The Best of the Literary Internet, Every Day
TODAY: In 1925, Sol Yurick, author of the 1965 novel The Warriors, is born.
- Steal this identity: Bradford Morrow explores a brief history of literary forgery. | Lit Hub History
- Ariel Dorfman reflects on his friend Gabriel García Márquez’s legacy and the Netflix adaptation of One Hundred Years of Solitude. | Lit Hub Film
- Carolyn Kellogg on the value of the irreplaceable and the books she took with her while evacuating Los Angeles. | Lit Hub
- Sahar Delijani navigates the complexity of translating her life from one language to another. | Lit Hub On Translation
- “Like the things we eat or the ways we move our bodies, the books we consume get talked about as yet another avenue for self-improvement.” Tajja Isen on the anxiety of reading goals. | The Walrus
- Teju Cole on photographs of the Los Angeles fires: “But these images are fugitive for another reason—their function has changed. They bring us news of devastation, quick news that will soon be supplanted by other news.” | The New Yorker
- Middle Earth goes anime: Gerry Canavan on a new representation of an iconic Tolkien character. | Los Angeles Review of Books
- Colm Tóibín eulogizes another thing lost to the LA fires: the late Gary Indiana’s library. | London Review of Books
- Lila Shapiro investigates the myriad abuse allegations against Neil Gaiman. | Vulture
- “I came to What Remains hoping to find Arendt’s poems standing on their own, free from the weight of her essays and books and biography.” Daegan Miller considers Hannah Arendt’s poetry. | Poetry
- Mike Davis on Los Angeles, the ultrawealthy, and fire, from his 1998 book Ecology of Fear. | Verso
- “These shifts are only going to accelerate as more and more outlets, traditional and otherwise, kiss ass to Trump…in order to survive what will be a nasty transition characterized by increased censorship, algorithmic siloing, and accelerated platform death.” Kate Wagner asks, what are we even doing? | The Late Review
- On capitalism, New Age spirituality, and a (literary) history of Erewhon. | The Baffler
- “Oh, he’s not as fine a lecturer as William James? Go cry about it, you big baby.” Patricia Lockwood on mysticism. | London Review of Books
- “Much of the history of the Southwest has been defined by pushing past the limits that the desert set.” Zachariah Webb talks to Kyle Paoletta about his new book, American Oasis: Finding the Future in the Cities of the Southwest. | The Baffler
- On remembering Pasolini for his literature as much as his films. | The Point
- Amna A. Akbar on How to Blow Up a Pipeline, Luigi Mangione, and “a surge in genuine curiosity about the need for radical action.” | n+1
- Ellen Wexler considers Zora Neale Hurston’s obsession with the biblical villain Herod the Great. | Smithsonian Magazine
- David Lynch has died at 78. | The New York Times
Also on Lit Hub:
The class politics of tradwife influencers • The perennially relevant political message of Wicked • Haiti and the poetry of letter writing • Jonas Olofsson on the scent of memories • Memory, c-PTSD, and the ethics of re-imagining • The case for queer-coded villains • Literary film and TV for 2025 • Creating an afterlife for Homer’s Helen in poetry.• Authors take the Lit Hub questionnaire • This week’s new books include work by Graham Norton and more! • Jane Zwart on Ross Gay and Amy Leach • On Nan Goldin and Germany’s “Never Again is Now” resolution • Down with literary envy, up with celebrating literary successes • Michelle Adams on the failure of desegregation in the North • How the Islamic Golden Age birthed our most-used mathematical terms • Zeinab Badawi explores the African origins of humanity’s earliest ancestors • Luis Schwarcz on what it means to be a publisher • 5 book reviews you need to read this week • Maris Kreizman’s advice (to herself) on self-promotion • Andy Corren remembers his unforgettable mother • Lee Hawkins on growing up as a Black boy in suburban America • On Aria Aber’s TBR list • Erika Swyler on the art of worldbuilding • The Black Prince’s shipwreck and the complex history of anticolonial mutinies • On racial capitalism, coercion, and the reality of college football • The best reviewed books of the week • Kirsten Sundberg Lunstrum recommends books about wild girls • Caroline Eden writes in praise of the magnificent melon • Kyle Paoletta explores failed human efforts to conquer the desert
