On First Draft, a podcast about storytelling and storytellers, host Sarah Enni invites listeners into conversations about "unique perspectives on the creative process, and to learn about the professional side of artistic endeavors." Enni, an author herself, welcomes fellow writers, whose accolades span best seller lists and award circuits, on the show. Together, Enni and her guests explore writing...

Many of our most popular resources last year were blogs and podcasts designed to help book-lovers find new titles and authors of interests. Of these resources, Five Books stood out from the pack. We were impressed by the sheer breadth of this resource, which provides book recommendations for genres ranging from contemporary fiction to philosophy, to neuroscience, to children's picture books. In...

The Folger Shakespeare Library opened in 1932 as a gift to the United States from Henry Clay Folger and his wife Emily Jordan Folger. Located in Washington, DC, the Library continues to be administered by a board of governors from Amherst College, Mr. Folger's alma mater. As one might imagine, the site has a great deal to offer those looking for materials related to Shakespeare, and the "Discover...

For Better for Verse is "an interactive online tutorial that can train you to scan traditionally metered English poetry." Created by the University of Virginia Department of English, this site allows visitors to learn the Rules of Thumb for scanning poetry, look up key terms related to the craft of scanning in the Glossary, and try their hand at scanning a number of poems by famous authors. To...

People may know about Longfellow and Poe, but do they know about the ongoing literary feud between these two sons of New England? They will after perusing this marvelous digital exhibit from the Boston Public Library and the Massachusetts Historical Society, which explores some of the "forgotten chapters" of the Hub's literary history. Designed to complement an in situ exhibit, this collection...

W.B Yeats once famously quipped, "Out of the quarrel with others we make rhetoric; out of the quarrel with ourselves we make poetry." This exemplary Teacher's Guide from the Library of Congress (LOC) offers a seven-page outline for how to use over a dozen freely available LOC primary sources in the teaching of "found poetry." From the letters of Helen Keller to the poetry of Walt Whitman to the...

The National Library of Medicine - part of the National Institute of Health (NIH) - has compiled this online exhibit dedicated to Mary Shelley's 1818 classic, Frankenstein. Today, this text simultaneously provokes interest in the history of science as well as literature. As the site notes, Frankenstein, as a novel, "provides a framework for discussion of medical advances, which challenge our...

English literature instructors, along with fans of the prolific Shelley/Godwin/Wollstonecraft family, will want to check out this online exhibit and resource collection from the New York Public Library. This exhibit, examines Percy Shelley's life, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and its enduring legacy, and other remarkable individuals in the Shelleys' circle, including Lord Byron. The site is...

The American Library Association (ALA) has created this excellent resource for those seeking to learn about books that have been challenged around the United States. These lists have been compiled by the ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom since 1990. Users can dive in by browsing the listings on the left-hand side of the page including Authors By Year, "Banned & Challenged Classics," and "30...

Though the mention of Ithaca, New York, may not immediately make one think of that giant of 20th century literature, James Joyce, there is a compelling connection between that city's fine Cornell University and this legend of letters. The Joyce Collection came to Cornell via the generosity of one of its alumni, William G. Mennen, who had the foresight to purchase dozens of Joyce's manuscripts and...