Lit Hub Weekly: March 15 – 19, 2021

TODAY: In 43 BCE, Publius Ovidius Naso, known as Ovid, is born.

“I found myself straddling two very different identities, as a committed nun and as a woman experiencing myself as a sexual person for the first time.” Patricia M. Dwyer on the life-changing poetry of Elizabeth Bishop. | Lit Hub Criticism
In part two of The Longest Year: 2020, Marvin Heiferman reflects on documenting his grief on Instagram after the loss of his husband. | Lit Hub
Paul Sen on the great uncertainty of Charles Darwin, who “never suspected that the mathematical equations of thermodynamics would torment him till his death.” | Lit Hub Science
“Within our racial discourse there’s often no room for the Asian American voice, which is precisely why I wrote the book.” Alexander Chee and Cathy Park Hong discuss how the pandemic has cracked open discrimination against Asian American communities. | GEN
Christina Baker Kline reads Lolita as a gothic horror novel. | CrimeReads
James Parker on Blake Bailey’s Philip Roth biography, Brandon Taylor on Michael Lowenthal’s Sex with Strangers, and more of the Reviews You Need to Read this Week. | Book Marks
Casey Cep details the Raven bookstore’s fight with Amazon. | The New Yorker
“By the time I was thirteen, I had divorced my body. Not before or since have I felt such animosity toward another being.” Melissa Febos on finding the sublime in a body. | The Yale Review
Jessica Winter considers the default assumption of fiction-as-autofiction. | New York Times
An oral history of bookselling in a pandemic: six indie bookstore owners reflect on the past year. | Washington Post
“That’s the thing about surviving the white gaze: It’s the default. It’s everywhere. It’s the air.” Rebecca Carroll on her memoir, the institution of whiteness, and adoption. | Bitch Media
“I wanted to invite whatever disaster, complication, or weirdness into it just to see what would happen.” Chang-rae Lee on what it takes to write creatively. | The Believer
“The world is watching, and the translator is no longer invisible.” Translators weigh in on the Amanda Gorman controversy. | Asymptote
Kaitlyn Greenidge reflects on the legacy of love and devotion in her family. | Harper’s Bazaar
“I have a lot of unresolved issues with Chicago. And to me, it’s a reconciliation, a healing.” Sandra Cisneros on winning the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame’s Fuller Award and the legacy of The House on Mango Street. | WBEZ
“Why do we keep hearing the same names again and again in the canon?” Lesley Chow on her new book and women of color in music. | The Creative Independent
Well, that’s nice: online writing groups have been thriving during the pandemic. | New York Times
“The thing about prophets, even bad prophets, was that they were always in search of an audience. They were hungry and deprived.” Read a new short story by Brandon Taylor. | Joyland
Alissa Wilkinson spoke with Emily St. John Mandel, David France, and others whose work took on new significance in light of the pandemic. | Vox
Kazuo Ishiguro on the ways that his relationship to songwriting and music “define[s] my decisions as a novelist.” | NPR

Also on Lit Hub:

Emily Layden on the secret lives of teenage girls • Cal Newport suggests a better way to email • The surprising contributions authors have made to language • Elon Green looks back to the NYC-based 1980s Anti-Violence Project • Fatima Shaik on a hidden history of Black brotherhood • What to do when you need to write (good) song lyrics • How dipping into the waters of stepmotherhood inspired Emma Duffy-Comparone’s new book • Kate Washington on caregiver burnout and Jane Eyre • Layla AlAmmar on the literature of revolution • America’s first blockbuster murder trial • Unraveling the Southern myths of Mississippi’s Piney Woods • Imbolo Mbue talks to Jane Ciabattari • “My dad published Lolita” • Nona Hendryx on Afrofuturist histories • The two kinds of Nabokov readers • What we really want from a story • Nick Bryant on the most performative presidency of all time • Are novels-about-writers their own subgenre yet? • Brock Clarke makes a case for meanness in fiction • Laura Imai Messina on Japan’s wind phone • Vivian Gornick on the “wild and elusive” Edna St. Vincent Millay • The sacred role of the hair metal ballad • Jay Neugeboren reflects on mortality and posthumous publishing • After writing a novel about two men isolated at sea, Paul Lynch experiences his own isolation • How Cairo became a cosmopolitan destination • Thomas Dyja considers how the early internet transformed New York City • How New York City’s tap water model could change the world • In praise of of women writing autofiction • Why do we love historic literary homes? • How the Barbizon Hotel gave Plath and Didion the freedom to write • The New Press editors on working at the intersection of publishing and social justice • How Margaret Hermes finally finished her book (after four decades) • Jamie Vander Broek compares the library and the museum • A conversation about Southern chef Edna Lewis’ legacy • Nige Tassell on the Coen brothers’ cinematic sleight of hand • Alejandro Ruiz remembers the dishes of his Oaxaca childhood

Best of Book Marks:

Sula, The English Patient, The Portrait of a Lady, and more rapid-fire book recs from Miranda Popkey • “The Remains of the Day is a dream of a book”: a classic review of Kazuo Ishiguro’s achingly beautiful third novel • The Lover, King Lear, A Little Life, and more rapid-fire book recs from Sanaë Lemoine • New titles from Nona Fernández, Jo Ann Beard, and Glenn Frankel all feature among the Best Reviewed Books of the Week