Richard Blanco is tired. Sitting in the lobby of the Adrienne Arsht Center’s Ziff Ballet Opera House, where he’ll take the stage tomorrow in a free reading, he apologizes for his gravelly voice, strained after a long day of media appearances and interviews like this one. “I’m starting to feel…
For Twi-hards everywhere, there’s only one deity worth worshiping, and she’s a brown-haired, Mormon mother of three from Hartford, Connecticut. We’re speaking, of course, of Stephanie Meyer, New York Times bestselling author and instigator of the biggest mass psychosis since the re-election of George W. Bush. Meyer, unarguably one of…
Yesterday, TMZ reported that an ultra-rare first edition of O.J. Simpson’s “hypothetical” recount of the gruesome 1994 double-murder of ex-wife Nicole Brown and her lover, Ron Goldman, had hit the metaphorical shelves of eBay. Our first (and, really, only) question is: Who the f*ck cares? What’s next? A reprint of…
If you’re like most of the population these days, your attention span has probably dwindled down to nothing. Between tweets, status updates, and all kinds of little flashing messages popping up on T.V., you can barely take in a whole movie–let alone a book.Well, if you’re trying to restore some…
A monster corporation edging out a locally owned business — it’s a tale as old as You’ve Got Mail. (Hey, remember when AOL was culturally relevant?) Coconut Grove’s quaint cafe/bookseller, Bookstore in the Grove, is the latest to face this modern fate. Luckily, the iconic local spot isn’t closing entirely,…
Since President Obama’s announcement that he was chosen as the 2013 inaugural poet, Richard Blanco has become poetry’s most talked about name. But though he’s scheduled to read on one of the biggest stages for poets in the nation — the upcoming presidential inauguration — he hasn’t forgotten his roots…
Richard Blanco is living the dream. The American dream, that is. An immigrant from Spain and son of Cuban exiles, Blanco began his career as a poet in Miami, the city where he was raised. Now, President Barack Obama has chosen him as the poet for his inauguration this month,…
Doomsday preachers, sidewalk psychics, and apocalypse junkies have been predicting the end of times for hundreds of years. And yet, we’re all still here, going about our daily drudgery without a hint of fire or brimstone. But what if the Mayans were actually on to something, and the end of…
Next month will mark one year since the death of journalist, polemicist and bon vivant Christopher Hitchens. Though the loss of the Hitch has been hard for his legion fans who fed lustily on his dispatches from around the world, few could have felt it more deeply than his best…
Naomi Wolf has spent her career defending women from the culture they live in, from 1991’s The Beauty Myth, an assault on the value of women’s physical appearance in society, to Misconceptions, a feminist examination of the world’s response to pregnancy and childbirth. But in her latest work, she’s defending…
At Miami Book Fair International, Irvine Welsh, Mark Helprin, and Bring Literary Heat
The biggest name at this year’s Miami Book Fair International is the white-suited New Journalism legend Tom Wolfe. His mammoth new novel, Back to Blood, purports to paint Miami in all its sexy, tribal, orgiastic glory. But the book with the most insight into the Magic City is actually a…
Reading is sexy. Books too. And authors. (Swoon.)The Miami Book Fair International (MBFI) is around the corner and we have been diligently researching MBFI’s sexiest offerings — both on the page and off.See also:- A Geek’s Guide to Miami Book Fair InternationalThere’s a noted rocker, true and sensuous tales of…
Your average bookworm would get an absolute thrill from the Miami Book Fair International’s lineup next weekend. Uber-geeks, on the other hand, are going to totally, well, geek out. Event organizers have carved out an awesome space just for us nerdy types.See also:- Miami Book Fair International Announces Author Schedule-…
We’re less than two weeks away from the 2012 edition of the Miami Book Fair International, and now, at last, lit lovers can start planning out their schedule of author events, street fair browsing, and children’s events, and more. The book fair released its schedule of events this morning, featuring…
If we can’t laugh at ourselves and all our Miami-centric absurdities, we’ve become the pretentious a-holes the rest of the country already thinks we are. And it’s with this philosophy that we should all embrace the satirical writings of local author and occasional Cultist contributor J.J. Colagrande. His second novel,…
The photography of pin-up legend Bunny Yeager harkens back to an era before Photoshop, when breasts were real, women had curves, and sex appeal reigned supreme.Her newest book, Bunny Yeager’s Darkroom (penned by Petra Mason), features more than 250 snapshots from her lengthy career. As a photographer, she broke into a classically…
For author Junot Díaz, it’s time to add yet another trophy to the mantle. The Dominican-American writer’s latest book, this year’s This Is How You Lose Her, was announced this morning as a finalist for the National Book Award.See also:- This Is How You Lose Her: Junot Diaz’s Oscar Wao…
A small motorboat meandered through the Columbus Day Regatta, carrying just a driver, a cameraman, and a frail-looking 80-year-old man in an impeccable white suit. If, between swilling daiquiris and cannonballing into the sea, revelers on other boats noticed the strangely dressed octogenarian, they probably assumed he was just a…
Every fall, as eagerly as we await 75 degree temperatures and a break in our AC bills, Miami’s bibliophiles anticipate the literary amusement park known as the Miami Book Fair International. And for all those bookworms champing at the bit, there’s good news: the nearly 300-strong author attendee list has officially…
Nina Johnson-Milewski is known locally as one of Miami’s most active creatives. She’s the owner of Wynwood’s Gallery Diet, New Times’ pick for Best Art Gallery in 2009. She’s one of the founders of the Miami Rail, a sister publication to New York City’s Brooklyn Rail. And as one of…
Reading books is fun. Reading lengthy, snooty reviews of books is not. So Cultist breaks down the biggest book releases for you without all the stuffy pretense.This week, we read This Is How You Lose Her by Junot Díaz, which releases today.See Junot Díaz’s Best. Book Reading. Ever.The Nitty-Gritty: This…
