Lit Hub Weekly: July 27 – 31, 2020

TODAY: In 1978, Barbara Pym is a guest on Desert Island Discs.

Gregory Pardlo writes a letter to Juneteenth: “You are a brick in the historical foundation upon which our country might reimagine its collective future.” | Lit Hub Politics
Introducing Mighty SONG Writers, a weekly video series to benefit education non-profit Mighty Writers. First up: Amanda Shires with Jason Isbell on writing advice, favorite teachers (and a song or two). | Lit Hub
When life returns to some semblance of normal, will we still write in cafés? Emily Temple on the end of an era. | Lit Hub
Parul Sehgal on Yiyun Li, Stephen King on Lauren Beukes, Ryu Spaeth on Thomas Chatterton Williams, and more of the Reviews You Need to Read This Week. | Book Marks
True crime has been having a “moment” for three centuries. Sarah Weinman takes stock of the post-Serial boom. | CrimeReads
Nearly 20 years after its publication, Mahmoud Trawri’s novel Maymouna is regarded as one of the most significant works of fiction about the history of Black Saudis. | Al-Fanar Media
The deputy mayor of Paris, Christophe Gerard, has resigned after protestors decried his links to Gabriel Matzneff, an author under investigation for the rape of minors. | France 24
“We live in an artificial hierarchy, an infrastructure that was created and is not natural.” Isabel Wilkerson on her new book, Caste. | TIME
Mourning the end of the landline in literature, with its allowances “for fictional worlds in which people can be plausibly held apart, unable to communicate, and then convened in a single burst.” | The New Yorker
These books show the power of community bonds in a time of crisis. | The Guardian
Vanessa Springora’s memoir, Consent, which described her underage grooming by French author Gabriel Matzneff, will be adapted for film. | France24
A literary etymology of “cake.” | Columbia Journalism Review
“There was a time when you couldn’t move for successful young male novelists. They are much scarcer now.” On the apparent decline of young male “hotshots” of British lit, on the Booker longlist and beyond. | The Times UK
Can spending time in isolated writer’s colonies or secluded schools be ethical experiences today? Susan Choi writes that they could be, but the privilege can also be used for harm. | MacDowell
Beyond Oprah: On the Noname Book Club and other popular Black book clubs taking reading to the next level. | The New York Times
Will our relationship to time—the changes it does and does not bring—define memories of this pandemic? Zadie Smith’s new essay collection offers a hint. | British Vogue
Caryl Phillips on Derek Walcott’s life, work, and reckoning with West Indian identity in 1950s New York. | New York Review of Books
Sophie Mackintosh and Avni Doshi discuss mothers, mothering, motherhood and more. | Granta
“He was patient with his characters, with himself, and kind to everyone else in the process.” M.O. Walsh remembers Brad Watson. | The Paris Review
A handy, illustrated timeline of the mass manufacturing of books. | Lapham’s Quarterly

Also on Lit Hub:

Joe Sacco contemplates a future in which we will one day honor the veterans of the “ Great Pandemic Wars.” • Nicholson Baker details his quest for documents that could resolve a Cold War mystery •

Melissa Faliveno on belonging, Anne LaBastille, and moving to the deep woods to be alone and write • Remember reading in public? • Oscar Villalon’s letter from San Francisco • Anne Trubek offers some practical advice on writing an email that’s good enough to land a book deal • Michelle Bowdler looks at a US system that treats rape as something less than a crime • Eddie Glaude on the vow James Baldwin made to young civil rights activists • Jason Boog talks to Heather Radke about a time in this country when we paid writers well • Learning to cook for one during a global pandemic • Feast your eyes on the best book covers of July • What happens if Trump refuses to accept an electoral loss? • Omar Mouallem’s pandemic project? Becoming the fake dean of a fake university • Nick Ripatrazone talks to English teacher Conor O’Sullivan about helping students find their voices in theater • In this month’s Astrology Book Club, everything is in retrograde except reading • “A New Day Dawns”: A poem by Nikky Finney

Best of Book Marks:

Giovanni’s Room, The House of Mirth, The Little Engine That Could, and more rapid-fire book recs from Sarah Gerard • “All grown-ups were once children…but only few of them remember it”: On Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince • Daphne Du Maurier’s Rebecca, Stephen King’s On Writing, John Grisham’s The Partner, and more rapid-fire book recs from Samantha Downing • A month of literary listening: AudioFile’s best audiobooks of July • New titles from Zadie Smith, Laura van den Berg, Yiyun Li, and Natasha Trethewey all feature among the Best Reviewed Books of the Week