TODAY: In 1924, E. M. Forster’s A Passage to India is published.
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“I realized that I was no longer a skeptical observer of the Northern hypothesis of Shakespeare authorship; I had become a collaborator.” Michael Blanding on the (extremely compelling) Sir Thomas North theory. | Lit Hub History
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David Yoon’s 13 Habits of Highly Effective Writers. | Lit Hub Craft & Advice
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Data is making early American slavery easier to measure—yet “more difficult to comprehend.” | Lit Hub History
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Bill McKibben reckons with the myths (and ugly truths) of the American Revolution. | Lit Hub History
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Barry Lopez’s Embrace Fearlessly the Burning World, Jean Hanff Korelitz’s The Latecomer, and David Sedaris’ Happy-Go-Lucky all feature among the Best Reviewed Books of the Week. | Book Marks
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Poets laureate, librarians, and bookstore owners recommend what to read next, by state. | NPR
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“The alternatives to growth are many, and multiplying.” Michelle Nijhuis reads two new books that enumerate the benefits of life in a slower economy. | NYRB
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George Saunders offers ten ways to think about endings. | Story Club with George Saunders
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Ada Calhoun explores the tension between domesticity and creativity. | Vogue
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“A man with a dozen houses confronts death, the coronavirus pandemic, Black Lives Matter, and broad cultural changes that he cannot fully understand. ‘Ha ha!’ he says.” Dan Brooks on David Sedaris’ latest collection. | Gawker
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Phil Klay on the secrecy of American military operations. | The New York Times
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“I hope this text can serve as a model for how we can investigate, call in instead of call out, and write with a sense of curiosity and compassion.” Steven Reigns talks about writing about HIV, homophobia, and history. | LARB
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“I didn’t write Nevada in a way I could comprehend its impact outside of queer and trans people in my community.” Casey Plett interviews Imogen Binnie about her newly republished novel. | Harper’s Bazaar
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Ross Gay, Frank Guridy, and Deborah Paredez discuss poetry, basketball, and writing about Black life. | Public Books
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Bo Seo lists the books that taught him the value of debate. | The Atlantic
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“For me, euphoria is simply the act of waking up, making my coffee, and sitting down with a book and being able to read.” Elliot Page recommends the books that have moved him recently. | Esquire
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“Reading is always an act of trust. Whenever we read anything, from a novel to the label on a prescription bottle, trust is involved.” Rhian Sasseen talks to Hernan Diaz about his new novel. | The Paris Review
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How Moms for Liberty is fear-mongering about CRT and “pornographic novels” to help conservatives win midterm elections. | The New Republic
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“The poems shine a light on what’s behind Wilma, the activist.” Frances McCue on finding the lost poems of Cherokee Chief Wilma Mankiller. | Indian Country Today
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“I think we are still trying to find a language for what Gunn and others of his and my generation survived, if that is the word. Withstood.” Hilton Als on the letters of Thom Gunn. | The New Yorker
Also on Lit Hub:
What can we learn from the “bad gays” of history? • On Star Trek’s long (long) road to embracing queer characters • The nonfiction novel and the blurred line between fact and fiction • Peter C. Baker talks to Linda Huang about making the cover for his new novel • Nina LaCour on growing up alongside her teen characters • Kim Stanley Robinson on waking up in the High Sierra • Lydia Conklin on the invaluable gift of writing residences • On Franz Kafka’s nearly lost drawings • Marie Myung-Ok Lee on the challenge of writing satire in present-day America • Where did the rags-to-riches myth of rapid immigrant mobility come from? • Why Sofia Coppola made The Bling Ring • Women writing worlds in crisis • How James Baldwin’s singular children’s book “answers to a higher calling” • Jean Hanff Korelitz enthuses about fiction and the Hill Cumorah Pageant • On Ida B. Wells’ anti-lynching exposés • Julia Serano on the “mess of mixed messages” that is male socialization • Kelly Lytle Hernández traces the road to revolution in turn-of-the-century Mexico • Why Lily Chu makes a daily to-do list • In the opioid epidemic, prosecutions don’t always help victims • Svetlana Alexievich on the primitiveness of the authoritarian systems • What an archive of testimonials tells us about abortion before Roe • Notes on memory and forgetting • How 19th-century gun-makers helped preserve the Union