The Best of the Literary Internet, Every Day
TODAY: In 1849, The Astor Place Riot takes place in Manhattan over a dispute between two Shakespearean actors, the American Edwin Forrest and the Englishman William Macready. Over 20 people are killed.
- “I began searching for the memories of people of color—migrant, immigrant, enslaved, and native people buried and forgotten.” Karen Tei Yamashita on finding stories in the soil. | Lit Hub Craft
- Why isn’t mom in the photo? Ellen O’Connell Whittet considers the Victorian practice of removing mothers from portraits. | Lit Hub History
- Jacob Kushner on the far-right serial killers who robbed banks and terrorized Germany’s immigrants in pursuit of a white nation. | CrimeReads
- Colm Tóibín’s Long Island, Sathnam Sanghera’s Empireworld, and Kaliane Bradley’s The Ministry of Time all feature among the best reviewed books of the week. | Book Marks
- Read from Alice McDermott’s One Story Literary Debutante Ball address: “Ah, fuck em.” | Lit Hub Craft
- Are we in the midst of a queer lit renaissance? Christina Cooke and Marissa Higgins have some thoughts: “This hashtag-chasing way of engaging with literature is doing us in.” | Lit Hub In Conversation
- “He made it clear for those who know how to read that he rejected the unworthy seducer of minors and that Lolita was a victim, like Nabokov himself.” Monika Zgustova on the parallels between Nabokov’s most famous novel and the writer’s own experiences. | Lit Hub Biography
- “Unfortunately, the psychology of having breasts is rarely so straightforward.” Sarah Thornton explores body dysmorphia after a double mastectomy. | Lit Hub Memoir
- “’A man without a job is like a boat without a rudder, or a shipwreck,’ said the Very Old Sheep. I loved sharing my happiness with him.” Read from Makenzy Orcel’s new novel, The Emperor. | Lit Hub Fiction
- “I think the way that people saw the protest was completely different from how we observed it on campus.” Student journalists discuss handling disinformation surrounding campus protests. | Wired
- How a book of medical misinformation became a best-seller, thanks to TikTok Shop. | Vox
- On a literature of Connie Converse, the folk singer who disappeared in 1974 and was never seen again. | Full Stop
- “The word dissent does not appear.” Zachary D. Carter revisits Columbia University president Minouch Shafik’s 2021 book What We Owe Each Other. | Slate
- A roundtable addresses the age old question: Music or lyrics? | Dirt
- How legal challenges to Elif Shafak’s writing represent only one piece of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s efforts to restrict and control Turkish journalists, authors, and academics. | The Dial
