Lit Hub Weekly: February 8 – 12, 2021

TODAY: In 1891, Kate Roberts was one of the foremost Welsh-language authors of the 20th century, is born.

“Still, the best, most generative conversations mostly happen out of the public eye.” Wayne Miller on the hazards of talking poetry on social media. | Lit Hub
As Gabriel Byrne watches his father’s decline, he wonders if it’s ever possible to be truly honest with himself. | Lit Hub Memoir
“It turns out that pretending you understand what you don’t is exhausting and time-consuming.” Jen Silverman has some advice for writing across media. | Lit Hub Craft
Two internet novels, a biography of Stan Lee, and Chang-rae Lee’s latest come under the microscope in the Reviews You Need to Read This Week. | Book Marks
Peter Vronsky asks, why were so many of the 20th century’s most infamous serial killers born between 1930 and 1950? | CrimeReads
On the legacy of Betty Freidan’s powerful, flawed book, The Feminine Mystique. | Smithsonian Magazine
“Books can help us counter negative messages and provide empowering ones.” Sonja Cherry-Paul on the importance of books that center Black joy. | Chalkbeat
“Not all art that emerges from injustice wants to transcribe it; art can glance obliquely, using stolen sewing pins and tea-bag curtains to suggest longing and determination.” Leslie Jamison on the “breathtaking ingenuity” of incarcerated artists. | The Atlantic
In praise of a “one-two punch of dynamite absurdity”: Kristen Arnett revisits her favorite line from The Office. | The Cut
What do the humanities have to teach us about the Anthropocene? | Public Books
“Robinson’s success did not render ‘whites, white privilege, and racist institutions invisible.’ It blatantly exposed the baseball moguls’ racism.” What White Fragility gets wrong about Jackie Robinson. | Boston Review
“What other nuances of biracial experience do we lose to a culture most interested in our trauma?” Yasmine Ameli on writing while biracial. | Ploughshares
The end is nigh: Will Preston contemplates apocalypse burnout and how our culture is fixated on dystopian futures. | Full Stop
“To call the Neapolitan Quartet ‘a rich portrait of a friendship’ seems insane, or like something a pod person would say.” Here is the Patricia Lockwood on Elena Ferrante you’ve been waiting for. | London Review of Books
“As a young person, I grew used to the books chosen in school where Blackness was present only if it was pointed out.” Maura Cheeks on representation in literature. | The Paris Review
“The problem is that the words ‘nonnormative’ and ‘nontraditional’ are often used to describe kink. But what is normal?” R.O. Kwon and Alexander Chee in conversation about the anthology Kink. | Interview
“I want people to understand that there are different kinds of traumas and that they often overlap and rear their heads when you least expect it.” Tessa Miller discusses misconceptions about chronic illness and why she wrote a memoir about living with Crohn’s disease. | Bitch Media
“His virality speaks to a different kind of validation, one that is less about monetary reward than cultural capital.” Lyz Lenz on poet, writer, and Twitter thread enthusiast Seth Abramson. | Columbia Journalism Review
“Shared history is good, but if you don’t share it with everybody, there’s not much value in that.” Beverly Jenkins on untold histories, her research process, and the future of the romance genre. | NPR Code Switch
“They’re just something you have to deal with now.” How publishers use morals clauses to cancel book contracts—including after an author’s reputation suffers a hit. | The New York Times

Also on Lit Hub:

Mira Ptacin on the ambitions of Victoria Woodhull, the first woman to run for president • Lisa Zeidner on the ménage a trois of every reading experience • David Duchovny starts writing at 4:30 am, and other ways he puts us to shame • Urvi Kumbhat reflects on the mango in diasporic literature • Lara Vergnaud on what she gained by translating Yamen Manai’s The Ardent Swarm • Amelia Pang on the SOS letters smuggled out of forced-labor camps in China • Alex Dimitrov’s poem, “New York” • Joyce Carol Oates wants you to write your heart out • A brief history of metaphor in Persian poetry • How Rebecca Sacks tracks multiple character perspectives • Lucie Elvin reflects on the boundaries of care during COVID-19 • Richard Thompson Ford on the time a top hat scandalized London • George Perec’s ode to Ellis Island • Janna A. Zinzi on the dual role of writer-activists • Nell Frizzell chronicles The Panic Years of a woman’s life • Christine Leigh Heyrman on doomed romances of the 19th century • How America has always advertised the next golden age of computers • A reading list for taking kink seriously • Gene Luen Yang on the adventures of Sun Wukong, the Monkey King • Robbie Arnott on the Australian megafires, which killed or displaced around 3 billion animals • Diana Rose Newby on why Middlemarch is a contagion narrative • How cleaning toilets helped Kate Russo write her novel • Maël Renouard: when Google becomes your memory • Neil Gaiman remembers the inimitable Kathy Acker • What if the best way to understand the story of American police brutality is from the inside? • Unmasking the hackers who breached Google • Simon Han on shortcuts to identity in Asian American storytelling

Best of Book Marks:

Meet the indie bookstore owner behind National Black Literacy Day • Outlander, Lonesome Dove, Calvin and Hobbes, and more rapid-fire book recs from Ariel Lawhon • Searing, sobering, and cynical: a look back at the first reviews of J.M. Coetzee’s Disgrace • The Lover, Don Quixote, Lord of the Flies, and more rapid-fire book recs from Quan Barry, author of We Ride Upon Sticks (out now in paperback!) • Heather Cleary’s Valentine’s Day love letter to her favorite animals in translated fiction • Behold: the best reviewed books of the week