Talking About Words

  1. Travel books

    Consumed with unrelenting wanderlust this summer? Escape to your local library, says Nicholas Delbanco.

  2. The voice not stilled

    Nicholas Delbanco joins a long line of literary “adepts” who once received instruction at a master’s feet.

  3. Episode 7: How Tom Sawyer changed my life, featuring Larry Goldstein

    Imagine Mark Twain’s iconic ne’er-do-well as the high school counselor who launched your career. Only in L.A. Listen in, as University of Michigan professor Larry Goldstein showcases work from his book of literary criticism, ‘Poetry Los Angeles: Reading the Essential Poems of the City.’ The book features 40 poems about L.A., with chapters on Hollywood, the freeway, the Pacific Ocean, and more. Goldstein provides historical, critical, and cultural context throughout.

  4. What lasts, what fades away

    With Harper Lee’s recent death, author Nicholas Delbanco ponders “the writer’s trade” in modern times.

  5. Who said that?

    Talk about irony: You coin a popular catchphrase and yet few know or care who wrote the words.

  6. Happily ever after?

    Nicholas Delbanco strolls down Lovers’ Lane (in the literary sense) and ponders the nature of romance in writing.

  7. "A" vs. "an"

    Anne Curzan sounds off on the battle between these indefinite articles.

  8. Eggcorns

    Are you trying to pass mustard for all intensive purposes in a doggy dog world?

  9. Double negatives

    Anne Curzan can’t get no satisfaction from the idea that two negatives make a positive.