TODAY: In 1922, Jack Kerouac is born.
-
14 contemporary artists on how reading influences their work (and what they’re reading now!). | Lit Hub Art
-
“Writing is very subconscious, and the last thing I want to do is think about it.” Rare thoughts on writing from Cormac McCarthy. | Lit Hub Craft
-
“Austen knew much more about female erotic fantasy than is commonly assumed.” Robert Morrison considers Jane Austen’s works as a precursor to Bridgerton. | Lit Hub TV
-
On the genius of Santiago Ramón y Cajal, who discovered neurons and called them “butterflies of the soul.” | Lit Hub Science
-
Terese Marie Mailhot considers what book royalties can’t buy. | Lit Hub Money
-
New titles by Elena Ferrante, Susan Straight, Fintan O’Toole, and Eloghosa Osunde all feature among the Best Reviewed Books of the Week. | Book Marks
-
Jody Gehrman on frenemies in fiction. | CrimeReads
-
A look at the ongoing labor reckoning in the publishing industry. | Publishers Lunch
-
“I hold out hope that books are true and that this will not—if Shakespeare has his say—end well for Putin.” Il’ja Rákoš on Richard III and the invasion of Ukraine. | The Millions
-
Diana Suryakusuma talks to Min Jin Lee about Lee’s efforts to raise awareness about anti-Asian hate. | Bloomberg Businessweek
-
Peter C. Baker tells the story of getting scammed into handing his debut novel to the notorious manuscript thief. | The New Yorker
-
When will Hollywood discover Georgette Heyer, “the Agatha Christie of romance novels”? | Vox
-
“It is a disconnect of morality; a space where the people who most need assistance are shunted to the side, left voiceless.” Kristen Arnett on the profound damage Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill will cause. | TIME
-
Thoreau’s notebooks documenting his time at Walden Pond are helping scientists understand the effects of climate change on the area. | JSTOR Daily
-
“In war, mourning the loss of art, be it actual or anticipated, is not separate from mourning for the senseless disruption and destruction of human life.” Yuliya Komska on endangered art and the stained glass of Ukraine. | LARB
-
Netflix is developing five new animated series based on Dr. Seuss books. | CNN
-
“If I could write worthwhile books in such a way that it wouldn’t upset anyone, I would. Unfortunately, that kind of writing has mostly proved not worthwhile.” Melissa Febos on writing about other people. | Kenyon Review
-
Rachel Kushner considers skiing and Sartre. | Harper’s
-
“Isolation proved a guard against rigid social expectations, especially those imposed on women.” Magdalena Ostas on Emily Dickinson and the creative “solitude of space.” | Psyche
-
Tara Isabella Burton ruminates on the seduction of the Catholic novel in a secular age. | Gawker
-
“We are all suffering from a prolonged hunger, and the realities of our circumstances won’t let us be satiated.” Hanif Abdurraqib on the “sad bangers” of his pandemic soundtrack. | The New York Times Magazine
Also on Lit Hub:
New work by Ukrainian poet Halyna Kruk • Gabrielle Bellot maps life two years in to the pandemic • On the deep cost of reporting from war zones • Juhea Kim weighs in on the upcoming series adaptation of Pachinko • Ross Showalter toward a literature of translation • What can a woman do inside a man’s novel? • On the impossible (and inevitable) goal of a mother • Lessons from a crash course in ghostwriting • On the kinship between creativity and depression • The dreams of utopian groupies • Why we need flies to exist • Melissa Fu on the importance of listening to elders • Are all books about economics? • Kelsey Ronan considers the writing about her hometown, Flint • Maya Lee on growing up with her mother’s matter-of-fact stories about Auschwitz-Birkenau • On the erotic power of hamantaschen • What it’s really like to play in the NFL • Diana Abu-Jaber on finding family histories • How the North beat the South, via dueling economies • Jonathan Franzen and his art team discuss his new backlist redesigns • On the life and death of literary journal The Portable Lower East Side • Molly Gallentine’s summer of professionally contemplating the end of humanity • What Françoise d’Eaubonne’s ecofeminist vision can teach us today • How Buffy mishandled characters of color • Revisiting The Golden Bowl, Henry James’s last and most difficult novel • Capturing a disappearing Greenwich Village • Why the romance genre needs its tropes