TODAY: In 1978, Pablo Neruda dies.
- “Taping a luminous little poem to a parking lot post hardly rose to the level of guerrilla art, but still, it felt subversive.” Maggie Lane on the life of the poet elf. | Lit Hub
- WATCH: Matt Quinn of Mt. Joy on musical storytelling and early influences, as part of our Mighty SONG Writers series. | Lit Hub Music
- Beowulf: “Can we make this quick? I have a busy day.” Climactic moments in literature rescheduled as Zoom meetings, as drawn by Kate Gavino. | Lit Hub Art
- “Over lockdown I found that, in a surreal manner, I was not wishing myself away to any place other than where I was.” A conversation between Kerri ní Dochartaigh and Katie Holten about excavating language, and the politics of place. | Lit Hub Nature
- What is so special about Balzac’s thousands of characters? Peter Brooks on the extraordinary fictional lives of the French master. | Lit Hub
- Gerry Spence on the case of Collins Catch the Bear, the Lakota man wrongly accused of murder at Wounded Knee. | Lit Hub History
- Was abstract art actually invented by a mid-19th-century spiritualist? Jennifer Dasal on the 1871 art exhibition of Georgiana Houghton. | Lit Hub Art
- What does it mean to buy from Black-owned businesses? Cassi Pittman Claytor on buying-power, racial uplift, and the Black middle class.
| Lit Hub Politics - “It is a matter of style, where style is verifiable presence on the page.” Brian Dillon on the perfect prose of Joan Didion’s photo captions. | The New Yorker
- Winston Groom, the author of Forrest Gump, has died at the age of 77. | LA Times
- “Let’s sail till we come to the edge.” Read a “literary supercut” composed of the final lines of 137 science fiction and fantasy books. | WIRED
- “A medium-sized cream envelope landed in my mail slot. On the back flap: ‘Chambers of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.’” David Ebershoff on editing Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. | The Paris Review
- “Representation is having someone from your culture, your race, your community, your tribe, your hood, who you can bounce your stories off of.” Christopher Louis Romaguera on the power of seeing yourself reflected in literature. | Ploughshares
- There are increasing calls for open access publishing throughout Africa as prohibitive paywalls disadvantage scientists. | VICE
- In October, the city of Rome will launch a major new literary festival, Insieme, which merges three traditional events into one. | Wanted in Rome