The Norton Library Podcast

• The Stealth Classic (The Decameron, Part 1)

  In Part 1 of our discussion on Giovanni Boccaccio's The Decameron, we welcome editor Wayne A. Rebhorn to discuss the author's life and historical times, similarities among Boccaccio, Petrarch, and Dante, and the use of storytelling to both distract and make meaning during catastrophic times. Wayne A. Rebhorn is the Celanese Centennial Professor of English at the University of Texas, where he teaches English, Italian, and comparative literature. His translation of Boccaccio’s Decameron won the 2014 PEN Center USA’s Literary Award for Translation.To learn more or purchase a copy of the Norton Library edition of The Decameron, go to https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393427882.Learn more about the Norton Library series at https://wwnorton.com/norton-library.Have questions or suggestions for the podcast? Email us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter at @TNL_WWN and Bluesky at @nortonlibrary.bsky.social. 

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• I Write Only That Whereof I Know (Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Part 2)

  In Part 2 of our discussion on Harriet Jacobs's Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl: Written by Herself, editor Evie Shockley returns to discuss her first encounter with this text in graduate school, the book's place in the literary canon and the classroom, and her favorite passage. Evie Shockley is the Zora Neale Hurston Distinguished Professor of English at Rutgers University and the author of Renegade Poetics: Black Aesthetics and Formal Innovation in African American Poetry.   For her poetry collections—including suddenly we, semiautomatic, the new black, and a half-red sea—she has been awarded the Shelley Memorial Award, the Lannan Literary Award, and the Holmes National Poetry Prize, has twice won the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, has received an NAACP Image Award, and has been named a finalist for the National Book Award, the Pulitzer Prize, and the LA Times Book Prize.   She has served as an editor of jubilat and Feminist Studies, and is Editor for Poetry at Contemporary Literature.To learn more or purchase a copy of the Norton Library edition of Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl: Written By Herself, go to https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393870787.Learn more about the Norton Library series at https://wwnorton.com/norton-library.Have questions or suggestions for the podcast? Email us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter at @TNL_WWN and Bluesky at @nortonlibrary.bsky.social. 

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• Less Like You're Reading Her, More Like You're Listening to Her (Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Part 1)

  In Part 1 of our discussion on Harriet Jacobs's Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl: Written by Herself, we welcome editor Evie Shockley to discuss the author's family background, lively language as a storyteller, and influence on Shockley's own creative process as a poet. Evie Shockley is the Zora Neale Hurston Distinguished Professor of English at Rutgers University and the author of Renegade Poetics: Black Aesthetics and Formal Innovation in African American Poetry.   For her poetry collections—including suddenly we, semiautomatic, the new black, and a half-red sea—she has been awarded the Shelley Memorial Award, the Lannan Literary Award, and the Holmes National Poetry Prize, has twice won the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, has received an NAACP Image Award, and has been named a finalist for the National Book Award, the Pulitzer Prize, and the LA Times Book Prize.   She has served as an editor of jubilat and Feminist Studies, and is Editor for Poetry at Contemporary Literature.To learn more or purchase a copy of the Norton Library edition of Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl: Written By Herself, go to https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393870787. Learn more about the Norton Library series at https://wwnorton.com/norton-library.Have questions or suggestions for the podcast? Email us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter at @TNL_WWN and Bluesky at @nortonlibrary.bsky.social. 

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• It's Never Too Late to Discover Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms, Part 2)

  In Part 2 of our discussion on Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms, Norton Library podcast host Mark Cirino returns to the guest seat (with producer Michael von Cannon stepping behind the microphone as host). The two discuss the cover design of the Norton Library edition, essential historical context for understanding the novel, and the ever-increasing political relevance of Hemingway's work in the twenty-first century. Mark Cirino is Melvin M. Peterson Endowed Chair in Literature at the University of Evansville (IN). He is the author or editor of several books, including Ernest Hemingway: Thought in Action (Wisconsin, 2012); Reading Hemingway’s Across the River and into the Trees (Kent State, 2016); and, most recently, One True Sentence: Writers & Readers on Hemingway’s Art (Godine, 2022), which was written with Michael Von Cannon. Cirino and Von Cannon are the creators of One True Podcast, the official podcast of the Ernest Hemingway Society.To learn more or purchase a copy of the Norton Library edition of A Farewell to Arms, go to https://wwnorton.com/books/9781324059424.Learn more about the Norton Library series at https://wwnorton.com/norton-library.Have questions or suggestions for the podcast? Email us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter at @TNL_WWN and Bluesky at @nortonlibrary.bsky.social. 

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• A Tale of Love and a Tale of War (A Farewell to Arms, Part 1)

  In Part 1 of our discussion on Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms, we welcome Norton Library podcast host Mark Cirino to the guest seat for the first time (with producer Michael von Cannon stepping behind the microphone as host). The two discuss the balance of autobiography and fiction in the text, situate A Farewell to Arms in the establishment of Hemingway's literary reputation, and explain the censorship of certain language. Mark Cirino is Melvin M. Peterson Endowed Chair in Literature at the University of Evansville (IN). He is the author or editor of several books, including Ernest Hemingway: Thought in Action (Wisconsin, 2012); Reading Hemingway’s Across the River and into the Trees (Kent State, 2016); and, most recently, One True Sentence: Writers & Readers on Hemingway’s Art (Godine, 2022), which was written with Michael Von Cannon. Cirino and Von Cannon are the creators of One True Podcast, the official podcast of the Ernest Hemingway Society.To learn more or purchase a copy of the Norton Library edition of A Farewell to Arms, go to https://wwnorton.com/books/9781324059424. Learn more about the Norton Library series at https://wwnorton.com/norton-library.Have questions or suggestions for the podcast? Email us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter at @TNL_WWN and Bluesky at @nortonlibrary.bsky.social. 

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