Lit Hub Weekly: February 1 – 5, 2021

TODAY: In 1995, poet James Merrill, dies.

“Some writers’ work has managed to be politically charged in subtle, strange ways.” Tobias Carroll wonders what makes a political novel last? | Lit Hub Criticism
“I have never met a lonelier person than someone suffering with pain.” One physician’s approach to the nebulousness of chronic pain. | Lit Hub Health
Anna Malaika Tubbs reflects on the mothers of Malcolm X, James Baldwin, and Martin Luther King Jr., and where we might be without their labor. | Lit Hub History
Ruth Ozeki has a new novel, and it’s coming this fall. | The Hub
In need of a little inspiration for these “deeply uncertain and circumscribed times”? Read Jane Austen. | BBC
Garth Greenwell and R.O. Kwon on the intersection of kink and art, and why “kink in and of itself is an aesthetic practice.” | BOMB
25 new and upcoming works from Black authors to check out in 2021. | CrimeReads
The ACLU of Arkansas is calling for the end to a ban on almost all reading material at the Benton County jail. | Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
The verdicts on new novels by David Duchovny, Lauren Oyler, and Chang-rae Lee feature among the Reviews You Need to Read This Week. | Book Marks
“During one thorny patch of my own intimate life, I found myself having passages quoted to me by two different women.” Alison Bechdel on the love letters of Virg inia Woolf and Vita Sackville-West. | The Guardian
How do you market a book in a pandemic? Six debut novelists discuss the challenges of releasing new work in 2021. | Forbes
“Rape does not go away when you refuse to say it. Euphemisms are death. And so is revenge, in the end.” Carmen Maria Machado on Promising Young Woman. | The New Yorker
The cop-free library movement is working to end contracts between libraries and local police forces. | Teen Vogue
“It is an enterprise of solid gold.” On that lucrative 18th century side-hustle: pirating Voltaire. | Lapham’s Quarterly
“In prison you don’t find yourself or come to understand yourself. Instead, you beat yourself up for every choice that brought you to where you are today.” Ahmed Naji on reading and writing in an Egyptian prison. | The Believer
“An unconditional compassion for the human condition is the one true gift I believe a writer can give the world.” Femi Kayode on writing about human behavior. | LARB
How authors are trying to reimagine the world of Sherlock Holmes, much to the chagrin of Arthur Conan Doyle’s estate. | The Guardian
A scientific investigation of the gut-brain connection (or: does reading really help you poop?). | Mel Magazine
“I’m not interested in demolition for demolition’s sake. I want to build something.” Why Dan-el Padilla Peralta wants scholars to rethink the future of classics. | New York Times Magazine
“When I write sex, I have to turn myself on, first and foremost. The first drafts are always for me.” Melissa Broder shares how she wrote Milk Fed. | BOMB
What’s old is new again: unpacking the sudden rise of medieval script on Instagram. | The Baffler

Also on Lit Hub:

Randa Jarrar on Palestinian mothers, the Virgin Mary, and the Mothers of the Movement • Emily Temple reads two new novels about Being Extremely Online • Ellie Eaton recommends her favorite literary mean girls • Lydia Paar considers if bots should replace humans after all • Keisha Bush on reclaiming her name • Mark Bittman on the philosophy of “agroecology” • Susan Meissner recommends 10 books set against natural disasters • An Tran on the fake translation scandalizing the Buddhist Anglosphere • Susan Conley considers the relationship between mothers and teenage sons • Paisley Rekdal has some advice for new graduates: read everything • Sheila Heti on the preoccupations of Richard Wollheim’s Germs • On Donald Barthelme’s bourbon-related writing advice and other lessons Chang-rae Lee has learned • Sarah Langan on the damaging archetype of The Mom • Louis Chude-Sokei on his dining table that reflected the Black diaspora • Maria E. Andreu on learning that dystopic realities aren’t as splashy as they are in fiction • David Hardin on telling the story of Flint, Michigan • Lauren Marino recreates the spaces of Virginia Woolf, Toni Morrison, and others • Thomas C. Holt on the Civil Rights rebellion of Carrie Lee Fitzgerald • When you’re stuck on your book, try writing another one inside of it • Courtney Maum finally embraces dancing, during pregnancy and beyond • Avni Doshi recommends nine books that capture the full complexity of motherhood • Laura Cronk considers ghosts and the gendered work of cleaning house • Russell Shorto on realizing that his grandfather was a small-town mobster • Molly Crabapple has a message for New Yorkers • Nonsense that men told 18th-century “Lady Novelists” • Nadav Eyal on the rise of neo-fascism in contemporary Germany

Best of Book Marks:

From a skin-shedding bodyguard to the adopted daughter of death, here are 7 Sci-Fi and Fantasy books to soothe your February blues • The Art of Fielding, Postcolonial Love Poem, and more rapid-fire book recs from Emily Nemens • Heather Cleary recommends some brilliant books in translation…about translators! • The Last Samurai, 10:04, A Wrinkle in Time, and more rapid-fire book recs from Lauren Oyler • New titles from Melissa Broder, Lauren Oyler, and Dantiel W. Moniz all feature among the Best Reviewed Books of the Week