In Conversation: Megan Mayhew Bergman and Stephen Dau
My idea of fun: The authors -- longtime pals -- of Spring '12 Discover Great New Writers selections Birds of a Lesser Paradise and The Book of Jonas talk about character and place, process, inspiration, and readers, among other things...
Truth Like the Sun
A mastermind of Seattle's boom era makes a sunset run for office -- and the secrets of past corruption come to light.
Cocktails
Intoxicating history and irresistable recipes.
Stranger Magic: Charmed States and the Arabian Nights
How the stories of Scheherazade invented fantasy.
Old Ideas
With dates announced for his upcoming Old Ideas concert tour, we celebrate the inimitable Leonard Cohen: bard, survivor, legend. His most recent album is a return to form for the balladeer, exploring signature themes of lust and longing, spirituality a...
The Kit Marlowe Case
May 18: A warrant for the arrest of Christopher Marlowe on charges of spreading "blasphemous and damnable opinions" was issued on this day in 1593. The day before his scheduled court appearance, and at just twenty-nine years of age, Marlowe was killed ...
Pearls of the Czech New Wave
For a brief period in the 1960s, unprecedented cinematic freedom and innovation flourished in Czechoslovakia.
From the Discover Archives: William Boyd
Thoughts of vacation reading and good news for William Boyd -- novelist, screenwriter, director, critic, art-world prankster, and Discover alum -- have me thinking...
Heloise & Abelard
May 17: On this day in 1164, Heloise was buried alongside Abelard in the cemetery at the nunnery he had founded for her and at which she was abbess for over thirty years. The Heloise and Abelard relationship was a legend even in their own lifetimes, on...
On Circumstance: What They Do in the Dark and The Lifeboat
If you've already read Charlotte Rogan's deceptively-slim and psychologically-complex debut, The Lifeboat, and are looking for your next compelling read, you might try Amanda Coe's haunting novel, What They Do in the Dark, another 2012 Discover Great N...
Leonard Cohen Live
"Rock and roll," says Robert Christgau, "has produced a surprising bounty of old men with something to say. Leonard Cohen fits this paradigm, with two significant differences. The first is that he's rock and roll only by association. He's really ...
West’s "Screwballs and Screwboxes"
May 16: Nathanael West's The Day of the Locust was published on this day in 1939. Unlike most attacks on Hollywood, West's target was not the glitz and sleaze of those atop the "dream dump" or even the squalor of the movie nether-world, but the city's ...
