Tag Archives: Literature

JONAH RASKIN :
BOOKS | Rails and roads

Novelist Colson Whitehead’s ‘The Underground Railroad,’ is an epic novel of bondage and liberation. By Jonah Raskin | The Rag Blog | July 29, 2021 Near the end of The Underground Railroad, his epic novel about bondage and freedom, the … Continue reading

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JONAH RASKIN :
LITERATURE | To cancel or not to cancel Jack London

Reflections on an American writer and a controversial movement. By Jonah Raskin | The Rag Blog | April 22, 2021 Jack London’s ashes, which are buried under a rock on Sonoma Mountain in Northern California, must be calling wildly to … Continue reading

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Jonah Raskin :
LITERATURE | Obit for the American Shelley: Michael McClure (1932-2020)

Beat poet, author of ‘The Beard,’ died in Oakland on May 4. By Jonah Raskin | The Rag Blog | May 14, 2020 SONOMA COUNTY, Calif. — Along with a star-studded cast of Sixties personalities, among them Timothy Leary, Dick … Continue reading

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James Retherford :
LITERATURE | Wild things

Jonah Raskin’s ‘A Terrible Beauty: The Wilderness of American Literature’ is a fresh look at American letters from the bottom up. By James Retherford | The Rag Blog | February 4, 2015 Like a true nature’s child We were born … Continue reading

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The Rag Blog :
METRO EVENT | It’s a Rag Blog Happy Hour! With special guest, author/activist Jonah Raskin

Rock out with us at Maria’s, Friday, Feb. 6 — and also catch Jonah earlier that day when he joins host Thorne Dreyer on Rag Radio. AUSTIN — Please join the Rag Blog/Rag Radio community at an informal Happy Hour … Continue reading

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METRO | Tom Zigal’s gripping post-Katrina novel wins state’s top literary award

By Thorne Dreyer | The Rag Blog | April 9, 2014 AUSTIN — Austin novelist Thomas Zigal has won the prestigious Jesse Jones award for fiction from the Texas Institute of Letters for his highly-acclaimed novel about post-Katrina New Orleans, … Continue reading

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Ron Jacobs :
Moorcock’s ‘Pyat Quartet’ is story of a twentieth century knave

This epic work unfolds in a litany of prejudice, arrogance, and wrongheadedness, all told in a manner that is delightful to read. By Ron Jacobs | The Rag Blog | March 1, 2014 [Pyat Quartet by Michael Moorcock (2012-13: PM … Continue reading

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Thorne Dreyer :
December guests on Rag Radio include ‘Radical Jesus’ editor, criminal justice blogger, Chicano novelist

Our Rag Radio podcasts feature interviews with historian and graphic nonfiction publisher Paul Buhle, Texas blogger and prison reform advocate Scott Henson, and fiction writer Daniel Chacón, author of ‘Hotel Juárez.’ By Rag Radio | The Rag Blog | January … Continue reading

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Jean Trounstine : Censoring What Prisoners Read

Werewolf erotica: Too sexy for prisoners? Image from The Atlantic Wire. ‘Werewolf erotica’ too ‘sexy’?Censoring what prisoners read The truth is that prisons want to control behavior. They want to ‘reform’ prisoners, which usually means they want to turn out … Continue reading

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LITERATURE / Ron Jacobs : Crime Fiction and Capitalist Reality

Image from ForumFree. Crime fiction and capitalist reality Noir does not pretend that the society its protagonists operate in is worth saving. It’s just the only one we have. By Ron Jacobs | The Rag Blog | June 4, 2013 … Continue reading

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BOOKS / Ron Jacobs : Albert Camus and the Liberal Dilemma

Algerian Chronicles: Albert Camus and the liberal dilemma These writings do much toward describing the plight of the Algerian people, but suffer from an inability to acknowledge, much less examine, the root cause for their situation. By Ron Jacobs | … Continue reading

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INTERVIEW / Jonah Raskin : Translator and Mystic Willis Barnstone on Babe Ruth, the Beats & More

Willis Barnstone, right, with Jorge Luis Borges, Buenos Aires, 1975. Interview with Willis Barnstone:Hermit, translator, ardent baseball fan “People called Babe Ruth a womanizer and a drunk. Southerners suspected that he was part black. Protestants denounced him because he was … Continue reading

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