Literary Scouts

A growing number of states, cities, and districts are now requiring schools to teach phonics. In other words, to teach kids how to read. That's welcome news for a country that's suffered from dismal reading outcomes for decades and now also contends with persistent COVID-19-wrought learning losses.

Alex Aster grips a tall Starbucks hot chocolate in her right hand as she guides me through the second floor of the world's largest Barnes & Noble bookstore.

"I come here several times a week," she says, pointing to a corner of the Young Adult section that often acts as a background for her many viral TikToks. "I usually stack two or three books to create a sort of stand."  Read more

I'm often asked what it means to be working class, how you define it and why it's even important to make the distinction in the first place. If I'm honest, I'd never really given these questions much thought until I seriously considered becoming a writer, and then I quickly realised that my background really did matter - and not always for the best reasons.  Read more

I have long been an anxious writer. Every sentence written reminds me of the hundreds more that could have stood in its place, missed opportunities for assonance or characterization, clauses left dependent that could have-should have-been made independent.  Read more