April Bernard

Nov 9, 2024 | usmagazine.com | Molly McGuigan |April Bernard

From Nosebleed Nougat to Puking Pastilles, the confections created by Harry Potter’s Fred and George Weasley had some nasty side effects. But James and Oliver Phelps, who played the roles in all eight films, deliver only deliciousness as hosts of the new Food Network series, Harry Potter: Wizards of Baking. Outside London, cake artists and pastry chefs take over Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden, home to the original sets that now inspire challenges on the reality competition show.

Sep 8, 2024 | laphamsquarterly.org | April Bernard |Howard Singerman |Peter Stothard

The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled. —PlutarchTo bring up the subject of education in nearly any sector of the American conversation—after dinner or before breakfast, in print and en blog, via public television or private smartphone—is to invite an argument or endure a sermon. No subject strikes closer to the bone of the democratic idea, and whether standing at the bar or seated on the lawn, all present come armed with two invincible opinions:1.

Aug 18, 2024 | books.substack.com | April Bernard

I’ll be looking at three poems: “Questions of Travel” and “The Armadillo,” written while Elizabeth Bishop lived in Brazil; and “Santarém,” which is about traveling on the Amazon but which she wrote some years later. When I say that Bishop is a formalist, what I mean is not that she hews only to established forms.

Aug 11, 2024 | books.substack.com | April Bernard

I am grateful to a reader who pointed out, after reading last week’s post, that Nova Scotia is not an island; it is actually a peninsula, connected to the mainland by an isthmus; its sister landmasses, Cape Breton Island and Prince Edward Island, are true islands.

Aug 4, 2024 | books.substack.com | April Bernard

Dear Summer Readers of Book Post:I will be assuming that you have access to the full texts of these poems by Elizabeth Bishop, so my quotations will be relatively sparse. This week, I’ll be looking at “The Map,” “Over 2000 Illustrations and a Complete Concordance,” and “At the Fishhouses,” all of which have close connections to Bishop’s early life.