Lit Hub Weekly: April 4-8, 2022

TODAY: In 1805, Hans Christian Andersen is born.   

• Revisiting James Baldwin’s groundbreaking 1967 essay “Negroes Are Antisemitic.” | Lit Hub

• Does being sad make us better artists? Susan Cain explores melancholy and creativity. | Lit Hub Psychology

• Writer on the verge of a nervous breakdown: Barbara Shulgasser-Parker on her very strange interview with Phillip Roth. | Lit Hub

• Recounting the journey of a fugitive conman who sought insight into Alexander the Great through his obsession with lost cities. | Lit Hub History

• “I wanted, simply, for my writing to resurrect.” Chelsea Bieker on grieving her complicated father. | Lit Hub

• New titles by Douglas Stuart, Jennifer Egan, and Emily St. John Mandel all feature among the Best Reviewed Books of the Week. | Book Marks

• Jody Hadlock recommends nine books “that will take you back in time to another place.” | CrimeReads

• Married poets Ilya Kaminsky and Katie Farris contemplate the agony of waiting—one for news from Ukraine, the other to learn whether her cancer has returned. | Oprah Daily

• “Horrible news is inevitable; Didion manages to douse it in elegance.” Ana Quiring on the popularity of Joan Didion and what it shows about us. | LARB

• “If I get really excited, I’ll maybe wear a tan.” What Pachinko author Min Jin Lee wears to work. | The Cut

• Matt Ortile names 25 must-read books by queer writers. | Esquire

• Rachel M. Cohen looks at the long history of public school systems making it difficult for teachers to tackle controversial subjects. | The New Republic

• “There’s a rumor that martial law will be declared at sundown. He has to make it to his flight to DC before then. Then on to Korea.” Anton Hur considers the US in a speculative essay about leaving it. | Astra

• One hundred years before the creation of Wordle, crossword mania swept the nation. | Zócalo Public Square

• “I’m not scared of war any more… you just have to keep on living and do whatever you can in the circumstances.” Andrey Kurkov on life during the war in Ukraine. | The Guardian

• Aidan Moher delves into the rise of the video game book club. | WIRED

• Lydia Kiesling on the darkness that underscores rags-to-riches stories. | The New York Times Magazine 

• Was Wallace Stegner’s classic American novel, Angle of Repose, actually plagiarized? | Alta

• A glossary of migration, from alien to Zugunruhe. | Lapham’s Quarterly

• “It feels as if Jefferson, looking about and seeing no suitable models, decided to construct her own.” Jasmine Sanders profiles Margo Jefferson. | Vulture

• Nylah Burton lists 10 essential books about the writing life. | Bitch Media

Also on Lit Hub:

Read O. Henry Prize winning stories by Olga Tokarczuk, Daniel Mason, and Alejandro Zambra • Listen to exclusive audio excerpts from Emily St. John Mandel’s new novel, Sea of Tranquility • Douglas Stuart on the defiant spirit of Glasgow’s doocots • New poetry from Ukraine by Kateryna Kalytko • What does it look like to meet climate panic with hope? • Pacifique Irankunda on growing up amid civil war • On the new golden age of African fashion • An introduction to Southeast Asian speculative fiction • The case for living like the Little Prince • On the unique challenge of designing a book by incarcerated writers • Grant Ginder’s ode to a French teacher • Aamina Ahmad on the hidden lives of writers and mothers • Why you need an elevator pitch for your book • Gina Sorell on approaching serious topics with a lighter touch • How the East Oakland Black Cultural Zone Collaborative is preserving protest art in the city • Tracing America’s concepts of disability back to 20th-century German fascism • Can a machine tell us who to love? • Antonia Pont against (the very idea of) procrastination • How watching men’s figure skating helped Jenny Tinghui Zhang fall back in love with writing • Culturally responsive education starts with culturally reflective stories • The problem of anti-Black racism in the child welfare system • In trying to understand her stepsister’s murder, Rachel Rear turned to acting in true crime shows • How (and why) did cultural tastes for spicy food develop? • How mystery writers use perfumes as clues • The ten minutes on television that made Joan Rivers a household name • Tracing the ancestry of the earliest enslaved Ndongo people • How digital media impacts America’s deadly cycle of mass shootings • Richard Overy on the last imperial war