The Best of the Literary Internet, Every Day
TODAY: In 1925, Mexican poet and author Rosario Castellanos is born.
- Want to be a writer? Follow Ursula K. Le Guin’s advice. | Lit Hub Craft
- Ed Simon recommends Langston Hughes, Dorothy Barker, Geoff Dyer, and more books on jazz in honor of Duke Ellington. | Lit Hub Reading Lists
- “In the world of eastern Slavic nations, Kyiv is just like Rome to Western Europe—the place where it all began.” Illia Ponomarenko on how Ukraine confronted the looming threat of war. | Lit Hub Politics
- Anthony Pinn explores how James Baldwin, Richard Wright, Zora Neale Hurston, and others embraced a new Black humanism: “For Harlem renaissance artists, both visual and literary, advocacy for Black humanity involved pushing against the politics of respectability.” | Lit Hub History
- Should you let your family read your memoir before it’s published? Lilly Dancyger makes the case for yes. | Lit Hub Craft
- “Crowdfunding can powerfully reproduce the status quo rather than change the fates of those who are most in need.” On why crowdfunding isn’t a solution for those who struggle to pay for necessary healthcare, but a mask for the real problem. | Lit Hub Health
- “On the long journey to you, / I saw the caravans of my fleeing people, / my kin on the paths of disaster.” Read Samer Abu Hawwash’s poem “The Final City.,” translated by Huda Fakhreddine. | Lit Hub Poetry
- Joyce Carol Oates’ Butcher, R.O. Kwon’s Exhibit, Daniel Handler’s And Then? and Then? What Else?, and Kevin Kwan’s Lies and Weddings all feature among the best reviewed books of the week. | Book Marks
- “Several factors drove S. to Ajodiadei’s shack on her birthday.” Read from Bea Vianen’s novel, My Name Is Sita, translated by Kristen Gehrman. | Lit Hub Fiction
- “I think I’m old enough now to write a love story because I’m out of danger.” Jenny Erpenbeck on Kairos. | The Guardian
- Paige Williams reports on how Minneapolis librarians are working to reimagine how public libraries work with homeless patrons and function as public spaces. | The New Yorker
- “My most invested, formative times of translating were meshed with this intensive formation in caring.” Kate Briggs discusses the parallels between the often hidden work of translation and parenthood. | Words Without Borders
- What does Chaucer have to do with Gaza? “Troilus is a poem about a city under siege.” | Public Books
- The book to cinema pipeline isn’t a simple one-way street. On the history and practice of novelizing movies. | The Baffler
- “As occasionally happens, a particular novel, read at a particular time, has a profound and instantaneous effect.” Jordan Castro on Nicholson Baker. | The Point
