By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931) was a Lebanese-American poet who is best-known for one book of poetry: The Prophet. This 1923 book is one of the bestselling books of all time: indeed, Gibran is usually named as one of the three biggest-selling poets of all time, behind Shakespeare and Lao-Tzu. Born … Read more
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
‘Popular Mechanics’ is one of Raymond Carver’s shortest stories, but although it is sometimes known by the alternative title ‘Little Things’, there is nothing ‘little’ about this tale of filial breakdown and domestic unhappiness.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
The American-born poet, playwright, and critic T. S. Eliot (1888-1965) is one of the most important and influential writers of the twentieth century. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Eliot was educated at Harvard before moving to Britain, where he settled, becoming a UK citizen in 1927.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
‘In the Waiting Room’ is one of the best-known poems by the American poet Elizabeth Bishop (1911-79). Written in 1971 and published in the collection Geography III in 1976, the poem describes a visit to the dentist which the young Bishop made as a six-year-old girl.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
‘Doctor Chevalier’s Lie’ is a short story by the American writer Kate Chopin (1850-1904), written in 1891 and published in Vogue magazine in 1893. This brief narrative concerns a doctor who is summoned one night to a brothel, where a young woman has killed herself by shooting herself in the head.