In Vagina, Naomi Wolf is All Up In Your Ladybusiness

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…

Junot Díaz on Writing Men, Stories as Art, and Star Wars

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…

A Geek’s Guide to the Miami Book Fair International

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-…

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…

Local Writer Satirizes Miami Lifestyle in New Novel, Deco

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,…

Junot Díaz is a National Book Award Finalist

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…

Tom Wolfe Parties at the Columbus Day Regatta (Video)

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…

Bernard of Hollywood at WEAM: Portraits and Pages of Marilyn Monroe

Bruno Bernard, better known as Bernard of Hollywood, was the most sought-after photographer during cinema’s golden age. He’s known for pin-up style photographs, particularly the ones that helped to make Marilyn Monroe a Hollywood icon. And next week, you can see those photos firsthand, when his work is celebrated in…

Bookleggers Mobile Library Returns to Lester’s Thursday Night

While the words “Miami” and “literary” are two words you see infrequently in the same sentence (except, maybe, in a joke), there are increasingly frequent glimmers of hope for the city’s word-lovers. The latest example: the return Thursday night of Bookleggers, an event that began, ostensibly, as a one-off last…

Gore Vidal, American Writer and Playwright, Dead at 86

American writer Gore Vidal, whose work spanned the fields of literature, theater, politics, and beyond, died of complications from pneumonia in Los Angeles yesterday. He was 86.In his writing, Vidal embraced controversial topics. His second novel, The City and the Pillar, was the story of an openly gay man. Published…

Summer Book Suggestions for the News-Savvy Miami Reader

Have you grown accustomed to staring at your computer screen this summer? It is, after all, where you get all of your news, information, pictures of what your friends ate last night under an Instagram filter.But have you been so tied down to your computer that you’ve forgotten the wonderment…

Five Literary Characters Who Needed Obamacare

The Supreme Court upheld Obamacare! Hooray, hooray! No more giving fake names at emergency rooms and trying to set broken arms with a tree branch and duct tape! Though we’re thrilled to get affordable health care, we can’t help but wish that Obamacare had been passed years and years ago. Just…

Tom Wolfe’s Back to Blood Research Gets the Documentary Treatment

Tom Wolfe’s newest book, Back to Blood, is set for publication in October. But you won’t have to wait for the satirist’s Miami Book Fair International appearance in November to get to know the stories behind its creation.Blood Lines, a documentary tracing Wolfe’s steps as he researched the book around…