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2003 In Literature
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 2003. Events *February 12 – An invitation from the First Lady of the United States, Laura Bush, for some poets to attend a conference at the White House is postponed when one of them, Sam Hamill, organizes a "Poets Against the War" group for poetry readings across the United States on the same date. *February 15 – Anti-war protests occur in London. They are later used as the setting for Ian McEwan's 2005 novel ''Saturday''. *March – The University of Mosul library is damaged and looted during the Iraq War, but many volumes are removed for protection by staff. *April 14 – The Iraq National Library and Archive is burned down during the Battle of Baghdad. *April – Nicholas Hytner succeeds Sir Trevor Nunn as artistic director of London's Royal National Theatre. *November 7 – UNESCO places among the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity ''wayang kulit'', a shadow p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trevor Nunn
Sir Trevor Robert Nunn (born 14 January 1940) is an English theatre director and lyricist. He has been the artistic director for the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal National Theatre, and, currently, the Theatre Royal Haymarket. He has directed dramas for the stage, including ''Macbeth'', as well as opera and musicals, such as ''Cats'' (1981) and '' Les Misérables'' (1985). Nunn has been nominated for the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical, the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play, the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Director, and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Musical, winning Tonys for ''Cats'', ''Les Misérables'', and '' Nicholas Nickleby'' and the Olivier Awards for productions of '' Summerfolk'', '' The Merchant of Venice'', '' Troilus and Cressida'', and ''Nicholas Nickleby''. In 2008, ''The Telegraph'' named Nunn among the most influential people in British culture. He has also directed works for film and television. Early years ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Monica Ali
Monica Ali (; born 20 October 1967) is a British writer of Bangladeshi and English descent. In 2003, she was selected as one of the "Best of Young British Novelists" by ''Granta'' based on her unpublished manuscript; her debut novel, ''Brick Lane'', was published later that year. It was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. It was adapted as a 2007 film of the same name. She has also published four other novels. Her fifth novel, ''Love Marriage'', was published by Virago Press in February 2022 and became an instant ''Sunday Times'' bestseller. Ali was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2024 Birthday Honours for services to literature. Early life and education Ali was born in Dhaka, East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), 1967 to a Bangladeshi father and an English mother. When she was three, her family moved to Bolton, England. Her father is originally from the district of Mymensingh. She went to Bolton School and then studied philosophy, politics an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Five People You Meet In Heaven
''The Five People You Meet In Heaven'' is a 2003 novel by Mitch Albom. It follows the life and death of a ride mechanic named Eddie (inspired by Albom's uncle), who is killed in an amusement park accident and sent to heaven, where he encounters five people who had a significant impact on him while he was alive. It was published by Hyperion and remained on the ''New York Times'' Best Seller list for 95 weeks. Plot On his 83rd birthday, amusement park ride mechanic Eddie is killed in an accident when a ride breaks down. During the accident, he makes a desperate attempt to save a little girl's life. Eddie arrives in Heaven, where he meets "the Blue Man." The Blue Man explains that Eddie is about to journey through Heaven's five levels, meeting someone who has had a significant impact upon his life or someone on whom his life had a significant impact. Eddie asks why the Blue Man is his first person, and he informs Eddie that, when Eddie was very young, he caused the car accide ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mitch Albom
Mitchell David Albom (born May 23, 1958) is an American author, journalist, and musician. As of 2021, he has sold 40 million books worldwide. Having achieved national recognition for sports writing in his early career, he turned to writing inspirational stories and themes—a preeminent early one being '' Tuesdays with Morrie''. Early life Albom was born on May 23, 1958, in Passaic, New Jersey; he lived in Buffalo, New York for a little while until his family settled in Oaklyn, New Jersey, just outside of Philadelphia. He is of Jewish descent. Albom earned a bachelor's degree in sociology in 1979 from Brandeis University. After forays into music and journalism, returned to academia to earn graduate master's degrees in journalism (at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism), and business (from Columbia University Graduate School of Business). Albom paid his tuition in part through employment playing piano. Career As a columnist While living in New York, Albom devel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Purple Hibiscus
''Purple Hibiscus'' is the first novel by the Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. It portrays Kambili Achike, a 15 year old Nigerian teenage girl who struggles in the shadow of her father, Eugene. Eugene is a successful businessman, a beloved philanthropist, and a devout Catholic, who nevertheless violently abuses his family. A post-colonial novel, it received positive reviews upon publication. The novel was published in the United States on 30 October 2003, by Algonquin Books. A year later, Fourth Estate published the book in the United Kingdom and in 2006, Kachifo Limited published it in Nigeria. While the novel dealt with the serious issues of religious fanaticism and follows the colonial effect on Nigeria also depicted in Achebe's ''Things Fall Apart'', the novel is renowned for its stylic and thematic structure; the author's interweaving of both Igbo and English, and scene description to convey characterizations and action, demonstrates her as one of the thir ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (born Grace Ngozi Adichie; 15 September 1977) is a Nigerians, Nigerian writer of novels, short stories, poem, and children's books; she is also a book reviewer and literary critic. Her most famous works include ''Purple Hibiscus'' (2003), ''Half of a Yellow Sun'' (2006), and ''Americanah'' (2013). She is widely recognised as a central figure in Postcolonial feminism, postcolonial feminist literature. Born into an Igbo people, Igbo family in Enugu (city), Enugu, Nigeria, Adichie was educated at the University of Nigeria in Nsukka, where she studied medicine for a year and half. She left Nigeria at the age of 19 to study in the United States at Drexel University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and went on to study at a further three universities in the U.S.: Eastern Connecticut State University, Johns Hopkins University, and Yale University. Many of Adichie's novels are set in Nsukka, where she grew up. She started writing during her university education. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Clerkenwell Tales
''The Clerkenwell Tales'' is an historical novel by English writer Peter Ackroyd, first published in 2003. The novel is set in the late 1390s. It focuses on the Lollardy and on a conspiracy against Richard II of England. Plot summary The novel is set in London in the year 1399, a year of revolt, revolution and religious conspiracy. As Henry Bolingbroke challenges Richard II for the throne of England, the reader's attention is focused on Dominus, a secret society of religious fundamentalists, known to history as Lollards. The story is oriented similar to Geoffrey Chaucer's ''The Canterbury Tales'' and makes use of some of the characters from ''The Canterbury Tales'' as well. It turns on the conspiracies of a religious sect, led by the mad nun and making use of the prophecies of the mad Clerkenwell nun to foment panic and hysteria to bring forth the dethroning of Richard II. The result is a gothic novel Gothic fiction, sometimes referred to as Gothic horror (primarily in the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peter Ackroyd
Peter Ackroyd (born 5 October 1949) is an English biographer, novelist and critic with a specialist interest in the history and culture of London. For his novels about English history and culture and his biographies of, among others, William Blake, Charles Dickens, T. S. Eliot, Charlie Chaplin and Sir Thomas More, he won the Somerset Maugham Award and two Whitbread Awards. He is noted for the volume of work he has produced, the range of styles therein, his skill at assuming different voices, and the depth of his research. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1984 and appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2003. Early life and education Ackroyd was born in London and raised on a council estate in East Acton, in what he has described as a "strict" Roman Catholic household by his mother and grandmother, after his father disappeared from the family home. He first knew that he was gay when he was seven. He was educated at St Benedict' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wayang
( , ) is a traditional form of puppet theatre play originating from the Indonesian island of Java. The term refers both to the show as a whole and the puppet in particular. Performances of wayang puppet theatre are accompanied by a ''gamelan'' orchestra in Java, and by '' gender wayang'' in Bali. The dramatic stories depict mythologies, such as episodes from the Hindu epics the ''Ramayana'' and the ''Mahabharata'', as well as local adaptations of cultural legends. Traditionally, a is played out in a ritualized midnight-to-dawn show by a , an artist and spiritual leader; people watch the show from both sides of the screen. performances are still very popular among Indonesians, especially in the islands of Java and Bali. performances are usually held at certain rituals, certain ceremonies, certain events, and even tourist attractions. In ritual contexts, puppet shows are used for prayer rituals (held in temples in Bali), ritual (cleansing children from bad luck), and ri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guinea, Indonesia is the world's largest archipelagic state and the List of countries and dependencies by area, 14th-largest country by area, at . With over 280 million people, Indonesia is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fourth-most-populous country and the most populous Islam by country, Muslim-majority country. Java, the world's List of islands by population, most populous island, is home to more than half of the country's population. Indonesia operates as a Presidential system, presidential republic with an elected People's Consultative Assembly, legislature and consists of Provinces of Indonesia, 38 provinces, nine of which have Autonomous administrative divisi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Masterpieces Of The Oral And Intangible Heritage Of Humanity
The Proclamation of Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity was made by the Director-General of UNESCO starting in 2001 to raise awareness of intangible cultural heritage—such traditions, rituals, dance, and knowledge—and urge the protection of the communities that create them. Several manifestations of intangible heritage around the world were awarded the status of ''Masterpieces;'' further proclamations occurred biennially. The status exists to recognize the value of non-material culture, as well as to commit states to promote and safeguard the Masterpieces. In 2008, the 90 declared Masterpieces were incorporated into the new Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity as its first entries. Background UNESCO defines oral and intangible heritage as "the totality of tradition-based creations of a cultural community expressed by a group or individuals and recognized as reflecting the expectations of a community in so far as they refl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
