TODAY: In 1964, Frans Eemil Sillanpää, the first Finnish writer to be awarded the Nobel Prize for literature, dies.
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“You had to believe the people who sent you had a clue. You had to believe they cared.” Read Frank Light’s dispatches from the “reconstruction” of Afghanistan, circa 2004. | Lit Hub Politics
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Natasha Trethewey considers the timeless poetry of Muriel Rukeyser, who wrote “with the clarity and moral authority of one whose life was boldly and fully lived.” | Lit Hub Poetry
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Here are 10 short story collections to read this summer, from Jack Wang, Brandon Taylor, Clare Sestanovich, and more. | Lit Hub Reading Lists
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“I am a mother all the time, and I am a writer all the time. But it is the co-existence of these two things that I often find disorienting.” Pragya Agerwal on the struggle to find balance. | Lit Hub
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Doireann Ní Ghríofa talks to Lori Feathers about writing and embodying a female text: her first book of prose, A Ghost in the Throat. | Lit Hub
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Fumi Okiji reflects on the magic of avant-garde jazz trumpeter Don Cherry, and how through listening to music, we become hosts to the work. | Lit Hub Music
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“I touched all the things that reminded me of my new life in Missouri where no one hit me, and I could read as much as I wanted.” Ashley C. Ford on a complicated maternal bond and intergenerational love. | Lit Hub Memoir
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Merve Emre on Mieke Kawakami, Ron Charles on Rivka Galchen, and more of the Reviews You Need to Read This Week. | Book Marks
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Curtis Evans tells the story of Elise De Viane, who took Dashiell Hammett to court over a 1931 sexual assault. | CrimeReads
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“You can’t help but thrill to language that imagines it can get something done.” Lidija Haas considers the manifesto. | Bookforum
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Here’s some good publishing news: in the conservative book world, “the market for anti-Biden books is ice cold.” | The Atlantic
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“In these moments of rejecting showmanship, we undo the self-cannibalizing aspects of Black performance in the West.” Harmony Holiday on backstage as a sacred Black space. | The Believer
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Ashley C. Ford recommends her most memorable reads. | Elle
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“I always feel like writing the most when I’m being made invisible.” Kate Zambreno talks about her new book, the creative process, and her postpartum experience. | Los Angeles Times
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Deesha Philyaw unpacks the creative choices she made when writing her award-winning book The Secret Lives of Church Ladies. | Fiction Writers Review
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Sam Bett and David Boyd discuss translating Mieko Kawakami. | Full Stop
Also on Lit Hub: How the poets wrote of Billie Holiday • Lorenza Pieri on the pleasures and pitfalls of fictionalizing a great artist • Read from Zakiya Dalila Harris’ debut novel, The Other Black Girl