Articles written by Hillel Italie
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Five high school students, from all over the country, have been named National Student Poets
NEW YORK (AP) — Five high school students from Florida to Utah have been selected as this year's National Student Poets, a program founded more than a decade ago. Each winner represents a different region in the country, and brings their own d...
Tina Turner, 'Queen of Rock 'n' Roll' whose triumphant career made her world-famous, dies at 83
NEW YORK (AP) — Tina Turner, the unstoppable singer and stage performer who teamed with husband Ike Turner for a dynamic run of hit records and live shows in the 1960s and '70s and survived her horrifying marriage to triumph in middle age with the c...
Harry Belafonte, activist and entertainer, dies at 96
NEW YORK (AP) — Harry Belafonte, the civil rights and entertainment giant who began as a groundbreaking actor and singer and became an activist, humanitarian and conscience of the world, has died. He was 96. Belafonte died Tuesday of congestive h...
Book ban attempts hit record high in 2022, library org says
NEW YORK (AP) — Attempted book bans and restrictions at school and public libraries continue to surge, setting a record in 2022, according to a new report from the American Library Association released Thursday. More than 1,200 challenges were compil...
Jerry Lee Lewis, outrageous rock 'n' roll star, dies at 87
Jerry Lee Lewis, the untamable rock 'n' roll pioneer whose outrageous talent, energy and ego collided on such definitive records as "Great Balls of Fire" and "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" and sustained a career otherwise upended by personal scandal,...
Prize-winning 1619 Project now coming out in book form
Thais Perkins is the owner of Reverie Books in Austin, Texas, and the parent of a middle school student and high school student. Among the books she is eager to have in her store, and in the schools, is an expanded edition of "The 1619 Project" that...
Goade becomes first Native American to win Caldecott Medal
NEW YORK (AP) — Illustrator Michaela Goade became the first Native American to win the prestigious Randolph Caldecott Medal for best children's picture story, cited for "We Are Water Protectors," a celebration of nature and condemnation of the "...
Olivia de Havilland, Oscar-winning actress, dies at 104
PARIS (AP) — Olivia de Havilland, the doe-eyed actress beloved to millions as the sainted Melanie Wilkes of "Gone With the Wind," but also a two-time Oscar winner and an off-screen fighter who challenged and unchained Hollywood's contract system, d...
New literary prize is $50,000 honor for best New York story
NEW YORK (AP) — A new literary award with a $50,000 cash prize will honor those best at telling a New York story. The Gotham Literary Prize, announced Thursday, came out of a conversation between businessman-philathropist Bradley Tusk and political s...
Charles Webb, author of 'The Graduate,' dies in England
Charles Webb, a lifelong non-conformist whose debut novel "The Graduate" was a deadpan satire of his college education and wealthy background adapted into the classic film of the same name, has died. He was 81. Webb died June 16 in Eastbourne,...
Film adaptation of new 'Hunger Games' book is in the works
NEW YORK (AP) — The next "Hunger Games" book is coming out next month, and a movie version is now being planned. Lionsgate is working on an adaptation of Suzanne Collins' "The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes," a prequel to her three "Hunger Games" n...
Former Ukraine diplomat Marie Yovanovitch has book deal
NEW YORK (AP) — Former Ukraine ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, the career diplomat who during the impeachment hearings of President Donald Trump offered a chilling account of alleged threats from Trump and his allies, has a book deal. Houghton M...
Writer AE Hotchner, friend to Hemingway, Newman, dead at 102
A.E. Hotchner, a well-traveled author, playwright and gadabout whose street smarts and famous pals led to a loving, but litigated memoir of Ernest Hemingway, business adventures with Paul Newman and a book about his Depression-era childhood that...
Paul Simon and Peter Singer discuss 'The Life You Can Save.'
NEW YORK (AP) — Paul Simon, world famous singer-songwriter, isn't only inspired by fellow musicians. Simon is an admirer of the author-philosopher Peter Singer, the longtime Princeton University professor whose "The Life You Can Save" has been a g...
Young people's longlist announced for National Book Awards
NEW YORK (AP) — Laurie Halse Anderson, Jason Reynolds and Kwame Alexander are among the 10 authors on the young people's literature longlist for the National Book Awards. The wide-ranging list, which includes graphic fiction, historical narratives a...
Margaret Atwood returns us to Gilead in 'The Testaments'
TORONTO (AP) — From a park bench on the Victoria College campus, Margaret Atwood — class of 1961 — can trace her life of the mind. "It was here that I decided to become a Victorian (literature student) at a time when it wasn't at all fashi...
Nobel laureate Toni Morrison dead at 88
NEW YORK (AP) — Nobel laureate Toni Morrison, a pioneer and reigning giant of modern literature whose imaginative power in "Beloved," ''Song of Solomon" and other works transformed American letters by dramatizing the pursuit of freedom within the bou...
Toni Morrison was a 'literary mother' to countless writers
NEW YORK (AP) — When author Angela Flournoy was asked to dress as her favorite literary character for a magazine shoot four years ago, she knew how to look the part: a wide and "severe hat," a fur stole and the kind of stare that dares you to s...
'Caine Mutiny,' 'Winds of War' author Herman Wouk has died
NEW YORK (AP) — Herman Wouk, the versatile, Pulitzer Prize winning author of such million-selling novels as "The Caine Mutiny" and "The Winds of War" whose steady Jewish faith inspired his stories of religious values and secular success, died on F...
3 Saudi women activists receive PEN Freedom to Write Award
NEW YORK (AP) — Three Saudi women's rights activists whose arrests last year have been condemned worldwide are being honored by PEN America. Nouf Abdulaziz, Loujain al-Hathloul and Eman al-Nafjan have won the PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write Award, the li...
Anticipation is high for Lou Berney's novel 'November Road'
NEW YORK (AP) — For crime writer and Oklahoma native Lou Berney, there's something special about the drive out West. "I love that stretch of I-40, what used to be Highway 66, from Oklahoma City to Arizona," he told The Associated Press during a r...
The thrill and the truth of Aretha Franklin
NEW YORK (AP) — The clarity and the command. The daring and the discipline. The thrill of her voice and the truth of her emotions. Like the best actors and poets, nothing came between how Aretha Franklin felt and what she could express, between w...
Arts and science medal ceremonies absent under Trump
NEW YORK (AP) — In February 2017, weeks into the Trump administration, the National Endowment for the Humanities was reviewing a list of nominees for the National Humanities Medals, one of the top honors for creative and scholarly achievement. The pl...
Philip Roth: a generation's defining voice
NEW YORK (AP) — In the self-imposed retirement of his final years, Philip Roth remained curious and removed from the world he had shocked and had shocked him in return. He praised younger authors such as Ta-Nehisi Coates and Teju Cole, and confided t...
Remembering author Tom Wolfe, 'a magician' with words
NEW YORK (AP) — You only had to look at him — in his white suits and two-tone shoes — or read such books as "The Bonfire of the Vanities" and "The Right Stuff" to know that Tom Wolfe was like no other. "He was a magician," Wolfe's friend and fello...