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CAL PAL — A Web Companion to Contemporary American Literature

Please remember: In sync with the ethos of the web, the list below is always in the making. Please let us know if you've made new discoveries as you make your excursions into cyberia, and please check out related web pages on this site as well. 

Note as well that, while many web sites may be informative and useful, they are typically no substitute for the more sustained scholarly discussion of a book. 

 

TO BE UPDATED AND EXPANDED PERIODICALLY — please stay tuned! Please consult

• MAL PAL, MEDIA HUB and THEO PAL in the navigation menu above, as well as the dividing membrane between modern and contemporary/postmodern literature/culture/theory is, much in the spirit of postmodern forms of destabilization, fluid and permeable.
• Reel Web and JAZZ PAL, also in the navigation menu above, might lead you to useful web resources on film & film criticism.
• Modern American Poetry (MAP), a comprehensive learning envinronment and scholarly forum for the study of modern and contemporary American poetry, is also a most useful beginning resource.

 

G E N E R A L

 

 

 

 

HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS, RELATED FIGURES & SUCH

 

INDIVIDUAL WRITERS & ARTISTS

For 20th/21st-century American poets, the Modern American Poetry site (above) is generally useful. Many contemporary writers are also featured per audio and video on, among others, National Public Radio and YouTube. See ReelWeb for sites on film.

• Edward Albee, "Edward Albee, Trenchant Playwright for a Desparate Era, Dies at 88" (17 Sept. 2016)
• Edward Abbey, [to be done :)]
  > David Owen, Where the Water Goes: Life and Death Along the Colorado River (2017)
• Meena Alexander, I-Buried Stones, NYT Obit 2018;
• Paul Auster, PA I, Man in the Dark (NPR), Invisible (NPR), New York Trilogy, [Locked Room Mystery]
• James Baldwin, Sonny's Blues, JB Teacher Resources, NYT Obit, Colm Toibin on Giovanni's Room,  I am Not Your Negro (Raoul Peck 2017)
• Russell Banks, I, II, Salon Inter I, Inter II, Inter III/The Darling, Inter IV 2008, YT-Reserve, YT-LP Film Forum, YT-Intro to Bone, Lost Memory of Skin; Jonathan Franzen on Rule of the Bone;  FBI & Weather Underground
• Amiri Baraka, The Dutchman I, DM II, S O S (Poems 1961-2013), Democracy Now: Commemorating Amiri Baraka
• John Barth, JB Information Center, NYT & JB, Scriptorium
• Saul Bellow, NYT Obits & Reviews
• David Bradley, DB I,  DB II, DB III, The Chaneysville Incident
• Gwendolyn Brooks, GB I, GB II, GB III,
• Sterling Brown, The Negro Caravan (documentary)
• Charles Bukowski, CB I, CB II, CB III, Barfly, Factotum(Sundance 2006)
• William Burroughs, A Man Within (2010, documentary)
• Robert Olen Butler, ROB on webdelsol.com (including online texts), ROB at Work, ROB Interview, Good Scent I, Good Scent II, Perfume River (Sept 2016)
• Raymond Carver, NYT Featured Author I, II
• Michael Chabon, "The Imaginary Jew" (The Nation), MC on Cormac McCarthy's The Road; Moonglow (2016); The Sandmeyer Reaction: A Short Story (2016)
• Michael Crichton (NYT Obituary)
• Ta-Nehisi Coates,  We Were Eight Years in Powers / Public Intellectual (2017), Captain America No. 1 (7/18)
• Mark Danielewski, The Fifty Year Sword (Oct 12)
• Don DeLillo, DD-- NYTAuthor Page"The Power of History," Jeffrey MacIntyre on DD, The Angel Esmeralda (2011), Cosmopolis (film review), Don DeLillo's America (including numerous links); Zero K I, Zero K II; "Intensity of a Plot," Guernica 2007;
• Junot Diaz, Cleared of Misconduct at M.I.T.
• Philip K. Dick,  To The Best of Our Knowledge (2017),
• E. L. Doctorow, ELD Official Web Site, NYT Featured Author, John Leonard, "The Prophet"(NYRB), ELD on Sweet Land Stories(NPR audio),
  - ELD on Bush, The March and the Historical Novel (review), ELD on The March (NPR audio), Brief Interview on The March, etc., NPR ELD Features
  - ELD on Homer & Langley(NPR audio), H&L (NYT), ELD on H&L, H&L (Diane Rehm), All the Time in the World (NYT), ELD on YouTube;   2013 Gold Medal--National Book Awards, ; "I don't have a style, but the books do" (Guardian 2010)
  - Andrew's Brain I, II, III, ELD-By  the Book. Tom LeClair, "The Brain Man"; Ron Charles, Andrew's Brain
    Ray Kurzweil on Singularity I
  - City of God:  Paul Tillich, Albert Einstein I, AE II, AE III, AE IV;  ELD: Jazz Inspired; Teachers' Guide to City of God
  - ELD-Obits I, II, III, IV, V, VI (Michael Chabon), Te-Nehisi  Coates on E. L. Doctorow; "The End of Us" (LARB);  ELD's Postmodernist Style (LARB), ELD and (Non-)Nostalgia (New Republic); "The Limits of Optimism: ELD and the American Left" (Counterpunch); George Saunders, "The Bravery of E. L. Doctorow" (New Yorker); Victor Navasky on ELD (The Nation); Vilnius:  Treasure Trove of Yiddish Artifacts (NYT)
  - The Waterworks, Ron Soodalter,  "The Union's 'Shoddy' Aristocracy"; Sarah Weicksel, Six Questions with a Civil War Material Culture scholar
• Jennifer Egan, A Visit from the Goon Squad (2010), Goon Squad II, Goon Squad III, I#1-Goon Squat 1,  I#2-Goon Squad (PBS interviews)
  - Manhattan Beach I , II , III (2017), "JE's Travels Through Time" (New Yorker 2018), By the Book. Conversation: Jennifer Egan & George Saunders,
• Steve Erickson, SE-official site, Interview I, I-II, I-III, I-IV,Frequency of Liberation, Zeroville R I, Zero R II, Zero R III, Dreams of You R I, Films referenced in Zeroville; Zeroville Soundtrack;  Shadowbahn (2/17)
• Ralph Ellison, RE I, Invisible Man, The RE Project/Ellison and Jazz, RE's Politics
• Jeffrey Eugenides, The Virgin Suicides, Middlesex, The Marriage Plot, " By the Book"
• Frantz Fanon (novel by John Edgar Wideman, NYT)
• Raymond Federman, RF I, RF II, RF III, RF Interview I, RF Interview II, RFblogspot, NYT Obits & Reviews (not yet hyperlinked), Shhh: The Story of a Childhood (2010)
• Jonathan Franzen, JF TIME Profile/Freedom, Purity (Colm Toibin), The Rage of Jonathan Franzen, JF is Fine With All of It (2018)
• William Gaddis, The Gaddis Annotations, 2005 International Gaddis Conference
• Cristina Garcia,  Here in Berlin (2018)
• William Gibson, Cyberpunk, etc., Neuromancer and Bladerunner, Gibson & SciFi Resources,
  WG Interviews, Study Guides I, Neuromancer, Bladerunner, and SciFi Novels I, The Hollywood Afterlife of Phillip K. Dick (audio); F Jameson on Gibson; Irish Times Interview (2003); WP on Spook Country, etc. (audio)
• Allen Ginsberg, AG I; footnote to Howl; Howl (the film, 2010); The Best Minds of My Generation (2017);  see Beat pages above
• Robert Haas & Gertrude Stein
• Gil Scott Heron, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised (You Tube)
• Michael Herr, MH-Interview
• Ha Jin, A Good Fall, Nanjing Requiem, Requiem - DRehm,  Map-Reviews I, II, III (NPR), The Boat Rocker (2016)
  Many Reasons Behind Double-Eyelid Surgery
• Langston Hughes, LH Teacher Resource File, LH and his Favorite Music, LH II, LH and the Harlem Renaissance
• John Irving, JI, JI and Charles Dickens (NPR audio), JR interview I, JR interview II (Twisted River)
• Jack Kerouac, Jack Kerouac I,  On The Road; On the Road & Jazz; "Essentials of Spontaneous Prose," see Beat pages and Look Back at the Typewriter above
• Maxine Hong Kingston, I Love a Broad Margin
• Tony Kushner,Angels in America I, AA II, HBO AA
• Jhumpa Lahiri, JL - official site
  - Interpreter of Maladies, Study Guide & Interview, Maladies as Short Story Cycle, Food in Maladies I, II
  "Who Owns the Moon?" (> "The Third and Final Continent")
  - The Namesake, NEA page on The Namesake, Allegory/Postmodernism, Identity/Relationships, From Hybrids to Tourists (Critique),  L's Immigrants (MLS); Le Corbusier, Journey to the East;
  - Unaccustomed Earth, Isaac Chotiner, Interview with Jhumpa Lahiri (Atlantic), India Wedding Band Blues (NYT Video),  Diaspora's "Dark Room";
  - The Lowland I, II, III, IV => Neel Mukherjee, The Lives of Others (2014); 2015 DSC Prize for Lahiri
  India's Post-Rushdie Generation (NYT), The Subcontinent (NYT 5/14); "Teach Yourself Italian"; In Other Words I, In Other Words II, III, Google Doodle: 158th Birthday of Jagadish Chandra Bose; JL on writing in Italian & "The Boundary" (text/audio); JL on Writing in Italian II (extracted from In Other Words, The Guardian)
• Harper Lee,  The Watchman I, TW II, TW III, TW IV, Harper Lee, 1926-2016 I, II
• Jonathan Lethem,  A Gambler's Anatomy (2016), The Feral Detective (2018)
• Ursula K. LeQuin, NYT-Obit (1/2018), "For Ursula"; The Education of Ursula LeGuin/Alfred Louis Kroeber;
• Norman Mailer, NM I, II, III, IV, V, "The White Negro" I, II, NM-Interview, Mailerspeak,  NYT-Obit, II
• Peter Matthiessen, NYT-Obit and related links (April 2014)
• Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian I, CM interview/The Road, The Road (essay by Michael Chabon for NYRB), The Road,film I
• Carson McCullers, CM at 100
• Joseph McElroy, Night Soul (2011), The Passenger & Science, "Forms of Censorship, Censorship as Form" (2018),
•  W. S. Merwin,  The Ascetic Insight of W. S. Merwin, Nach den Libellen (podcast, in German),
• Arthur Miller, AM Society Website, AM American Masters, Synopses of Major Works, Descriptive Chronology of Plays, "Why I Wrote The Crucible?", None Without Sin (PBS 2003), AM NYT Obits & Reviews
• Steven Millhauser, SM-Times Topics, SM Interview (BOMB), SM Interview II, " The Ambition of the Short Story," Dangerous Laughter (10 Best Books 2008), "A Voice in the Night" (2012)
• Marianne Moore, MAP-page on MM, New Collected Poems (2017)
• Toni Morrison, NPR-interview/resource page, TM on Beloved, TM on Paradise, My Mercy I, II, God Help the Child,  Child II, The Radical Vision of TM, The Origin of Others (2017)
• Peter Morgan, Frost/Nixon
• Viet Thanh Nguyen, The Sympathizer I, TS II, I-NPR, I-HNN, Grove Discussion Questions, The Refugees (2017), An Other War Memorial; "I Love America" (Time Magazine, 11/2018);
  Asian Americans Perspective on Mickey Rooney's Yellow-Face Potrayal in Breakfast at Tiffany's
• Tim O'Brien, TOB Homepage, TOB Interivew, Writing Vietnam, TOB, My Lai, and America, TOB in Vietnam, " The Vietnam in Me" (NYT)
• Flannery O'Connor, A Life (2009)
• Tillie (Lerner) Olsen, MAP-page on TO, Yonnondio, TO Interviews, "I Stand Here"
• Ruth Ozeki, I-A Tale for the Time Being,  Time Being,
• Cynthia Ozick, Foreign Bodies (2010)
• Robert M. Pirsig, Obit--Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
• Sylvia Plath, MAP-on SP, Voices& Visions, The Bell Jar I, The Bell Jar II, SP-DE, Plath & Father, SP-New Biographies
• Jackson Pollock, JP at the NGA, JP in Guggenheim, JP Paintings
• Richard Powers, Essays, Reviews, Interviews, Another Brief Interview (G 2.2), G 2.2: Probing the Posthuman,  Cognitive Science Dictionary, Gerald Edelman & Neural Darwinism (NPG Interview),  NYTBR-The Echo Maker, EM-Roundtable, EM Brief Interview, New Yorker on RP, Rise of the Neuronovel , Search Engine of the Brain (NYT), Astrocytes, Einstein's Brain, and The Other Brain, DNA Sequencing and Data Storage (NYT), Orfeo (NYT)
  Go Cognitive,  V.S. Ramachandran, 3 Clues to Understanding your Brain (Ted Talk), Your Brain on Metaphors
  Den "Jungbauern" des August Sanders auf der Spur (FAZ, April 2014)
  Speak, Memory -- AI Memorials (The Verge); The Science of Generosity;  Nicholas Carr, AI - The Ziggy Stardust Syndrome (2/2018
  - The Overstory I, Overstory II,  I-RP, Overstory (+ other links);
  of general interest (not only for Richard Powers): Stephen Jay Gould, In Gratuitous Battle (review, sort of, of Edward O. Wilson's Consilience, 1998): Evolutionary Biology meets the (Scientific) Humanities . . . :);  David Sinclair & Anti-Aging Pill
• Ayn Rand, I,  II
• Adrienne Rich, see also Poetry Foundation-AR,  Essential Essays (2018)
• Kim Stanley Robinson, New York 2140 I, II, Interivew-NY2140
• Phillip Roth,  NY-Times Featured Author, PR Society, PR at The Guardian, A Plot Against America(Review), I Married a Communist (Review), PR on Goodbye Columbus and Portnoy's Complaint (NPR audio), Everyman (AS Byatt review), PR on Everyman, PR on Exit Ghost/Nathan Zuckerman (NPR audio), Indignation (NYT), Indignation (Film 2016), Plot Against America (NPR, audio), The Humbling I, Nemesis, Philip Roth: Unmasked (Documentary 2013),  I-My Life as a Writer ,  Fifty-Five Years of Reading PR, Do we Know Phillip Roth?, American Pastoral (Film 2016); Retiring from Writing, 2012; 
  - I-NYT, 2018; PR - NYT Obit, What PR Didn't Know About Women , PR on Fresh Air I + II (audio), A Jewish anti-Semitic writer?, NYT-PR Page
• J. D. Salinger, NYT-Obit, JDS--Escape Artist
• George Saunders, NYT-Lincoln;  Lincoln in the Bardo (Interview); Adam Kelly on Lincoln;  Lincoln and the Embalming Industry :);  Conversation: Jennifer Egan & George Saunders
• Hunter S. Thompson, Gonzo Journalism, HST on R Nixon, HST NYT Obit & Reviews
• William Styron, NYT Obit & Reviews, The Confessions 40 Years After
• Amy Tan,  Where the Past Begins (2017, memoir)
• Dalton Trumbo, Johnny Got His Gun I, II (2010), Metallica, One (1989)
  WW I Watches, Watches II
• John Updike, NYT-Obit & Links, NYT-Topic, NPR Obit & Links, Remembering John Updike, Rabbit Run (Diane Rehm), Rabbit Redux & White Working Class Angst/Election 2012
• Jeff VanderMeer, Borne
• William T. Vollmann,  The Dying Grass, Carbon Ideologies (2018)
• Kurt Vonnegut, The Vonnegut Veb, Slaughterhouse 5 (NPR Audio discussion), NYT-Obit, Look at the Birdie, KV Blog (focus on locations in V's work), So It Goes (Bio 2011), Letters (Oct 12), Complete Stories (2017)
• Alice Walker & Colm Toibin, and Their Trail of Words
• David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest, IJ II, Infinite Jest at 20,  "E Unibus Pluram:  Television and U.S. Fiction,"
• Jesmyn Ward, DQ-Unburied,  JW on Unburied (PBS),
• Andy Warhol,  The Warhol, W Foundation, AW
• Wendy Wasserstein, NY-Times Obituary, Appreciation, and Reviews
• Robert Penn Warren, [to be developed],  All the King's Men at 70
• James Welch, JW: Five Fast Fact You Need to Know, Google: James Welch's 76th Birthday
• August Wilson, AW at Dartmouth, AW: Writing the Blues, etc.,  NPR AW site (audio),   Ma Rainey's Black B0ttom Play Guide,  Black Bottom dance 1919/1927
• Tom Wolfe [to be developed], NYT Obit, Elevating Journalism, TW Appraisal, TW the cartoonist,
• Richard Wright, The RW Connection, Black Boy
• Malcolm X, MX I, MX II, Keenan Norris, "Dr. Ben Carson, Thug Life, and Macolm X," LABR; Blood Brothers: Malcolm X and Muhammed Ali
• Qui Xiaolong, Q & A Shanghai Redemption
• Yamashita, Karen Tei,  KTY I, Interview I, Interview II, Interview III, I Hotel
  => Disturbed, "Another Way to Die"; Coke & Orange Juice :)