Karen Dawisha obituary
Author and academic whose book Putin’s Kleptocracy exposed how the Russian president rose to power
Let’s silence the creative writing course snobs
These days, it is normal for authors to go to writing workshops – or teach them. So why does the idea they produce derivative writers persist?
Maqbool Hasan Khan obituary
Other lives: English professor and bilingual literary critic whose passion was Shakespeare’s plays
A Wrinkle in Time: weird science and giant Oprah – discuss with spoilers
Disney’s family fantasy is based on a 1962 novel and centres on a mixed-race girl who is mad about science and travels alien worlds. Has it hit the right note?
Alan Griffiths obituary
Other lives: Economist with a global outlook and a love of his native Wales
Michele Hanson obituary
Writer whose Guardian columns took the dross of the everyday as the basis for perceptive, funny and unflinching observation
Dolly Parton gives 100 millionth free book to children
The country star’s Imagination Library initiative, set up as a tribute to her illiterate father, reaches major milestone
World Book Day 2018: teachers, send us pictures of your costumes
Which literary character are you dressing up as this year? Share your pictures and be part of a worldwide celebration of books and reading
Don’t knock kids for rereading books. Encourage them to read, full stop
A report that blames children for returning to old favourites misunderstands what reading is all about, says Andrew McCallum, director of the English and Media Centre
The many tongues of Lost in Books, the only bookstore in Fairfield
Most of Fairfield, in Sydney’s west, speaks a language other than English – and now it has a bookstore to match
‘She changed my world’: how a teacher saved me after my mum died
My world was rocked at the age of 12 – but my extraordinary English teacher helped me through it. Now we’re reconnecting
Is this woman the next Philip Glass? And why is she wearing a loudspeaker?
Rolex is paying a fortune to pair young artists up with stars like David Adjaye, Joan Jonas and Alfonso Cuarón. Is there a catch? We join their big Berlin jamboree
Monica Ali on feminism in the 2000s: ‘I hadn’t truly considered the impact of children’
The Brick Lane novelist’s student dreams of imminent gender equality had drowned in a sea of nappies, but then she re-engaged with feminism’s new individualism
The cult of Mary Beard
The long read: How a late-blossoming classics don became Britain’s most beloved intellectual
New Year honours: Bussell, a Bee Gee and a Beatle among gong gang
Ringo Starr given knighthood while others from the arts, business, sport and the community are also recognised