Adrienne Rivera
Adrienne Rivera received her MFA in fiction from Southern Illinois University Carbondale. She currently lives in southern Indiana.

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The War that Inspired A Separate Peace

By Adrienne Rivera. Sep 16, 2017. 9:00 AM.

Topics: Awarded Books, American Literature

Author John Knowles was born in West Virginia in 1926 to a well-off family. His family's comfortable living allowed him to go the private preparatory school, Phillips Exeter Academy. Upon graduation, he served for two years in the United States Army Air Force during World War II. He attended Yale University after his service ended and while there, wrote humor stories for The Yale Record. He also worked on the Yale Daily News. He continued his journalism after school with a job at the Hartford Courant and eventually as assistant editor at Holiday. It wasn't until prompted by friend and Pulitzer Prize winning author and playwright Thornton Wilder that he turned his attention seriously toward novels.

     
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An Introduction to Sherwood Anderson, Creator of Winesburg, Ohio

By Adrienne Rivera. Sep 13, 2017. 9:00 AM.

Topics: American Literature

Midwest writer Sherwood Anderson was born in 1876 and raised in Ohio. Like the characters in his most enduring work, Winesburg, Ohio, he lived most of his life in small towns. Much of his writing was inspired by the places he lived and the people he met during a somewhat transient childhood. Anderson was one of seven children born to his mother and father. His father, Irwin McLain Anderson, was a former Union soldier with considerable debts and a habit for drinking, forcing the family to move frequently. To compensate for his father's difficulties keeping a steady job, Anderson worked a variety of part-time jobs. The family eventually settled in Clyde, Ohio, where Anderson worked at different times as a newsboy, stable hand, printer's devil, and occasionally as his father's assistant when he found work as a sign painter. Anderson ended up leaving school in the ninth grade in order to support his family.

     
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Sixty Years On the Road: Kerouac's Masterpiece Then and Now

By Adrienne Rivera. Sep 5, 2017. 9:00 AM.

Topics: American Literature, Movie Tie-Ins

One of the most important players in the Beat movementa group of writers whose work focused on the human condition in a post-World War II America with an emphasis on exploration of the country, a rejection of materialism and commercialism, and the recreational and spiritual use of drugswas writer Jack Kerouac. Born to French Canadian parents in Lowell, Massachusetts, Kerouac did not learn to speak English until he was six years old. Kerouac briefly attended Columbia University to play football. When he broke his leg, his football career ended, and he dropped out. It was around this time that Kerouac first met members of the Beat movement: Lucien Carr, William S. Burroughs, and Allen Ginsberg. In 1950, he began working on what would become his second published and indisputably famous novel, On the Road, which celebrates its sixtieth anniversary today.

     
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Four Contemporary Cuban American Writers You Should Be Reading

By Adrienne Rivera. Aug 24, 2017. 9:00 AM.

Topics: Awarded Books, American Literature, Movie Tie-Ins

One of the most well-known Cuban American writers today is Oscar Hijuelos. Interestingly, as a result of a year long hospital stay in his childhood, Hijuelos lost his fluency in Spanish, the language his family spoke at home, but he gained fluency in English. This imbued him with a sense of separation from his culture, a feeling that he imparts in all of his novels. Are you interested in Latin American literature? If so, Hijuelos should definitely be on your list. But what other contemporary Cuban American writers should you be reading?      
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Master of Light Verse: Ogden Nash

By Adrienne Rivera. Aug 19, 2017. 9:00 AM.

Topics: Poetry

Poet Ogden Nash was born in 1902 in New York. However, due to his father's business work, the family moved often, and Nash never considered himself a New Yorker. He once wrote the verse “I could have loved New York had I not loved Balti-more.” He completed one year of his Harvard education before quitting to move to New York City where he first worked selling bonds, then as a writer at various jobs, including a stint on the editorial staff of The New Yorker. Nash moved to Baltimore in 1931 where he lived and wrote until his death in 1970 due to complications from Crohn's disease. Here are some interesting facts about one of the foremost writers of humorous verse.

     
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Four Writers Inspired by Beatrix Potter

By Adrienne Rivera. Aug 4, 2017. 9:00 AM.

Topics: Legendary Illustrators, Children's Books

Beatrix Potter's charming stories and enchanting illustrations have captivated children for generations. Indeed, ever since her first book, The Tale of Peter Rabbit, was published in 1902, children have learned valuable lessons from Peter and his cohorts, all while being delightedly entertained. All of Potter's books are still in print today, and in 2016 a previously unreleased book was publishedThe Tale of Kitty-in-Boots. Beyond her endurance as a much-loved children's writer, Beatrix Potter has served as an inspiration to many writers and illustrators. She was a woman who not only forged a path for herself in literature when the field of publishing was unfortunately dismissive of women, but in science as well. Her mycology illustrations have only begun to receive the recognition they deserve. Here are some writers who were inspired by Beatrix Potter and her enduring legacy.

     
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Where Writing and Politics Collide: Authors as Activists

By Adrienne Rivera. Jul 19, 2017. 9:00 AM.

Topics: Awarded Books, Literature

Writing has always existed as a means to explore the realities of the world, to illuminate both the good and the bad. As long as people have been writing, they have been writing about the world around them, and in many ways, the relationship between art and politicswriting and politics, to be specificis inexorable. Aristotle wrote his Politics in the 4th century. Jonathan Swift wrote A Modest Proposal, his satire on the Irish potato famine, in 1729. Anna Laetitia Barbauld wrote her critiques of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars not long after. There is a long history of writers using their voices to draw attention to the most important issues of their time. Here are some writers who meld writing with activism and advocacy to great and enduring effect.

     
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The Woman Behind Gone With the Wind

By Adrienne Rivera. Jun 30, 2017. 9:00 AM.

Topics: Awarded Books, Movie Tie-Ins

Though Margaret Mitchell had only one book published in her lifetime, it remains one of the most popular books of all time. Gone With the Wind won the National Book Award as well as the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1937. The story of Scarlett O'Hara's life in the aftermath of the Civil War, the changing nature of Atlanta, and her tumultuous relationship with Rhett Butler has intrigued generations of readers and movie fans. It's film adaptation, too, has endured as a classic and was a major influence on films for years after its release. Starring Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable, the film won the Academy Award for Best Film in 1939, as well as twelve other awards, and is still considered a triumph today. Likewise, the book is still widely read and has never been out of print. So, what inspired Mitchell to pen a tale with such staying power?

     
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Dorothy Sayers, Detective Fiction, and Dante's Divine Comedy

By Adrienne Rivera. Jun 13, 2017. 9:00 AM.

Topics: Mystery, Suspense & Crime

Dorothy Sayers is often regarded as one of the top mystery writers of all time. Her detective stories continue to be read today, and her books' hero Lord Peter Wimsey is often mentioned among such fictional greats as Sherlock Holmes, Miss Marple, and Hercule Poirot. A prolific writer, Sayers published widely and not just the novels for which she is best known. Sayers also had considerable success as a playwright, short story writer, poet, and Dante scholar. If what you know of Sayers' work only includes Lord Wimsey, the breadth and scope of the rest of her workand of her rather interesting lifemay come as quite a surprise. Here are some interesting facts about the work and life of one of the main players in the Golden Age of detective fiction.

     
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A Reader's Guide to Louise Erdrich

By Adrienne Rivera. Jun 7, 2017. 9:00 AM.

Topics: Awarded Books, American Literature

American author Louise Erdrich has been publishing novels, short stories, children's books, and poetry since 1984. Erdrich has been awarded in every genre in which she has published. Her novels Love Medicine and LaRose won the National Book Critics Circle Award while The Round House won the National Book Award. She received the World Fantasy Award for The Antelope Wife. Her children's book The Game of Silence won the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction. Her poetry has won the Pushcart Prize, and in 2005, she was the Associate Poet Laureate of North Dakota. She holds several honorary doctorates and has won numerous other awards for her achievements in the field of writing. Erdrich's books are an important part of the landscape of American literature. Let's learn more about the writer behind these contemporary classics.

     
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