TODAY: In 1925, Virginia Woolf’s novel Mrs Dalloway is published.
- What can literature tell us about the “profound emotions connected with great science”? | Lit Hub Science
- Unpacking the literary destruction of the Ukrainian language. | Lit Hub Ukraine
- “Limón does not come at truth with the slant of Dickinson; she is, rather, more inclined toward a direct punch to the gut.” Sara B. Franklin on the brilliance of Ada Limón. | Lit Hub Poetry
- “Fetishizing women writers before promptly forgetting them is an American tradition that has cost us the legacy of more than one talented woman writer.” Reclaiming Pamela Moore from the sisterhood of sad literary girls. | Lit Hub
- “When survival is on the line, books can drill into the core human question of how we take care of one another and ourselves.” How climate anxiety is seeping into all kinds of fiction. | The Atlantic
- Anne Enright, Annette Gordon-Reed, and more respond to the leaked Supreme Court draft decision to overturn Roe Wade. | NYRB
- Kenny Stancil talks to librarians about book bans around the country. | Salon
- Sophie Gilbert revisits Penelope Mortimer’s 1958 novel, Daddy’s Gone a-Hunting, which explores “the calamity of unwanted motherhood.” | The Atlantic
- “History is a permanent negotiation with the past, a contractual relationship with truth that needs to be constantly renewed.” Hernan Diaz talks about writing stories set in the past. | Los Angeles Review of Books
- “In imagining that a single person could have been responsible for Anne Frank’s death, are we not betraying her still?” Ruth Franklin on The Betrayal of Anne Frank. | NYRB
- Jo Livingstone digs into the peculiar cultural history of Mercury in retrograde. | Harper’s Bazaar
- What makes a great—or terrible—audiobook performance? | Vulture
- “How quickly I had stopped treating my body like a terrible secret.” Melissa Febos on the feminist case for breast reduction. | The New York Times Magazine
- Jokha Alharthi and her translator Marilyn Booth discuss the process of translating Bitter Orange Tree from Arabic to English. | Electric Literature
- Lidija Haas considers Happening, the new film adaptation of Annie Ernaux’s 2000 memoir. | The New Republic
- Tom Johnson explores the “subtly momentous cultural change” spurred by the arrival of paper in England. | London Review of Books
- “MTV Books chronicled all manner of suffering in the early aughts, most of it cruel and undeserved. It was also the suffering of the systemically blessed.” Rachel Vorona Cote traces the life, death, and rebirth of MTV Books. | Hazlitt
- Meet the new class of rare book collectors. | The New York Times
- Why do you feel sad when you finish reading a book? Howard Timberlake investigates. | BBC
Also on Lit Hub: Ada Limón on how to write a poetry collection • Jennifer Weiner on the evolution of her book covers • Kateryna Volkova reflects on life as a publisher in wartime Ukraine • Why Colin Barrett lets his characters talk a little shite • Angela Garbes on the sensual side of mothering • A. J. Verdelle recalls a memorable Q&A with Toni Morrison • Emily Bingham on the racist history of a beloved American song • Dispatches from the country’s only touring Black rodeo • Bud Smith recommends great road trip novels • Nick Ripatrazone revisits an infamous UFO case that he’s spent his life trying to avoid • Minnie Driver on walking out of a (pervy, humiliating) audition • Vaclav Smil investigates the psychology of hazard • Reema Patel considers the South Asian diaspora trope known as “the return of the native” • Behind the scenes of making a very important prop for National Treasure: Book of Secrets • Sara Kruzan, the inspiration behind Sara’s Law, tells her story • When Murdoch met Sartre • Krithika Varagur considers Edith Wharton’s divergent Gilded Age novel, The Old Maid • Why do so many cold cases go unsolved? • Nylah Burton reviews the new adaptation of Conversations with Friends
• Paul Craddock reveals the horrors and lore of early dentistry • John Higgins on what we mean when we call William Blake’s artwork “visionary” • In praise of boredom, a gateway to creativity