TODAY: In 1789, The Power of Sympathy: or, The Triumph of Nature by William Hill Brown, widely considered to be the first American novel, is published.
- “Maybe I had to be brought back to that state, ugly and unloved inside and out, to become the right reader for Gatsby.” David Stuart Maclean on his journey to appreciating Fitzgerald’s classic. | Lit Hub
- André Aciman reflects on being homesick for an Alexandria he never knew. | Lit Hub
- Ladee Hubbard on Aunt Jemima and the problem of trying to erase racism, instead of reckoning with it. | Lit Hub
- Afrofuturism has been around long before we had a name for it. For Tim Fielder, radical black imaginaries have been speaking to him since his Mississippi childhood. | Lit Hub
- Parul Sehgal on Tove Ditlevsen’s Copenhagen Trilogy, Dwigth Garner on a biography of Lucian Freud, and more Reviews You Need to Read This Week. | Book Marks
- “Doyle’s genius is not in what he reveals, but what he conceals.” Timothy Miller on the eternal mystery of Sherlock Holmes. | CrimeReads
- “In pain or grief, love, rage, or illness, in hormonal extremes or sleepless desperation, the body gifts us a window onto the world that changes what we see by virtue of shifting how we see it.” Marina Benjamin on the codependence of language and the body. | The Paris Review
- America’s new favorite poet Amanda Gorman talks about the inspiration behind “The Hill We Climb,” and the Maya Angelou–inspired ring that was a gift from (who else) Oprah. | Vogue
- “Were Wharton writing their story… one fears the prince might not fare well.” Claire Messud makes the case for Meghan Markle as a present-day Undine Spragg. | T Magazine
- Héctor Tobar, Annette Gordon-Reed, and more discuss the disinformation crisis, and the path to a more stable democracy. | The Los Angeles Times
- “You have to remind yourself, “This is what I’m for, I’m not good at anything else.” And you just have to keep going.” Read an interview with Kevin Barry. | LARB
- “I am interested in things that are popular. … But also, I understand what a good book is, and what an intelligent set of ideas is.” Lauren Oyler on literary criticism. | The Wall Street Journal
- The pulp noir books of Richard Himmel, a former “star” of the Chicago design scene, are back in print for a new generation of readers. | Chicago Tribune
Also on Lit Hub: Douglas Penick considers Buddhist traditions of compassion • Simon Winchester on how we divide our world • Read an excerpt from Mariana Enriquez’s The Dangers of Smoking in Bed.