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Welcome to your weekly roundup of book news and literary highlights from 

This week, parents and poetry fans are split over Allen Ginsberg's work, and the Nebula Awards announces the best science fiction and fantasy of 2014.

English teacher resigns after reading Ginsberg poem in class

Allen Ginsberg's poetry hasn't lost its power to shock. In 1957, his sexually explicit poem "Howl" triggered a sting operation. A bookseller was arrested for selling a copy to an undercover police officer, and obscenity charges were filed against him, along with the book's publisher.

After a lengthy trial, with nine literary experts testifying in defense of the poem, the judge ruled that it had 

More than 50 years later, the controversy carries on, this time in a Connecticut high school. In May, a student brought Ginsberg's poem "Please Master," into teacher David Olio's Advanced Placement English class. The class was focusing on poetry, so Olio agreed to share it with the class and hold a discussion on it.

It continues with a description of a sexual encounter between two men. The day after sharing the poem, Olio was placed on unpaid leave by the South Windsor School District. Three weeks after that, he reached a termination agreement with the district and agreed to resign. According to 

South Windsor, a town of 25,000 just outside Hartford, is split on the decision. Op-eds in the local newspaper have denounced Olio's reading, while many former students have spoken up in his defense. Olio was a 19-year-veteran of the school district and had won several awards for his teaching.

An English professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 

: "If you can't handle Ginsberg how are you going to teach Walt Whitman? ... For students about to go to college it is a great poem to be confronted by."

Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America

 anoints a new set of literary stars with the Nebula Awards. 

The organization has more than 1,500 members who vote for the best novel, novella, novelette and short story. (A novelette falls between a novella and a short story in length.)

• Novel: "Annihilation" by Jeff VanderMeer


• Novella: "Yesterday's Kin" by Nancy Kress 


• Novelette: "A Guide to the Fruits of Hawai'i" by Alaya Dawn Johnson 


• Short story: "Jackalope Wives" by Ursula Vernon

VanderMeer's win for "Annihilation" has genre fans talking. As the 

, "The book was published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, known for literary fiction, not science fiction." With the rapidly growing popularity of fantasy series and post-apocalyptic fiction, it's another sign that genre is finding a foothold with mainstream audiences.

Arts and Culture

The Thread® - Books and Literary News

Tracy Mumford

Author

The latest controversy over Ginsberg's poetry erupted outside Hartford, Conn., in a high school English class.

Book briefs: Ginsberg poem costs teacher his job

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