We suggest that the American poet E.E. Cummings was probably mildly dyslexic. Evidence, which is drawn in particular from inspection of his archival papers, includes consideration of his spelling, letter formation, handwriting, approach to page orientation, proclivity for exploration of the mirror-image, reading and educational history, struggles…

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (1648-1695) is a legend in her native Mexico and elsewhere in Latin America. She is esteemed for the artistic and intellectual quality of her wide-ranging poetry, plays, and prose writings. She is renowned for her defense of the right of women to study, to publish their scholarship, and to teach, all controversial claims…

Between 1961 and 1984 the renowned New Zealand writer, Margaret Mahy, wrote over seventy-five pieces for the "School Journal" (a graded reading book provided free to New Zealand primary schools since its inception in 1907). It was a liberal humanist period in New Zealand education during which the 1940s' and 1950s' rolling reforms…

Searches for 117 British authors are compared in the Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature (ABELL) and the Modern Language Association International Bibliography (MLAIB). Authors are organized by period and genre within the early modern era. The number of records for each author was subdivided by format, language of publication,…

This article presents an interview with the noted Nepali American fiction writer Samrat Upadhyay. Samrat Upadhyay's fiction is mostly about his native country of Nepal, but he writes mainly for an Anglo-American audience. In the interview, Upadhyay not only discusses his own work, but he also examines samples of prose by other Asian or Asian…

Rhetorically challenging literature can be made to serve the purposes of first-year composition in new ways. Excerpts from the novels of Marcel Proust that focus on the author's characteristic scrutinizing, reflexive attention to style work successfully as models for assisting writers in acquiring the habits of reading and re-reading, and of…

This article features Lloyd Alexander, an author who has produced some of the most elegant and powerful prose in the history of modern children's literature. Lloyd began writing seriously in high school, and though he wrote and submitted many poems and short stories, his only success was being named a finalist in the "Writer's Digest" Short Story…