
Talya Zax is the Forward’s opinion editor. Contact her at [email protected] or on Twitter, @TalyaZax.
Talya Zax is the Forward’s opinion editor. Contact her at [email protected] or on Twitter, @TalyaZax.
On Thursday, Ruth Franklin took home the 2016 National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography. Franklin was honored for her biography of the writer Shirley Jackson “Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life.” Franklin, a book critic whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Review Of Books, and Harpers, among other outlets,…
On a Manhattan Monday, in an airy rehearsal studio far enough west of Times Square to make a grumbling city-dweller breathe with freedom, a group of journalists greeted each other forlornly. “There’s no food,” one photographer grumbled to another, affixing various implements to his camera. To his left, a journalist clutching a notepad and elderly…
Ivanka Trump accompanied Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau to the Broadway musical “Come From Away.” The musical tells the story of a small Newfoundland town that played host to over 6,000 stranded air travelers when American air space was closed during and following the 9/11 attacks. It’s a depiction of Canadian and American solidarity, a…
In President Trump’s first federal budget plan, submitted this morning, one item has stood out to proponents of the arts: Trump’s call to cut all funding from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). The response has been swift, as over 200,000 Americans have joined PEN America,…
Ruth Bader Ginsburg has spent the last few years rocketing to pop culture stardom, as well as, you know, serving as a Supreme Court Justice. We loved her when, at 81, she admitted that she gave away “Notorious RBG” shirts as gifts. We loved her when, that same year, she introduced us to her “dissenting…
Israeli authors Amos Oz and David Grossman have been named to the longlist for the 2017 Man Booker Prize. The prize, granted annually, is a prestigious award for English-language literature. Oz was nominated for his first novel in a decade, “Judas.” Grossman was nominated for his tragicomic “A Horse Walks Into a Bar.” The longlist,…
If you love “This American Life” and “Serial,” you’re in luck: This morning, the creators of those two podcasts announced that in two short weeks they’ll release a new podcast, “S-Town.” Better yet? All of the episodes will be released on March 28, so you can binge-listen to your heart’s content. Hey world! Our brand…
Disney’s 1991 animated hit “Beauty and the Beast” opens on a note of frustrated promise, as the protagonist, Belle, wends her way through her small French town. Curious and bookish, Belle feels she can’t realize her dreams while grappling with the constraints of country life. The story of of the film’s famous songs — “Be…
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