TODAY: In 1779, Clement Clarke Moore, author of the Christmas poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas” (which later became known as “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas”), is born. At first Moore had not wished to be connected with the popular verse, given his public reputation as a professor of ancient languages.
- Can the German path to truth and reconciliation work in America? Paul Scraton looks at how we choose to remember (and what we choose to forget). | Lit Hub History
- “His being in prison is proof that we are losing this game.” Melissa Valentine on the school-to-prison pipeline, and being unable to protect those you love. | Lit Hub Politics
- Jeffrey Einboden on Thomas Jefferson and the little-known presence of enslaved Muslims in the US. | Lit Hub History
- “The inheritance of California is half-gorgeous, half-deadly.” On hope, resilience, and denial in the Golden State. | Lit Hub
- “The healthy and individuated community inevitably grows out of a pursuit of the individual’s health.” Matthew Ingram on how we manage human suffering. | Lit Hub Health
- Suzanne Nossel: has free speech become an even more partisan issue under the Trump administration? | Lit Hub Politics
- Art as Pure Villain: On Iris Murdoch’s The Sea, The Sea. | Book Marks
- Stephen Graham Jones explains why exposing kids to horror films might actually be good for them. | CrimeReads
- “One wonders, for instance, in spite of the intermittent allegorical elements, whether the problem being wrestled with here is art rather than religion.” Siddhartha Deb on the late style of J. M. Coetzee. | The Nation
- Elizabeth Nelson on the legacy of Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential, 20 years later. | The Ringer
- Trouble in the capital: In Australia, the organizers of the Canberra Writers Festival are under fire for curating what critics say is an event lacking diversity. | The Age
- “Justice is sometimes seven generations away, or even more. And it is inevitable.” Joy Harjo on the McGirt v. Oklahoma decision and the lessons of elders. | The New York Times
- Looking to the work of Maria Edgeworth, Mary Shelley, and others to explore fears about population and contagion in a time of plague. | Irish Times
- “Opportunities are the true fiction: they could exist. They don’t.” Courtney Maum gets stuck in her own novel during the pandemic. | Tin House
- How does Zadie Smith’s White Teeth hold up in 2020? | The Guardian
Also on Lit Hub: The forged letter that began a Mormon succession crisis • What our first close look at Mars actually revealed • Read an excerpt from Arlene Heyman’s new novel Artifact.