In the midst of this weekend’s Florida Supercon craziness, three Miamians will be bringing mage culture to the masses with their newly-launched comic masterpiece, The Agency. Bethany Romero, Ruben Romero and Roger Cabrera are the local trio behind the new series, a Harry Potter meets Mission: Impossible style mash-up with…
New Times writers: We investigate your city. We review your live shows. We select the cream of the crop in the annual Best of Miami issue. And yes, we write your snarky blog posts. But you can’t pigeonhole us, man. We’re real people, with goals and dreams. And in between…
If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on the wall,” the Russian writer Anton Chekhov supposedly once said, “in the second or third chapter it absolutely must go off.” In Robert Andrew Powell’s new memoir, Running Away, the walls aren’t equipped with rifles but…
Maya Angelou, the multitalented storyteller known for her autobiography I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, died Wednesday at her home in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She was 86…
So people in Miami are stupid, huh? Miamians aren’t educated, eh? People in this city are barely literate, you say? Sit down, haters. Amazon.com begs to differ. The online retailer (which, old folks may remember, once primarily sold books) has ranked Miami at number two in its annual list of…
Despite Miami’s rapidly evolving art scene, most Miami locals can’t afford to buy any of the abundant work on display. Knights Arts Challenge finalist Amanda Keeley says artist books are the best way to clear that hurdle. Keeley’s project, EXILE Books, is a traveling pop-up store installation dedicated to selling,…
Much of the American perspective regarding Cuba remains dated, rooted in the same political milestones taught in high school history classes. Words like “restriction,” “trade,” and “government” often dominate the dialogue despite the changes taking hold of the island. Author Julia Cooke hopes to shift the conversation, from Cuba’s politics…
O, Miami is no stranger to the Knights Arts Challenge. In 2011, the non-profit organization was awarded funding to bring a month-long poetry festival to the Greater Miami area, and used unusual methods to ensure people encountered prose every day in April, from odes on public buses to artist Agustina…
Thank the gods for people like Josh Frank. Blue Starlite drive-in owner is one of those creative types constantly making cool shit for us schlubby consumers to sit back and enjoy. Writer, director, and producer, Frank is the author of Fool the World: The Oral History of a Band Called…
The greatest South American writer, the man who popularized magic realism and turned journalism into dream-like fiction, is dead. Gabriel Garcia Marquez was 87 years old. He wrote perhaps the greatest novel of our time, 100 Years of Solitude, and rivaled the Spanish language greats from Cervantes to Borges in…
What do the Big Three and O, Miami have in common? Their love of dominant basketball. Miami’s literary and athletic worlds are headed for a collision course next Easter Sunday. Do your free throw reps, get that jumper wet, and prepare to have some good time on the hardwood. On…
Poetry is getting a multi-sensory injection of music, dance, and raw power thanks to SPEAKtacular, an O, Miami event produced by the the Jason Taylor Foundation. The event highlights South Florida’s burgeoning poetic talent by featuring the Omari Hardwick bluapple Poetry Network’s SPEAK! Collective, a group of extremely talented and…
Where can you meet writing greats like Richard Blanco, Amy Stewart, and high-powered literary agents all in one place? If you think you need to be a part of an exclusive organization or an accredited university, think again. All you need to do is attend the Writer’s Institute, coming this…
In a city that’s less than literary, O, Miami, is a beacon of eloquent verse, scriberly (did we just invent a word?) skill and the power of prose. This ode to all things poetic is back for its third incarnation, and like a good canto, it gets more epic with…
Travel across the Magic City from Little Havana to Lemon City, Hialeah to Homestead, or South Beach to Surfside and you’ll be serenaded by a sonorous canto of contrasting voices. For interdisciplinary artists Juana Meneses and Leila Leder Kremer, that multicultural heart is the inspiration for “Home: Beyond Geography,” their…
When it comes to bibliophilia, these aren’t the glory days of Reading Rainbow (we miss you, Levar!). With attention spans shortening, libraries closing, and book publishers going broke, any chance to promote tomes lengthier than 140 characters is a step in the right direction. Enter the Big Read, a National…
If you’ve stepped into a public school in the last decade or so, you may have noticed an apple core poster, listing out eight “character traits,” including kindness, responsibility and respect. They’re all good things to remember, but if you know anything about kids, you know they need a little…
It’s amazing the things you can learn from a book. When was the last time that you had a look? It’s true what they say. You should read every day, because good books are playgrounds where strong minds can play. Children the most should be taught how to read, because…
Since, the onset of the Kindle and e-readers, palpable, hand-held books have been in danger of becoming obsolete, but true book-lovers in Miami have found a way to preserve the sanctity of real books. Last month, 27-year-old Isis Miller started the Wynwood Book Club, dedicated to spreading the love of…
Award-winning author Piper Kerman is busting out of her frozen New York digs and making her way to the Magic City, which happens to be one of her favorite places to visit. Kerman, who wrote Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Woman’s Prison, will stop by to…
Stuff. So much of our lives are spent wanting it, buying it, trying to keep it. We work 60-hour workweeks so we can fill our drawers and purses and closets and storage units and attics with stuff. We take pictures of our stuff to post on Instagram, spend weekends picking…
George Saunders has never been to Miami. But when he arrives on Thursday to discuss his latest book, he will likely immediately recognize it. That’s because Miami is almost identical to the creepy, dystopian, sci-fi landscape conjured up in his short stories. “I’m very class anxious and have been my…
