The Black Mountain Institute’s Feb. 23 reading by author Joyce Carol Oates has been canceled due to the death of Oates’ husband, Raymond Smith.

Smith was the editor of Ontario Review Press, which is credited with helping to launch the career of many young writers. The prolific Oates is the author of many books, including Black Water, We Were the Mulvaneys, Blonde, On Boxing, The Falls and The Gravedigger’s Daughter.

CityLife is a sponsor of the Black Mountain Institute.

The most reasonable piece so far in what is sure to be a deluge of insta-punditry in the wake of Fidel Castro’s announcement of retirement: Now can we play nice?

The best book to read to understand the fierce psychological grip a long-shadowed, omnipresent and almost mythically invincible dictator can have on a country while also getting a heady dose of woozy, stream-of-consciousness fiction in the hands of a true master:

This one’s pretty spooky too: