The concept of “Creole” is far more complex than most people who only had a passing interest in their 8th grade history courses might recognize. To most Miamians, it’s a language spoken in Haiti and among the burgeoning Haitian population of the city. That’s far too much of a simplification,…
Alice Walker. John Updike. Susan Sontag. Jonathan Franzen. Joyce Carol Oates. What do these authors have in common? For one, they’re all National Book Award winners. They’ve also all appeared at the Miami Book Fair International. The book fair, which celebrated its 30th anniversary last year, has ensured that tradition…
Everybody wants to get shit done. Every day, people are buzzing about like busy little bees trying to get shit done. Our lives revolve around getting shit done. Or trying to. Sadly, almost nobody gets as much shit done as they’d like. Enter Niall Harbison, an Irish author and entrepreneur…
The O, Miami Poetry Festival has dreamed up dozens of creative ways to expose Miamians to poetry: flying banners in the sky, sewing verses into thrift store clothing, marching through the streets dressed as dead poets. But during O, Miami 2014, artist and writer Elena Errazuriz took a more straightforward…
Book-lovers, rejoice! Bookleggers is celebrating its two-year anniversary this Saturday, and to show how much they love people who love books, they’re giving everyone who goes to their birthday party two free books. “Everyone gets two books free,” says Bookleggers co-founder Nathaniel Sandler. “Free, flat out. Don’t bring ’em back…
Like many children, when Chris Colfer was a wee lad, he would doodle silly characters and write passages to his made up stories. As he grew up, he kept adding to those stories that once helped him get through adolescence. And now as an adult, he’s able to share those…
Can you write a complete story in just six words? The Miami Book Fair International has put out a unique challenge called #6WordsMiami. If you can master the challenge, your story could be an official selection at the fair this November. The contest reflects Miami’s literary creativity, said Lissette Mendez,…
It’s the Fourth of July a time to think about the economic policy of the United States and our nation’s position in the world. Or you could just get really drunk, eat a pack (or five) of hotdogs and watch fireworks blow up in the sky. Yeah, everybody is probably…
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…
