Featured Authors

Here's a good start page with a brief bio, a photo, and some links. It's a good place to start your internet research about Ehrenreich

Here's the author's profile from The Nation, a magazine to which she's a regular contributor. How is this biographical information different from that given above in terms of information? In terms of tone?

Here is Ehrenreich's entry at Infoplease.com. How is this entry different from the information above? Do you consider it trustworthy? Why or why not?

This is a Time magazine article by Ehrenreich about the 2000 Presidential election, in which she explains why she voted for Ralph Nader.

Here's a Salon essay she wrote about Monica Lewinsky, Bill Clinton, and the impeachment process.

Click here to hear a speech in RealAudio about the media by Ehrenreich. Now that you know some of Ehrenreich's writing, what do you think of her speaking? Did she sound about the way you imagined?

Interested in putting this author's work into a cultural context? Here are some feminism and women's literature links. How can this information help you in your writing about Ehrenreich?

Did you know that this author writes more than nonfiction? This page contains a brief review of Ehrenreich's novel Kipper's Game. Does the subject matter of this novel fit in easily with this writer's other work?

This is the homepage of the Democratic Socialists of America. Can you find a link between Ehrenreich and this organization?

Here is a review of Ehrenreich's book, Blood Rites: Origins and History of the Passions of War. Does this subject matter surprise you, given what you know of this author's work?

Looking for a place to start researching Gates's life? This biography at the Stanford Presidential Lectures and Symposia in the Humanities and Arts pages is a great starting point. You'll also find a photo and some links there.

This is the biography page for Gates at the National Endowment for the Humanities, where he was the 2002 Jefferson Lecturer. The site also provides other valuable resources, such as an interview, some excerpts, the text of the lecture, and a bibliography.

Want to take a look at a particular aspect of Gates's working life? Okay then, click over to his homepage at Harvard's W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for Afro-American Research.

Read this excerpt from Colored People: A Memoir. What do you make of the title? After reading the excerpt are you prompted to read the whole work? Why or why not? Can you find out if your library has a copy from the computer you're using now?

This Frontline interview has the author discussing the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr., his own work at Harvard, and class among Black Americans, among other things.

Let's turn the tables a bit. Here, Gates is the interviewer. Kofi Annan is the interviewee, and the main subject is the new global order. What different perspective did you gain as Gates changed roles in these two cases?

Did you know that Gates is very active in television? This is the homepage of his PBS program, Wonders of the African World. The site features links to episodes, a feedback area, and a diary by Gates. Can you find from the computer you're using now how to get your hands on some of the episodes?

The MacArthur Fellowship, sometimes called the "genius grant," is currently set at $500,000, with absolutely no strings attached. Gates won one in 1981. Look at the company he keeps. Who do you recognize on this list?

This essay from the Globe and Mail takes a look at the author's life while examining the topic of racial identity. What did you learn about Gates that you didn't know before reading this piece?

If you'd like to put Gates's work into a broader political context, here is a very good general article about the Civil Rights Movement. It features multimedia links and will help get you started on your research.

Here's a great start page from Stanford University, which includes links to papers, biographies, speeches, articles, and more. It's a great place to start your online research.

Here's a King tribute page from Life Magazine, where you can gain access to both images and covers. How many covers feature King? Spanning what decades? What does this suggest?

This page has information about the King National Historical Site, located in Atlanta. What might you learn there that other biographical material doesn't pay much attention to?

Here is a link to an excerpt from "I Have a Dream" in RealAudio. Try to read along if you can. What differs in your reading and Dr. King's? What do you make of the emphasis he places on certain words? What makes him a great speaker?

Here's King's speech "The Purpose of Education." Write a summary of the speech. What is the purpose of education put forth? Do you agree?

Still hungry for more of this author's work? Here is a page with lots of links to King in RealAudio.

Click here for some info about the HBO movie Boycott. This film deals with the Bus Boycott in Montgomery, Alabama in 1956. Did you see it when it played recently? If you didn't, will you now that you know more about it?

In a related bit of information here's a photo of Rosa Parks being fingerprinted for refusing to move to the back of a bus in Montgomery. Describe the photo in as much detail as you can. Why is this such a famous photo?

If you'd like to put King's work into a historical context, you will want to know something about the Civil Rights Movement in the U.S. To get you started here's a good general page about the Civil Rights Movement from The Encyclopedia Britannica.

Would you still like to do some more web surfing? Here is the homepage for a King scavenger hunt site.

This is a brief bio of Quindlen with some links from Online-Library.org. How comfortable would you be using some of the information here in a paper about this author? Explain your answer.

Here is her profile from a lecture agent. Compare the information here with that from the page mentioned above. What appears on this page that the other page doesn't pay much attention to?

Interested in this author's personal history? Here Quindlen explains how she came to love books. How does she relate reading and writing? How do you?

This is an excerpt from A Short Guide to a Happy Life. Take a look at the accompanying photographs. Describe them in as much detail as you can. How do they complement the text?

Hungry for some multimedia featuring this author? This page has links to both the transcript and the video version of an interview Quindlen did promoting her book Thinking Out Loud.

Here is the commencement address she gave at Mount Holyoke College in 1999. What is the theme of her speech? What does Quindlen have to say about learning? What does she have to say about being happy?

This is the citation for her Pulitzer Prize. Do you recognize any of the other authors on this page? How would you go about getting some information about them?

Did you know that Quindlen has been a contributor to the movies? Here is a movie review of One True Thing. Have you seen it? After reading this review, do you want to? Explain.

This is a review of her book Black and Blue. Can you tell what the novel is about from this review? What kinds of questions can you ask yourself about it that only the book itself can answer?

Interested in putting this author's work into a cultural context? Here are some feminism and women's literature links. How can this information help you in your writing about Quindlen?

The American Academy of Poets has put up a great page about Reed. There, you'll find a photo, a biography, and links, including one to his poem, "I Am a Cowboy in the Boat of Ra."

Here's a hyperlinked biography of Reed, along with some links to a bibliography and to other places of interest on the web.

This is a fairly comprehensive look at Reed's life and work, from The Oxford Companion to African American Literature.

In this interview at the Center for Book Culture.org, Reed discusses other writers and his own writing within the context of black American culture.

Looking for a bibliography of Reed's works? Here's one that also includes a photo and a couple links to pages about Reed.

The University of Delaware Library has a collection of Ishmael Reed papers, covering the years 1964-1995. This is the homepage of the site, and you'll find information about his novels, plays, and poems, and many other types of writing there.

The MacArthur Fellowship, sometimes called the "genius grant," is currently set at $500,000, with absolutely no strings attached. Reed won one in 1998. Look at the company he keeps. Who do you recognize on this list?

Here are five reviews of books by Reed, and a link to hear an interview he did for Minnesota Public Radio. Read one of the reviews to determine whether you'd like to read the source material. (Free registration required.)

This is a teacher's guide to Reed, covering things like classroom strategies and major themes. As a student, what insights did you gain by taking a look at this writer's work from a teacher's point of view?

Reed founded a magazine called Konch. Here is its homepage, where you'll find links to photos, poetry, essays, and poems done by various artists.

For a bit of background information about Rodriguez, click over to his "Off Camera" biography at the Online NewsHour site. You'll also find links to some of his essays there.

Here's a biography from the Pacific News Service with another photo and some more links. Compare it to the one above. Why, do you think, the information presented differs in these two cases?

This interview with Rodriguez, which revolves around the metaphor of the Melting Pot, provides other glimpses of the author's life. It's from Insight and Outlook, and was conducted shortly after the publication of his book Days of Obligation.

Read this review of Days of Obligation from World Literature Today. After reading the review, are you interested in reading the book? Why or why not?

For further reading, here is an essay Rodriguez wrote for PBS about speaking Spanish in United States. What thematic links can you make from this reading to "Aria"?

On a different topic, here's an essay by the author about the declining crime rate in 1996. How does the tone differ here from the reading in your text?

To put bilingual education in the United States into a broader historical context, study this brief history of the subject, which traces the movement back to the middle of the 19^th Century.

Interested in doing more research about bilingual education, but not sure where to start looking? This directory at Google.com should give you plenty of ideas.

If you'd like some starting points to research governmental and academic aspects of bilingual education, this "Electronic Textbook" will help you on your way.

Looking for a way to narrow a research topic? The National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition's website offers much detailed information about things like finding out about state resources and promoting cultural understanding in schools.

Here's a hyperlinked biography of Stanton, with a photo album, from the National Park Service.

Looking for a bit of a personal touch? The homepage for the Stanton and Anthony Papers Project Online has reproductions of the two women's autographs and a couple photos.

Here is Stanton's speech "Solitude of Self," which she gave before the U.S. Senate Committee on Woman Suffrage in 1892. How can you compare this speech to the one that's in your text?

Eighty Years and More is the title of a memoir by Stanton. Guess what? Click here and you'll find the whole thing in etext. Do you like using etext? Does it have any advantages over plain old hard copy?

Stanton was a key figure in what's sometimes called the "first wave" of feminism. Would you like some information that will help you put this movement into a historical context? This collection of links from Northern Arizona University will help you do just that.

Did you know that Ken Burns and Paul Barnes made a documentary for PBS called Not for Ourselves Alone: The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony? Take a look at the homepage for the film which has photos, a quote, and lots of links

Interested in doing a paper about the history of women's suffrage in the U.S.? This hyperlinked introduction to the subject is a great place to start your research.

How about taking a look at the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention in more detail? This page from the American Treasures part of the Library of Congress online has a brief history, some cool photos, and some related links.

This is a good start page from Brittanica.com. There, you'll find a portrait, some biographical information, and some links.

Want to do some more web surfing for information about this author? Here is a good collection of Swift links.

An interesting way to see the scope of Swift's work is to browse through the list of his citations at the Library of Congress. What did you find there that you didn't know before your visit?

You have "A Modest Proposal" in your text. Here it is in e-text. Do you like reading electronic texts? What are the drawbacks of e-texts? What can you do with an e-text that's harder to do when using plain old paper? What advantages does print have?

Here's Gulliver's Travels in several different e-text formats. How reliable do you consider these versions of the text? How can one determine the reliability of texts found on the internet?

Still hungry for more works by this author? Here is Swift's Battle of the Books and Other Short Pieces in e-text.

Interested in putting Swift into a historical context? This is what Samuel Johnson wrote about him, and should help you on your way.

Did you know that Swift also wrote poetry? Well, he did. Here is a page with links to some of Swift's poems. Pick a poem and study it. How can you link the poem to Swift's prose style? How is the poem different?

Interested in some more background about the gruesome subject material in this piece? Here's an essay about cannibalism. What is the tone of this essay? How can you tell? How can you link it to "A Modest Proposal"?

Jonathan Swift is best known for his satirical works. Interested in taking a look at some contemporary satire? This is the homepage of a satirical website, The Onion. Check it out. It's fun.