author. Keith Clark says Petry deserves to be in the pantheon of other great American writers like James Baldwin or Toni Morrison. Later in the show: Poet Walt Whitman in 1862 went searching for his brother George, who had been wounded in a Civil War battle. Mara Scanlon and Brady Earnhart say Whitman was so moved by the carnage he found that he worked as a nurse for the rest of the war. Also: While Edgar Allan Poe is the master of the macabre, Jerome McGann says Poe was more charming and humorous than his famous dark fiction suggests.

En este capítulo exploramos la disciplina desde un lugar distinto: no como castigo, sino como libertad. Basado en el libro Discipline Is Destiny de Ryan Holiday, escritor estadounidense que lleva más de diez años estudiando la filosofía estoica. Holiday propone 25 hábitos concretos — hoy te comparto los tres que más me movieron.Hablamos de:— Por qué la fuerza de voluntad sola no funciona (y qué sí)— Qué tienen en común Toni Morrison, Jimmy Carter y Séneca sobre sostener lo que importa— La diferencia entre disciplina como imposición y disciplina como práctica— Qué nos enseña la meditación y Thich Nhat Hanh sobre volver sin castigartePreguntas para reflexionar:¿Qué proyecto tienes pendiente que podrías empezar mañana en la mañana?¿Cuándo fue la última vez que hiciste algo para ti antes de hacer algo para los demás?¿Lo dejaste porque no funcionaba — o porque dejaste de priorizarte?Referencias: Holiday, R. (2022). Discipline Is Destiny: The Power of Self-Control. Portfolio/Penguin.Me encuentras en Instagram como @MARISALAZO.OFICIALKeywords: disciplina, hábitos, constancia, Ryan Holiday, estoicismo, Séneca, Toni Morrison, Thich Nhat Hanh, meditación, libertad, Marisa Lazo, Compartiendo con Marisa Lazo

Welcome to our new series on Toni Morrison's modern classic! In this first episode, we dig into the book's complicated narrative structure, Morrison's use of POV, the feminine nature of the story and writing, whether it's a novel of advocacy, and much more! Happy listening! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit closereads.substack.com/subscribe

The Author Events Series presents Namwali Serpell | On Morrison In Conversation with Angela Flournoy  Toni Morrison, Nobel Laureate and one of our most beloved writers, has inspired generations of readers. But her artistic genius is often overshadowed by her monumental public persona, perhaps because, as Namwali Serpell puts it, ''she is our only truly canonical black, female writer-and her work is highly complex.'' In On Morrison, Serpell brings her unique experience as both an award-winning writer and professor who teaches a course on Morrison to illuminate her masterful experiments with literary form. This is Morrison as you've never encountered her before, a journey through her oeuvre-her fiction and criticism, as well as her lesser-known dramatic works and poetry-with contextual guidance and original close readings. At once accessible and uncompromisingly rigorous, On Morrison is a primer not only on how to read one of the most significant American authors of all time, but also on how to read great works of literature in general. This dialogue on the page between two black women artist-readers is stylish, edifying, and thrilling in its scope and intelligence. Namwali Serpell was born in Lusaka and lives in New York. Her debut novel, The Old Drift, won an Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Science Fiction, and the Los Angeles Times's Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction. Her second novel, The Furrows, was a finalist for a National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction and was selected as one of The New York Times Ten Best Books of the Year. Her book of essays, Stranger Faces, was a finalist for a National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism. She is a recipient of the Windham-Campbell Prize for Fiction, the Caine Prize for African Writing, and a Rona Jaffe Foundation Award. She is a professor of English at Harvard University. Angela Flournoy is the author of The Turner House, which was a finalist for the National Book Award, a finalist for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection, an Indie Next pick, and a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Her fiction has appeared in The Paris Review, and she has written for The New York Times, The New Yorker, Los Angeles Times, and elsewhere. A graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, Flournoy has taught at the University of Iowa, Princeton University, and UCLA. She lives in New York. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation when you register for this event to ensure that this series continues to inspire Philadelphians. Books will be available for purchase at the library on event night! All tickets are non-refundable. (recorded 2/25/2026)

6/24/26 Co-Host Brian Adams Stephen Platt, UMass History Prof & 2026 Guggenheim Fellow: China rising, isolated, capitalist, run by CCP, WWII internment camps, & more –a fascinating conversation. Kevin Whitney, Pres & COO Cooley Dickinson Hospital: emergency & urgent care, how the relationship with MGB actually works, keeping money loca,l & a shout-out for the new coffee shop! Stephen Rich, UMass Microbiologist: everything you ever wanted and didn't want to know about ticks & protecting yourself. Sonya Clark, Amherst Coll Art & Art History Prof & 2026 Guggenheim Fellow: Toni Morrison's “The Bluest Eye, marigolds, hair, ancestors, creativity, genius.

RTB's sister podcast, Novel Dialogue, spoke recently with Aaron Gwyn. He is the author of four novels: The World Beneath, Wynne's War, and, most recently, two wonderfully linked historical novels, All God's Children, which won the Oklahoma Book award, and The Cannibal Owl. In his conversation with Sean McCann of Wesleyan (A Pinnacle of Feeling: American Literature and Presidential Government and Gumshoe America: Hard-Boiled Crime Fiction and the Rise and Fall of New Deal Liberalism), we learn that Robert Lemmons is a real historical figure and so is Levi English. One way to grasp Gwyn's achievement is to consider the contrast between his durably realist work and Cormac McCarthy's 1985 Blood Meridian. Much as Aaron and Sean admire that novel, McCarthy's characters strike them as monstrous and incredible. How about Charles Portis's True Grit, asks John? Aaron loves it for its ventriloquizing power, and its truth-loving willingness to weave in unsettling back stories like Rooster Cogburn's ties to Quantrill's Rangers, an eerily modern pro-Confederate terrorist paramilitary. In NOvel Dialogue's "signature question," we learn why Aaron's favorite teacher was Robert Hill, Pink-Floyd-loving drummer and perennial inspiration (audio here). Mentioned in this episode: Richard Slotkin's notion of “the man who knows Indians” comes from Gunfighter Nation Mark Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889) Herman Melville, Moby Dick William Faulkner, Absalom, Absalom! Toni Morrison, Beloved Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow John Williams, Stoner (but also Butcher's Crossing –-which John loves— and Augustus, which did indeed split the National Book Award (not the Pulitzer) in 1973 with John Barth's Chimera. Larry McMurtry's hard-to-get-into Lonesome Dove Read transcript here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

RTB's sister podcast, Novel Dialogue, spoke recently with Aaron Gwyn. He is the author of four novels: The World Beneath, Wynne's War, and, most recently, two wonderfully linked historical novels, All God's Children, which won the Oklahoma Book award, and The Cannibal Owl. In his conversation with Sean McCann of Wesleyan (A Pinnacle of Feeling: American Literature and Presidential Government and Gumshoe America: Hard-Boiled Crime Fiction and the Rise and Fall of New Deal Liberalism), we learn that Robert Lemmons is a real historical figure and so is Levi English. One way to grasp Gwyn's achievement is to consider the contrast between his durably realist work and Cormac McCarthy's 1985 Blood Meridian. Much as Aaron and Sean admire that novel, McCarthy's characters strike them as monstrous and incredible. How about Charles Portis's True Grit, asks John? Aaron loves it for its ventriloquizing power, and its truth-loving willingness to weave in unsettling back stories like Rooster Cogburn's ties to Quantrill's Rangers, an eerily modern pro-Confederate terrorist paramilitary. In NOvel Dialogue's "signature question," we learn why Aaron's favorite teacher was Robert Hill, Pink-Floyd-loving drummer and perennial inspiration (audio here). Mentioned in this episode: Richard Slotkin's notion of “the man who knows Indians” comes from Gunfighter Nation Mark Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889) Herman Melville, Moby Dick William Faulkner, Absalom, Absalom! Toni Morrison, Beloved Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow John Williams, Stoner (but also Butcher's Crossing –-which John loves— and Augustus, which did indeed split the National Book Award (not the Pulitzer) in 1973 with John Barth's Chimera. Larry McMurtry's hard-to-get-into Lonesome Dove Read transcript here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literary-studies

RTB's sister podcast, Novel Dialogue, spoke recently with Aaron Gwyn. He is the author of four novels: The World Beneath, Wynne's War, and, most recently, two wonderfully linked historical novels, All God's Children, which won the Oklahoma Book award, and The Cannibal Owl. In his conversation with Sean McCann of Wesleyan (A Pinnacle of Feeling: American Literature and Presidential Government and Gumshoe America: Hard-Boiled Crime Fiction and the Rise and Fall of New Deal Liberalism), we learn that Robert Lemmons is a real historical figure and so is Levi English. One way to grasp Gwyn's achievement is to consider the contrast between his durably realist work and Cormac McCarthy's 1985 Blood Meridian. Much as Aaron and Sean admire that novel, McCarthy's characters strike them as monstrous and incredible. How about Charles Portis's True Grit, asks John? Aaron loves it for its ventriloquizing power, and its truth-loving willingness to weave in unsettling back stories like Rooster Cogburn's ties to Quantrill's Rangers, an eerily modern pro-Confederate terrorist paramilitary. In NOvel Dialogue's "signature question," we learn why Aaron's favorite teacher was Robert Hill, Pink-Floyd-loving drummer and perennial inspiration (audio here). Mentioned in this episode: Richard Slotkin's notion of “the man who knows Indians” comes from Gunfighter Nation Mark Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889) Herman Melville, Moby Dick William Faulkner, Absalom, Absalom! Toni Morrison, Beloved Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow John Williams, Stoner (but also Butcher's Crossing –-which John loves— and Augustus, which did indeed split the National Book Award (not the Pulitzer) in 1973 with John Barth's Chimera. Larry McMurtry's hard-to-get-into Lonesome Dove Read transcript here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/american-west

The Pitt Season 2 has come to a close and Sepideh Moafi has delivered a downright brilliant first-season arc as Dr. Baran Al-Hashimi. She kicked off her run in the series by swooping into the Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center Emergency Department to cover for Dr. Robby (Noah Wyle) during his upcoming sabbatical. Rather than wait for Robby to give her the lay of the land, Dr. Al-Hashimi jumps in feet first, immediately inserting herself into the goings-on at the hospital. As Moafi herself put it, “It was set up for her to disrupt the rhythm of this established hospital. Dr. Robby is America's golden boy, or the world's, really, golden boy, so anyone who comes in his path is going to be scrutinized to a certain degree.”In the early episodes of Season 2, she was indeed scrutinized — by Dr. Robby and the colleagues that would eventually have to work under her on the show, and also by The Pitt fans concerned about Dr. Al-Hashimi upending the ED foundation and group dynamic established during the events of Season 1. Over the course of the day, strengths and weaknesses are unearthed, but perhaps more important than anything, so is her purpose: “Delivering and finding ways within this broken system to find creative solutions to deliver the best quality care for patients.” Moafi added another concept inspired by Toni Morrison that she held especially tight to; “If you are free, your job is to free somebody else. If you have some power, then you need to empower somebody else.” Dr. Al-Hashimi abides by those principles every step of the way in The Pitt Season 2, and at the end of the season, it's revealed that while working toward those goals, she's also trying to figure out how to live her life and do her work with a seizure disorder.With all of The Pitt Season 2 now available to watch on HBO Max, Moafi carved out the time for a Collider Ladies Night conversation to revisit her journey to the hit medical drama and also her experience making Dr. Al-Hashimi's Season 2 arc feel especially full. On top of that, Moafi also took a moment to look to the future. While we still don't know if Moafi will continue on with the show, she certainly has some powerful ideas for where the writers could take her character in Season 3. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Melissa stops by and we talk protests, ongoing anti-racism work, losing community, fear, love, sobriety, and a whole lot more. We speak about the original voices of truth for human rights, civil rights, and equality for all. The Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour shared and continue to share these messages of truth  despite the violence, racism, ignorance they face at every turn.We talk literature ideas to expand thinking. She mentions Toni Morrison. Some influencial authors for me are Richard Wright, Assata Shakur, Angela Davis, James Baldwin and beyond....in no particular order other than most recent reads. We explore addiction support found inside the twelve step rooms. What lingers with me after these discussions is the deeply ingrained cult mentality and language used. Even years after leaving.I told myself I would die without the rooms...it is simply not true. In fact, I was closer to dying inside them. I was not alone in believing once we leave, we will drink, use and die. It is so common that it is a part of the overall program now, which of course serves to reinforce the toxic belief. If you leave, you will die. This phrase rings out in my brain to this day and who knows, maybe it always will. Thank you for your vulnerability and openness Melissa, we are so grateful!

A cello career can begin in the most unlikely place and still end up on the world's biggest stages. We sit down with acclaimed cellist Seth Parker Woods, a fearless advocate for contemporary classical music and a leading voice for commissioning new works, to trace the real steps behind a life in music: the early spark, the teachers who mattered, and the moment the path starts to click.We talk about what draws him to living composers, why electronics and electroacoustic experimentation can expand the cello's voice, and how you build “performance practice” when a piece is brand new. Seth also gets candid about the parts musicians rarely say out loud, including what to do when you are committed to a piece that does not fully resonate, and why professionalism still means putting your best foot forward for first hearings and recordings.From there, we dig into his albums and the storytelling choices inside them. Seth shares the meaning behind From Ordinary Things, inspired by Toni Morrison's poem “Shelter,” and how works by André Previn, George Walker, and Tania León connect to lyricism, identity, and community. We also explore Difficult Grace, his genre-bending, autobiographical project that puts him on stage as cellist, narrator, and movement artist, and what that kind of production teaches you about freedom, pressure, and pivoting fast.We close with an honest conversation about representation, being a Black cellist in classical music, and why access to instruments, teachers, and school programs shapes the entire pipeline. If you care about the future of music education, new music, and sustainable musician careers, this one will stay with you. Subscribe, share this episode with a musician friend, and leave a review so more listeners can find the show.For more information on Seth: https://sethparkerwoods.com/You can also find Seth on Instagram: @sethparkerwoodsIf you are looking for in person/virtual cello lessons, or orchestral repertoire audition coachings, check out www.theCelloSherpa.comFollow us on Facebook, Instagram, Threads & YouTube: @theCelloSherpaFor more information on our sponsor: www.CLEAResources.com 

In The Door of No Return: Being-As-Black (Temple University Press, 2026), Michael E. Sawyer presents a bold work of speculative theory and philosophy that explores how Black people bring the future into being—and what existence in that future looks like. He considers what people of African descent face and the proper response to the situation. He introduces the idea of Being-As-Black as a response and questions the overarching ethos that will be the guide to a beneficial resolution. Using critical theory and philosophy, Sawyer decouples Black identity and Black philosophy from White and Western frames by building on Toni Morrison's ideas of Black Thought and encouraging an understanding of Black Self-Consciousness and Black Self-Identity on Black terms. The Door of No Return uses music, literature, visual art, and a variety of physical disciplines to imagine a world that differs from one that confounds the positive formation of Black Self-Consciousness under the coercive regime of white supremacy and Anti-Black racism. Michael E. Sawyer is Professor with Tenure of African American Literature & Culture, and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of English at the University of Pittsburgh. Brigid Wallace is a graduate student at Lehigh University whose research focuses on the French Atlantic and Latin American world during the 18th and 19th centuries. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/african-american-studies

In The Door of No Return: Being-As-Black (Temple University Press, 2026), Michael E. Sawyer presents a bold work of speculative theory and philosophy that explores how Black people bring the future into being—and what existence in that future looks like. He considers what people of African descent face and the proper response to the situation. He introduces the idea of Being-As-Black as a response and questions the overarching ethos that will be the guide to a beneficial resolution. Using critical theory and philosophy, Sawyer decouples Black identity and Black philosophy from White and Western frames by building on Toni Morrison's ideas of Black Thought and encouraging an understanding of Black Self-Consciousness and Black Self-Identity on Black terms. The Door of No Return uses music, literature, visual art, and a variety of physical disciplines to imagine a world that differs from one that confounds the positive formation of Black Self-Consciousness under the coercive regime of white supremacy and Anti-Black racism. Michael E. Sawyer is Professor with Tenure of African American Literature & Culture, and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of English at the University of Pittsburgh. Brigid Wallace is a graduate student at Lehigh University whose research focuses on the French Atlantic and Latin American world during the 18th and 19th centuries. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

In The Door of No Return: Being-As-Black (Temple University Press, 2026), Michael E. Sawyer presents a bold work of speculative theory and philosophy that explores how Black people bring the future into being—and what existence in that future looks like. He considers what people of African descent face and the proper response to the situation. He introduces the idea of Being-As-Black as a response and questions the overarching ethos that will be the guide to a beneficial resolution. Using critical theory and philosophy, Sawyer decouples Black identity and Black philosophy from White and Western frames by building on Toni Morrison's ideas of Black Thought and encouraging an understanding of Black Self-Consciousness and Black Self-Identity on Black terms. The Door of No Return uses music, literature, visual art, and a variety of physical disciplines to imagine a world that differs from one that confounds the positive formation of Black Self-Consciousness under the coercive regime of white supremacy and Anti-Black racism. Michael E. Sawyer is Professor with Tenure of African American Literature & Culture, and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of English at the University of Pittsburgh. Brigid Wallace is a graduate student at Lehigh University whose research focuses on the French Atlantic and Latin American world during the 18th and 19th centuries. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literary-studies

In The Door of No Return: Being-As-Black (Temple University Press, 2026), Michael E. Sawyer presents a bold work of speculative theory and philosophy that explores how Black people bring the future into being—and what existence in that future looks like. He considers what people of African descent face and the proper response to the situation. He introduces the idea of Being-As-Black as a response and questions the overarching ethos that will be the guide to a beneficial resolution. Using critical theory and philosophy, Sawyer decouples Black identity and Black philosophy from White and Western frames by building on Toni Morrison's ideas of Black Thought and encouraging an understanding of Black Self-Consciousness and Black Self-Identity on Black terms. The Door of No Return uses music, literature, visual art, and a variety of physical disciplines to imagine a world that differs from one that confounds the positive formation of Black Self-Consciousness under the coercive regime of white supremacy and Anti-Black racism. Michael E. Sawyer is Professor with Tenure of African American Literature & Culture, and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of English at the University of Pittsburgh. Brigid Wallace is a graduate student at Lehigh University whose research focuses on the French Atlantic and Latin American world during the 18th and 19th centuries. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/critical-theory

Two men from Mississippi's Gulf Coast wonder if America is finally willing to grow up. Watch this conversation on YouTube As we approach America's 250th anniversary, Russell is joined by fellow southern Mississippi native and public intellectual Dr. Eddie S. Glaude Jr. to talk about race, memory, patriotism, and the stories nations tell themselves in order to avoid repentance.  Drawing from his new book America, USA: How Race Shadows the Nation's Anniversaries, Glaude argues that the danger facing the country is not simply historical ignorance, but a “storybook” version of America that shields us from confronting what is broken underneath.  While talking about Baldwin, Bellah, Bonhoeffer, Toni Morrison, and the civil rights movement, the two explore the tension between love of country and idolatry of nation, the persistence of racial inequality, and why prophetic truth-telling requires both courage and hope.  Ultimately, Glaude's message asks more questions than it answers, but gently ushers us toward love, reconciliation, and redemption at a time when we really need it. Keep up with Russell: Subscribe to Russell on Substack Sign up for the weekly Moore to the Point newsletter  Submit a question for the show at questions@russellmoore.com  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Send us Fan MailFirst published in 1983 after being championed by Toni Morrison, Nettie Jones's Fish Tales recounts one woman's trauma-filled, hedonistic quest for personal freedom amidst a “Disco-Era,” drug-fuelled backdrop — one inspired by Jones's own lived experiences in 1970s Detroit and New York City. Nigerian-American author and Lit Club founder Hannah Eko joins us to discuss the ways power, pleasure and pain converge in Jones's transgressive work, which was reissued by Farrar Straus and Giroux in 2025Mentioned in this episode:Fish Tales by Nettie JonesHoney is the Knife by Hannah EkoThe Lit Club's 2026 event calendarToni MorrisonVillage Well bookstoreLucumiOshunCharles AbramsonJean ToomerLongreads article on Nettie Jones by Michael GonzalezNuma PerrierZola filmLess Than Zero by Bret Easton EllisBright Lights, Big City by Jay McInernyHunter S. ThompsonAnais NinGayl JonesThe Hitachi Magic WandYoruba ArtLost Ladies of Lit Patreon pageSupport the showFor episodes and show notes, visit: LostLadiesofLit.comSubscribe to our substack newsletter.Follow us on instagram @lostladiesoflit. Email us: Contact — Lost Ladies of Lit Podcast

Brian Onishi and Jeff Stoyanoff discuss Toni Morrison's Pulitzer Prize–winning Beloved as a haunted house and ghost story that forces readers to reckon with the historical traumas of chattel slavery, racism, and the “smooth operation” of a world that treats people like property.They outline the novel's core cast—Sethe, Baby Suggs, Denver, Paul D, and the embodied apparition Beloved—alongside figures like Schoolteacher, noting the book's basis in the real story of Margaret Garner and its depiction of lynching, abuse, and infanticide.Drawing on scholarship and concepts such as rememory, spectrality, and Gothic tradition, they argue Morrison rejects easy “Scooby-Doo” reveals or exorcism in favor of communal acknowledgement and reintegration, supporting their broader claim that America itself is haunted while asking how, and whether, joy can be found in such horror.

Today we're excited to share a bonus episode: the first episode of "PASSAGES: On Morrison," produced by our friends at Random House Publishing Group. This new podcast takes reading on the road, as Namwali Serpell — novelist, critic, and Harvard professor — joins fellow writers and skilled readers in conversation to pore over excerpts of Toni Morrison's prose. The show is the record of a traveling salon, a celebration of Morrison's extraordinary work, and a love letter to reading closely in community. You'll hear Serpell in conversation with poet and former host of The Slowdown, Tracy K. Smith. Together, they read the opening of THE BLUEST EYE, Toni Morrison's debut novel, and discuss all that the passage emits and erases. The second episode, featuring acclaimed poet and critic Hanif Abdurraqib, is also available to listen now wherever you get your podcasts.

In this conversation, Amy sits down with mindfulness teacher and writer Oneika Mays to talk about her new book, Sit with Me: A No-BS Journey to Mindfulness and Meditation—part memoir, part meditation guide, and an unflinching look at what it means to practice loving-kindness in real-world conditions, including inside Rikers Island. Oneika shares what it felt like to work inside a system built on hierarchy and dehumanization, the tension of receiving a salary inside a harmful structure, and the moment she realized that “the system isn't broken—it's working as designed.” From there, the conversation widens into the heart of metta: not as softness or spiritual bypassing, but as grounded, actionable love that can hold anger, boundaries, and truth-telling without losing our humanity. About Oneika and the BookBook: Sit with Me: A No-BS Journey to Mindfulness and Meditation (HarperOne / HarperCollins; on sale March 3, 2026). How Oneika describes it: “Meditation is for messy people… This book is part memoir, part meditation guide—and it's about showing up exactly as you are.” What You'll Hear in This EpisodeThe embodied “ick” of being treated as “one of us” by staff—how hierarchy shows up in small moments, tone shifts, and access.Why reform can get absorbed by a machine—and how “helping” can unintentionally make a harmful system look more palatable.The pivot from “fixing” to “serving,” and why that matters in any therapeutic or helping profession.Metta as a practice that includes righteous anger, loving accountability, and clear boundaries (not performative positivity).The inner work of not needing to be liked—and why unconditional love is not the same as being “nice.”A grounded call to action: personal responsibility, collective responsibility, and small acts that add up. Core Themes to Highlight (for your episode description)1) Metta is not performative softness. It's a disciplined practice of staying human—especially when it's inconvenient, when you're angry, and when you need boundaries.2) The “system” is not abstract—it's embodied. Hierarchy is felt through tone, access, positioning, and whose body is treated as more worthy.3) Serving is different than fixing. When we see people as broken, we become controlling or paternalistic. When we serve, we stay in relationship with wholeness.4) Choosing yourself can be an ethical act. Not as individualism, but as harm reduction—because depleted care can become harmful care.5) Collective change is built from small refusals. Not pre-agreeing to dehumanization. Practicing “no” with steadiness, clarity, and community. Resources Mentioned in the ConversationThe New Jim Crow — Michelle Alexander (recommended by Oneika in the episode)“Helping, Fixing, and Serving” — Rachel Naomi Remen (named in the episode)Sharon Salzberg's teaching stories on loving-kindness (referenced in the episode)Audre Lorde on self-care as self-preservation (referenced in the episode)Toni Morrison quote on freedom and responsibility (referenced in the episode)Timothy Snyder's guidance on resisting authoritarianism (Amy referenced at the end) Connect with OneikaWebsite: Oneika Mays www.OneikaMays.com Book Details and Where to Find ItSit with Me: A No-BS Journey to Mindfulness and Meditation is published by HarperOne and is listed as on sale March 3, 2026.

In this video, hailo discusses the publication history of Sula By Toni Morrison, then goes through her own annotations and thoughts on the book. Join Hot Literati at hotliterati.com Check out our online courses https://www.hotliterati.com/coursesShop Hot Literati Merch https://www.hotliterati.com/category/all-productsFollow hailo https://linktr.ee/haileycolborn#literature #tonimorrison #sula #books #bookclub #literaryanalysis

Otoo, Sharon www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de, Lesart

Attention (Jonathan Cape) collects for the first time Booker prize-winning novelist Anne Enright's non-fiction. These essays, collated from across Enright's career, taking us from Dublin to Galway, Canada to Honduras, delving into Enright's own family history and offering new perspectives on writers including Alice Munro, Toni Morrison, James Joyce, Helen Garner and Angela Carter. Enright was in conversation with Clair Wills, author of Missing Persons, Or My Grandmother's Secrets.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit smokeempodcast.substack.comNancy and Sarah discuss “Should I Marry a Murderer?,” the grabby new Netflix docuseries about a fiancee turned key witness. Caroline Muirhead is a smart, beautiful doctor in Glasgow swept up in a romance where things gets … dark. Sarah wanted to talk about this show, because it illustrates troubling habits of female accommodation she's seen in MeToo cases, a tendency to get caught in a trap of people-pleasing. Nancy isn't sure she agrees with that interpretation — she's most disturbed by the Olympic record-level of videos this woman filmed of herself — but they have a free-ranging discussion about refusing to let go of the dream, whether the cops failed Muirhead, drama-seeking mixed with substance abuse, the challenge of confronting someone you're dating, and the grand opera of the show's climax, which deserves to be turned into a novel (we're looking at you, Kat Rosenfield.) Also discussed: * Nancy bonds with childhood friends from pre-Lena Dunham Brooklyn* When the Pulitzer happens to a colleague* “I welcome the insufferability”* FBI opens investigation against Atlantic journalist?* White racial grievance at the New York Times* Anthony Scaramucci = not just good for f-bombs* “Murder as snack”* The high-wire conversations demanded by intimacy* What violence is my partner capable of? * Fiction writing is “the spooky art”* Toni Morrison is whoa, channeling from another dimension* Yes, Nancy is STILL reading Anna KareninaPlus: The prison documentary that made Sarah want to quilt, Nancy on an NBA great, the ick of “Mind of a Serial Killer: The Experience!” exhibition — and more! April showers bring … May paid subscribers?

In this episode, I talk about William Wyler's 1949 film, "The Heiress." Olivia de Havilland plays Catherine Sloper, a shy and sheltered woman living with her cold father in Washington Square, New York in the mid-1800s. When she meets an attractive and alluring man played by Montgomery Clift, she falls passionately in love for the first time, but their relationship will force her to confront painful truths about love and desire. I talk about how the film explores heartbreak and transformation, and how it charts a woman's devastating but powerful journey from innocence to experience, from illusion to reality, and toward a deeper understanding of herself.  If you'd like to support my work and get access to bonus episodes and exclusive posts, you can join me on Patreon: patreon.com/herheadinfilmspodcast. You can follow me on Letterboxd. My email is herheadinfilms@gmail.com. My Sources: Article about the film, written by Frank Miller for Turner Classic Movies "The Heiress:" A Cruel Inheritance by Pamela Hutchinson for Criterion Collection Toni Morrison quote is from a 2015 documentary, "The Life of Toni Morrison"  

Contributor Kendra Winchester joins host Jo Reed to discuss three audiobooks that each spotlight a different side of Toni Morrison. In Language as Liberation, narrator Bahni Turpin guides listeners through Morrison's own lectures, bringing an immediacy to her literary analysis of the American canon. Toni at Random, read with clarity and momentum by Deanna Anthony, highlights Morrison's role in championing major Black writers as an editor at Random House. And January LaVoy's reading of On Morrison carries Namwali Serpell's close readings of the novels, making Morrison's work feel newly alive. Three books, three authors, three narrations—each one sharpening a different view of Morrison's lasting impact. Audiobooks Discussed: Language as Liberation: Reflections on the American Canon by Toni Morrison, read by Bahni Turpin (Random House Audio)   Toni at Random: An Iconic Writer's Legendary Editorship by Dana A. Williams, read by Deanna Anthony (Harper Audio)   On Morrison by Namwali Serpell, read by January LaVoy (Random House Audio) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

John 10:1-10Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.”Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them. So again Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” I am a little late to the party, but this past week, I have been intrigued by the Artemis 2 space mission that launched at the beginning of the month. Because the trip coincided with Holy Week, I didn't have much time to take it in as it was happening. Now with Jesus thoroughly out of the grave, I have been mesmerized by the mission and the moments captured by the crew aboard Integrity, their aptly named spacecraft, which carried some of the kindest, well qualified, yet humble overachievers we could find.Of the many remarkable moments, a few struck me most. The first was just the tightness of the crew, in more ways than one. In all of the photos and videos the crew seems to genuinely care not only about the mission they are on, but for each other too. When asked what it means to be a crew back on earth Christina Koch, one of the mission specialists said, a crew is “a group that is in it all the time, no matter what. That sacrifices silently for each other, gives grace, has the same cares and the same needs, and is inescapably, beautifully, dutifully linked. Planet Earth: You are a crew,” What a hopeful, aspirational description for a place that acts the opposite most of the time. But it's a good thing the crew on Integrity got along so well, because look at how tight those quarters are! For nearly two weeks, those four grown adults were in 316 cubic feet of shared space, which is like being confined to the interior of two mini vans. I mean look at the size of the bathroom! Speaking of the bathroom…there was a small problem with the toilet, which is really no small problem at all. As I understand it, which isn't well, the vent that pushes all their fluid out into space had frozen. That meant they'd have to use bags for all their toileting needs, which sounds difficult in space. So to fix this they rotated their craft so that the vents faced toward instead of away from the sun. And it worked! What a wonderfully human problem and need to see people work together and overcome. These kind of moments led to the contagious moonjoy many talked about, this awe at the moon and those who approached it. The second is this photo. It's a picture of earth setting behind the moon's crated filled surface. This was the first public photo of Artemis II crew's trip to the dark side of the moon. We've seen sunsets, sunrises, and in 1968 we saw earthrise for the first time with pictures from Apollo 8. But never before had we seen all the earth setting, as if we, the whole world, were off to bed at the end of a collective day. Describing that moment the best he could, Reid Weisman said: “No matter how long we look at this, our brains are not processing this image in front of us. It is absolutely spectacular, surreal. I know there's no adjectives. I'm going to need to invent some new ones to describe what we are looking at out this window.”And finally, minutes later from that photo, the crew lost all signal with earth for forty minutes, becoming the first crew to ever travel that far around the moon and that far away from the earth. Once they came back in contact, Christina Koch had this to say to all of us: Click here to watch.We will always choose earth. We will always choose each other. What a beautiful, much needed message to everyone. Such a statement might be the result of the overview effect. It's the profound mental shift that many astronauts report having experienced after seeing Earth from a distance. It is an awe experienced from space. Awe is that moment when something is so vast, so beautiful, so beyond you, that it rearranges how you see everything else. And whether in space or on earth, all experiences of awe encourage attitudes of compassion, generosity, and selflessness. That's according to leading researcher Dacher Keltner, whose book we've read here. Those four astronauts had an overwhelming experience of awe and it shows in statements like: “We will all always choose each other.”It was awe that led the early church to live the way described in our story from Acts. After the resurrection, they experienced awe from the signs and wonders being done by the apostles who were filled with the Holy Spirit. They heard the good news proclaimed by Peter about Jesus who was crucified and killed, but whom God raised up, freeing him from death, and giving everyone forgiveness of sins in his name. All of this drove them toward not just an attitude of generosity, compassion, and selflessness, but action that encompassed all of that. As Luke tells it, these early disciples lived together and shared all they had. If anyone was in need, they would sell what they had to meet that need. They were committed to doing life together: learning, eating, praying, and playing together. In the words of Christina Koch, they were a crew, “a group that was in it all the time, that gave grace, and had the same cares and the same needs, which was the people beside them. They were inescapably, beautifully, dutifully linked, choosing each other, in the most Christ- like way.Now it would be easy to say that this is the goal of the church and of this church, to live like the picture given to us of the first disciples. But if that's the goal, we've already missed it. If all I did this morning was tell all of us to live together, eat all our meals together, come to church everyday, sell our possessions: One, no one would do it. And two, it would just set us up for failure. All of our striving would only show how short we fall, and become a form of works righteousness, believing that what we do will make Jesus love us more or bring about our own forgiveness and salvation. Instead, the exhortation or hope is that you experience awe – not only from artemis 2 and all the moonjoy they brought, but awe at our God who became human, lived, walked, and suffered among us. Awe at a savior who as Peter says in his letter, bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, free from sins, we are free to live the right way. When we are in awe of our savior, something shifts. We start to see each other differently. We start to live differently.My prayer for us as individuals and as a church, is that we do not seek to live as the early disciples. If that's our aim, we will only disappoint ourselves and each other. Instead, I hope, I pray you experience awe. And if you are wondering how or where to experience that: Go to a concert, take a walk with a three year old (I'll loan you mine), visit with a centenarian, stare at a rainbow, listen to mozart, look at great art, read the words of Tolstoy or Toni Morrison. Watch the light cascade over a lake at sunset, feel the warmth of the sun at its rising. Be in awe at a crew of four humans who traveled the furthest distance of any human ever before, only to reemerge and say we must choose each other. Most of all be in awe of a savior who chose to go to a cross and rise out of a tomb for you and still chooses each and every day to forgive your sins and give you grace. When we are in awe of that, we too will be more generous, more compassionate, more selfless to our neighbors. We too will choose each other. Amen.

Back in 2012, Diverse Voices Book Review host Hopeton Hay conducted a short interview with Bernice L. McFadden on KAZI Book Review (the name of this show before it changed in 2021) shortly after Akashic Books published her novel GATHERING OF WATERS. It is a tale narrated by the town of Money, Mississippi—the site of the brutal murder of Emmett Till in 1955. This haunting story, according to Akashic Books, "mines the truth about Money, Mississippi, as well as the town's families and threads their history over decades. The bare-bones realism—both disturbing and riveting—combined with a magical realm in which ghosts have the final say, is reminiscent of Toni Morrison's BELOVED." I hope you enjoy it.Follow Diverse Voices Book Review on Social Media:Facebook - @diversevoicesbookreviewInstagram - @diverse_voices_book_review Bluesky - @diversevoicesbooks.bsky.social

Amanda Peet is in the new film ‘Fantasy Life' and the series ‘Your Friends & Neighbors.' In a recent piece in ‘The New Yorker,' she wrote about being diagnosed with breast cancer while both of her parents were in hospice. “I didn't really have that ‘why me?' thing. Maybe because I am Jewish and am always waiting for that other shoe to drop. In this case it was three shoes,” she told Terry Gross. Also, we'll talk about Toni Morrison with Harvard professor Namwali Serpell. She says no matter how many times she returns to Morrison's work, she finds something new.  She's still haunted by the last sentence of the novel ‘Sula.' “When that sentence comes into my life, whether I'm reading it to teach, whether I'm rereading it to write, whether I'm reading it out loud, even just now, tears always spring to my eyes," Serpell says. She spoke with Tonya Mosley.   David Bianculli reviews the new Apple TV series ‘Margo's Got Money Troubles.'See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Today we're sharing an excerpt from a new soccer podcast, The Away End with John Green and Daniel Alarcón. In a recent episode they covered the 1994 Caribbean Cup, which felt very Very Special Episodes-y. If you like soccer or enjoy listening to smart friends chat, check out their show! Dana, Zaron + Jason will be back with a new episode next Wednesday. About The Away End Two novelists, Daniel Alarcón and John Green, friends since they were teenagers, tackle questions big and small around the World Cup and international football more generally. The only soccer podcast that regularly name checks Toni Morrison, The Away End is about much more than sport: it's about politics, literature and culture, with an eye toward those moments and spaces where our collective love of soccer reveals something unexpected about who we are.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today we're sharing an excerpt from a new soccer podcast, The Away End with John Green and Daniel Alarcón. In a recent episode they covered the 1994 Caribbean Cup, which felt very Very Special Episodes-y. If you like soccer or enjoy listening to smart friends chat, check out their show! Dana, Zaron + Jason will be back with a new episode next Wednesday. About The Away End Two novelists, Daniel Alarcón and John Green, friends since they were teenagers, tackle questions big and small around the World Cup and international football more generally. The only soccer podcast that regularly name checks Toni Morrison, The Away End is about much more than sport: it's about politics, literature and culture, with an eye toward those moments and spaces where our collective love of soccer reveals something unexpected about who we are.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today we're sharing an excerpt from a new soccer podcast, The Away End with John Green and Daniel Alarcón. In a recent episode they covered the 1994 Caribbean Cup, which felt very Very Special Episodes-y. If you like soccer or enjoy listening to smart friends chat, check out their show! Dana, Zaron + Jason will be back with a new episode next Wednesday. About The Away End Two novelists, Daniel Alarcón and John Green, friends since they were teenagers, tackle questions big and small around the World Cup and international football more generally. The only soccer podcast that regularly name checks Toni Morrison, The Away End is about much more than sport: it's about politics, literature and culture, with an eye toward those moments and spaces where our collective love of soccer reveals something unexpected about who we are.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In a new book, Harvard professor Namwali Serpell makes the case that we have been reading one of the most celebrated writers in American history all wrong. ‘On Morrison' is a deep dive into the Nobel Laureate's complete body of work — her 11 novels, plays, and criticism. Serpell has been teaching Morrison for nearly two decades, and she says no matter how many times she returns to the work, she still finds something new. Jazz historian Kevin Whitehead reviews two new biographies of composers and pianists born 40 years apart.To manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below:See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Toni Morrison, Nobel Laureate and one of our most beloved writers, has inspired generations of readers. But her artistic genius is often overshadowed by her monumental public persona, perhaps because, as Namwali Serpell puts it, “she is our only truly canonical black female writer—and her work is highly complex.” In On Morrison (Hogarth, 2026), Serpell brings her unique experience as both an award-winning writer and a professor who teaches a course on Morrison to illuminate her masterful experiments with literary form. This is Morrison as you've never encountered her before, a journey through her oeuvre—her fiction and criticism, as well as her lesser-known dramatic works and poetry—with contextual guidance and original close readings. At once accessible and uncompromisingly rigorous, On Morrison is a primer not only on how to read one of the most significant American authors of all time but also on how to read great works of literature in general. This dialogue on the page between two black women artist-readers is stylish, edifying, and thrilling in its scope and intelligence. Namwali Serpell was born in Lusaka and lives in New York. Her debut novel, The Old Drift, won an Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Science Fiction, and the Los Angeles Times's Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction. Her second novel, The Furrows, was a finalist for National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction and was selected as one of The New York Times Ten Best Books of the Year. Her book of essays, Stranger Faces, was a finalist for a National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism. She is a recipient of the Windham-Campbell Prize for Fiction, the Caine Prize for African Writing, and a Rona Jaffe Foundation Award. She is a professor of English at Harvard University. Derek Adams is Associate Professor of African American literature at Ithaca College and is currently teaching an upper-level seminar on Toni Morrison titled Across the Decades that challenges the origins of an assumed mythic status generally applied to her. Recommended Books: Maya Binyam, Hangmen Akwaeke Emezi, Freshwater Chris Holmes is Chair of Literatures in English and Professor at Ithaca College. He writes criticism on contemporary global literatures. His book, Kazuo Ishiguro Against World Literature, is published with Bloomsbury Publishing. He is the co-director of The New Voices Festival, a celebration of work in poetry, prose, and playwriting by up-and-coming young writers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Toni Morrison, Nobel Laureate and one of our most beloved writers, has inspired generations of readers. But her artistic genius is often overshadowed by her monumental public persona, perhaps because, as Namwali Serpell puts it, “she is our only truly canonical black female writer—and her work is highly complex.” In On Morrison (Hogarth, 2026), Serpell brings her unique experience as both an award-winning writer and a professor who teaches a course on Morrison to illuminate her masterful experiments with literary form. This is Morrison as you've never encountered her before, a journey through her oeuvre—her fiction and criticism, as well as her lesser-known dramatic works and poetry—with contextual guidance and original close readings. At once accessible and uncompromisingly rigorous, On Morrison is a primer not only on how to read one of the most significant American authors of all time but also on how to read great works of literature in general. This dialogue on the page between two black women artist-readers is stylish, edifying, and thrilling in its scope and intelligence. Namwali Serpell was born in Lusaka and lives in New York. Her debut novel, The Old Drift, won an Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Science Fiction, and the Los Angeles Times's Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction. Her second novel, The Furrows, was a finalist for National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction and was selected as one of The New York Times Ten Best Books of the Year. Her book of essays, Stranger Faces, was a finalist for a National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism. She is a recipient of the Windham-Campbell Prize for Fiction, the Caine Prize for African Writing, and a Rona Jaffe Foundation Award. She is a professor of English at Harvard University. Derek Adams is Associate Professor of African American literature at Ithaca College and is currently teaching an upper-level seminar on Toni Morrison titled Across the Decades that challenges the origins of an assumed mythic status generally applied to her. Recommended Books: Maya Binyam, Hangmen Akwaeke Emezi, Freshwater Chris Holmes is Chair of Literatures in English and Professor at Ithaca College. He writes criticism on contemporary global literatures. His book, Kazuo Ishiguro Against World Literature, is published with Bloomsbury Publishing. He is the co-director of The New Voices Festival, a celebration of work in poetry, prose, and playwriting by up-and-coming young writers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Anne Enright has written eight novels, most recently The Wren, The Wren, for which she was on the show in 2023. She won the Man Booker Prize for The Gathering and the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, and was the inaugural Laureate for Irish Fiction. In 2022, she was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Irish Book Awards. Her latest collection of essays is Attention: Writing on Life, Art, and the World. These 24 essays cover a lot of ground, but one big theme is how Anne reads other writers, and specifically how she reads them today in contrast to how she's read them before. There are familiar names like Toni Morrison, James Joyce, Edna O' Brien, Samuel Beckett, and Alice Munroe. But some obscure writers, as well. Anne joins Marrie Stone to talk about reading, both for the joy of it and for the study of it, writing, attention, our waning attention spans, and how being a woman has played a role in every one of these topics. For more information on Writers on Writing and to become a supporter, visit our Patreon page. For a one-time donation, visit Ko-fi. You can help out the show and indie bookstores by buying books at our bookstore on bookshop.org. It's stocked with titles by our guest authors, as well as our personal favorites. And on Spotify, you'll find an album's worth of typewriter music like what you hear on the show. It's perfect for writing. Look for the artist, Just My Type. You can find hundreds of past interviews on our website. (Recorded March 31, 2026) Host: Barbara DeMarco-Barrett Host: Marrie Stone Music: Travis Barrett (Stream his music on Spotify, Apple Music, Etc.)

It's The Stacks Book Club day and Morrison Month here on The Stacks, and today, we're diving into Paradise by Toni Morrison with award-winning writer, professor, and On Morrison author, Namwali Serpell. This book tells the story of Ruby, a small, all-black town in rural Oklahoma founded by the descendants of freed slaves, and its violent conflict with a nearby convent of women. We chat about the novel's complexity, how it tackles faith and gender, and its connection to Beloved and Jazz.There are spoilers in this episode.Listen to the end of the episode to hear what our April book club pick will be!You can find everything we discuss on today's show on The Stacks website: https://www.thestackspodcast.com/2026/3/25/ep-417-paradiseConnect with Namwali: Website | X/TwitterConnect with The Stacks: Instagram | Threads | Shop | Patreon | Goodreads | Substack | Youtube | SubscribeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

President Trump is running out of political solutions to his political problems, so he's turning to voter suppression; how Americans are dealing with rising gas prices caused by the War with Iran, and what history tells us about oil price spikes; Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-PA) discusses the War with Iran; ‘Song of Solomon' by Toni Morrison is the subject of this week's Velshi Banned Book Club To listen to this show and other MS podcasts without ads, sign up for MS NOW Premium on Apple Podcasts. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Today on The Stacks, we're joined by award-winning author T Kira Madden to discuss her newest book, Whidbey. This novel follows three women whose lives intersect in the wake of a man's murder. We chat about the questions that are left in the wake of trauma, her unique writing process, and how she tricks herself to keep writing fun.The Stacks Book Club pick for March is Paradise by Toni Morrison. We'll be discussing the book with Namwali Serpell on March 25th.You can find everything we discuss on today's show on The Stacks website: https://www.thestackspodcast.com/2026/3/18/ep-416-t-kira-maddenConnect with T Kira: Instagram | Website | Threads Connect with The Stacks: Instagram | Threads | Shop | Patreon | Goodreads | Substack | Youtube | SubscribeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Today on The Stacks, we're joined by bestselling author Tayari Jones to talk about her newest book, Kin. This novel follows the lifelong friendship between Vernice and Annie, two motherless girls whose paths diverge in adulthood. In our conversation, Tayari shares how Kin was the book she had to write, even though it was not the one she was contracted to write, why she avoided writing a historical novel until now, and how coming home to Atlanta has impacted her as a person and a novelist. The Stacks Book Club pick for March is Paradise by Toni Morrison. We'll be discussing the book with Namwali Serpell on March 25th.You can find everything we discuss on today's show on The Stacks website: https://www.thestackspodcast.com/2026/3/11/ep-415-tayari-jonesConnect with Tayari: Instagram | Threads | Website | FacebookConnect with The Stacks: Instagram | Threads | Shop | Patreon | Goodreads | Substack | Youtube | SubscribeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Today on The Stacks, we're joined by writer, literary critic, and Harvard University professor Namwali Serpell to discuss her latest book, On Morrison. In this book, Namwali offers a deep dive into Toni Morrison's career, guiding readers through close readings of everything from her well-known fiction and literary criticism to her lesser-known dramatic works and poetry. We talk all about why Namwali wanted to write about one of the most beloved—and misunderstood—authors of all time, exploring Morrison's place in the literary canon, why she and her work have been considered "difficult," and how her novels can teach us how to read them.The Stacks Book Club pick for March is Paradise by Toni Morrison. We'll be discussing the book with Namwali Serpell on March 25th.You can find everything we discuss on today's show on The Stacks website: https://www.thestackspodcast.com/2026/3/4/ep-414-namwali-serpellConnect with Namwali: Website | X/TwitterConnect with The Stacks: Instagram | Threads | Shop | Patreon | Goodreads | Substack | Youtube | SubscribeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Seven years after Toni Morrison's death, we're experiencing what the critic Parul Sehgal describes as a “wave of Morrisonia.” Eleven of her novels are being reissued by her publisher. There's a new book of criticism about her novels. You can feel the effort to shore up her legacy. It's an understandable impulse. This is the woman who wrote “Beloved,” the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel that, as Parul writes, “invented a language for unassimilable pain, for the horrors of the Middle Passage, of bondage and its systematized torture and sexual brutality.” The book can feel like a kind of miracle. And Morrison, therefore, like a kind of saint. But sanctification — both Parul and Wesley fear — has its own risks. It puts Morrison up in the sky, where we can't quite reach her. Too far away to touch. So in this episode of Cannonball, that's what Parul, Wesley and their editor, Sasha Weiss, set out to do. Touch Morrison's work — as she wanted us to. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.