TODAY: In 1963, Spanish poet Luis Cernuda dies.
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Emily Temple rounds up the 60 greatest academic satires, campus novels, and boarding school bildungsromans of the last 100 years. | Lit Hub Reading Lists
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Lynn Caponera considers the wild and wonderful legacy of Maurice Sendak’s creations (and his rigorous work routine). | Lit Hub Art & Photography
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“To publish a collection of short stories in my nineties seems miraculous to me.” Hilma Wolitzer on returning to a favorite form. | Lit Hub
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Emily Tamkin considers the racial politics of Jewish immigrants in the US, whose whiteness “has been taken as obvious, then questioned, then reasserted over the decades.” | Lit Hub History
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Bono’s Surrender, Bob Dylan’s The Philosophy of Modern Song, and Claire Keegan’s Foster all feature among the Best Reviewed Books of the Week. | Book Marks
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Ann Claire rounds up seven wildly entertaining books about Agatha Christie and her characters. | CrimeReads
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“The target immediately moves over to Amazon.” What’s next after a federal judge blocked the merger of Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster? | The New York Times
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Janell Ross reports from the “Books Unbanned” bus tour with scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw and other organizers. | TIME
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Arrowsmith Press continues their series of conversations with Ukrainian writers with Borys and Liudmila Khersonsky talking to Marie Howe. | Arrowsmith Press
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“Tawada’s lifelong exploration of language is countered only by her lifelong search for Europe—where it begins, where it ends, and who it belongs to.” Reed McConnell on the work of Yoko Tawada. | The Baffler
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Andrew Bird discusses the origin of his Phoebe Bridgers/Emily Dickinson collaboration. | Vanity Fair
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“Wharton remains committed to representing how wretched survival can be, even when that survival features the most luxurious of fabrics, goods, and surroundings.” Sarah Blackwood on the “continuous present” of The Custom of the Country. | The Paris Review
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Considering the recent crop of novels by Hollywood auteurs. | The Drift
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“Straddling the line between masturbation material and pure shock tactc, Sade’s novels—like American Horror Story—make little narrative sense.” Tara Isabella Burton on American Horror Story’s joyless decadence. | Gawker
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Carl Phillips considers the meaning and power of stamina. | The Sewanee Review
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Naomi Kanakia questions the purpose of book clubs—and talks about what makes a good one. | Los Angeles Review of Books
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“There’s no substitute for that bone-deep knowing, accrued over millions of footsteps along the same road.” Mira Jacob explores the grief that comes then a best friend leaves the city where you grew together. | Harper’s Bazaar
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From Reading Lolita in Tehran to Persepolis, Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson recommends books that offer insight into Iranian women’s lives. | NPR
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“I’m writing a poet on the other side of the world in the middle of a war for your country. What am I to say?” Reginald Dwayne Betts and Serhiy Zhadan exchange letters about the tough places they come from. | NYRB
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Adrienne Westenfeld considers the problems of storytelling in the age of the mega-franchise. | Esquire
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“On a pickup basketball court, no matter how good you are, you ask to be let on a team, and into the game. Which is to say, you are a perpetual guest.” Ross Gay on John Edgar Wideman’s Hoop Roots. | Orion
Also on Lit Hub:
Ken Burns on trying to capture America through photographs • Judy Blume tells the story of her first period • On Gayl Jones, the best American novelist to disappear (and come back) twice • How Langston Hughes warned the world of fascism • Where ghost stories live • Remembering the foremothers of the occult • Barbara Chase-Riboud on the whirlwind of the 1960s art world • Dionne Irving considers the remnants of empire in Jamaica • Teow Lim Goh on the history of Chinese immigrants in the Old West • Manuel Muñoz on failing to tell the story of his absent biological father • Louise Kennedy on the gifts of her writing shed • Finding Black queer life between the lines of history • A call to change our notions of illness and disability • A history of witches and puritans in 1630s New England • How Samuel Adams fought for independence—anonymously • Confronting racist terror in the American South • Sussie Anie on the isolating experience of misophonia • How much control do humans have over their lives, really? • A brief history of the Golden Age of hip-hop • An ode to Harriet the Spy, the art monster of East End Avenue • On the exquisite banality of married texting • How to bake black pepper snowballs… vengefully • What our brains do and don’t tell us • Serena Burdick on lessons learned from a 17-year journey to publication • What abortion looked like in 1968 • How war becomes a (deadly) performance • Sarah Shoemaker on following the book research