TODAY: In 1926, C.S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien meet for the first time.
- “Students and elders were sharing their religious traditions and experiences, in a common cause of love and justice to combat American empire.” Steven Thrasher visits Gaza Solidarity Camps in Chicago and New York and talks to students. | Lit Hub Politics
- Why not organize your bookcase using the vibes-only method? Monica Wood on why she organizes books by emotion. | Lit Hub Criticism
- “If there’s any metaphor I would use for the act of writing, it would have to be listening.” Jon Fosse on how writing plays transformed his craft. | Lit Hub Craft
- Jonathan Corcoran on the teacher who showed him that writing begins far from the page: Pulitzer Prize winner Jayne Anne Phillips. | Lit Hub Criticism
- “Every love poem is a Palestine poem, and every Palestine poem is a love poem.” Mandy Shunnarah on Mahmoud Darwish and writing Palestinian poetry. | The Offing
- In praise of the student journalists covering university protests: “These outlets claim to be some of the most trustworthy names in news. They have millions of dollars to spend on reporting. But this week, they were all put to shame by journalists who haven’t even left college.” | The Nation
- Rachel Cusk and Ira Sachs discuss “novelistic” filmmaking. | Los Angeles Review of Books
- “As any reader of fairy tales knows, dark forests are places of obscurity, but not of safety.” Examining the internet as a place of refuge and the films of Jane Schoenbrun. | New York Review of Books
- Paulina Proznitz digs into the rise of the wildly popular, “straight-up filthy” romantasy genre. | Air Mail
- On the “gender trouble” inherent to L. Frank Baum’s The Enchanted Island of Yew. | Public Books
- “Famous journalists castigating students for making a strategic choice they disagree with punctures these writers’ pretensions of objectivity.” Why student protesters are right to be skeptical of prestige journalism. | Jacobin
- “Can you publish Bridge to Terabithia in the age of Captain Underpants?” Dan Kois explores the marked decline in the number of kids who read for pleasure. | Slate
- Philippa Snow examines the works of the late Heather Lewis. | The Baffler
- “Targeting books is not a new practice, and it has a violent history.” Adania Shibli on book bans and the destruction of Palestinian literature. | The Paris Review
- “We must not turn away in despair”: Olivia Snaije talks to Luke Leafgren, translator of Tale of a Wall by Nasser Abu Srour, a Palestinian writer serving a life sentence in Israeli prison. | Words Without Borders
- Emet North on the inherent queerness of many worlds narratives: “To consider an alternate self is to free your imagination from the consequences that weigh on any real decision.” | Reactor
- “I think the way that people saw the protest was completely different from how we observed it on campus.” Student journalists discuss handling disinformation surrounding campus protests. | Wired
- “The word dissent does not appear.” Zachary D. Carter revisits Columbia University president Minouch Shafik’s 2021 book What We Owe Each Other. | Slate
Also on Lit Hub:
Photographer Rachel Cobb documents the protests at Columbia University • Ariel Dorfman recommends Latin American literature to Latin America’s most autocratic leaders • On the changing face of nature and climate narratives • Nina Sharma on Shiva’s dreadlocks and navigating anti-Blackness • Jane Wong on memoir, permission, and writing about family • What does it mean to be both a mother and a daughter? • Larry Tye on the triumphs and struggles of Black women in 20th century jazz • Ann Hood on World War I trench art • What’s sprezz? Magdalena Zyzak explains • What can plant intelligence can reveal about us? • Elizabeth Graver remembers her friend and agent, Richard Parks • Angie Sijun Lou on soil, time, and recognizing alternate forms of sentience • How concepts of beauty are passed from mother to daughter • Why are cantinas so important to Mexican literature? • On the creation of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children • On the The Millstone by Margaret Drabble, a 1960s British novel for a post-Roe America • What’s Wendy Chen reading now and next? • Maris Kreizman on PEN America • John James Audubon’s bird paintings and artistic collaboration • Fiona Warnick considers what a gardening journal can document • Lucas Mann talks to Brian Gresko about fatherhood • How pregnancy changes someone forever • Dead pets, the writing process, and letting go • Karen Tei Yamashita on finding stories in the soil • On the Victorian practice of removing mothers from portraits • The far-right serial killers who robbed banks and terrorized Germany’s immigrants • “Ah, fuck em.” – Alice McDermott • Are we in the midst of a queer lit renaissance? • The parallels between Nabokov’s most famous novel and the writer’s own experiences • Sarah Thornton explores body dysmorphia after a double mastectomy