December 20, 2022 ‹ Literary Hub

Literary non-hotties, Ottessa Moshfegh’s Depop, and that time a bunch of cookbooks sank into the sea: And so begins our annual tradition of counting down the biggest literary stories of the year. | Lit Hub

“What, I wondered, would Pound have thought of Donald Trump?” Tom Rea on reading Ezra Pound in our neofascist age. | Lit Hub Politics

“It’s his 19th book… Here’s hoping it’s his last.” Yep, it’s the most scathing book reviews of 2022 (according to Book Marks). | Lit Hub

Merrill the poet, Bloom the reader: Heather Cass White unearths the literary fan mail between Harold Bloom and James Merrill. | Lit Hub

“The portrait’s power was unquestionable.” Kate Dwyer does a deep dive on the origins of the mysterious $110,000 Joan Didion portrait. | The New York Times

Ann Kjellberg reports on the closing of Bookforum. | Book Post

“Eliot understood that the only way to keep literary tradition alive was not for contemporary writers to worship it or ignore it but to continually reshape and extend it.” Ryan Ruby on 100 years of “The Waste Land.” | Poetry

For no special reason, Dan Kois talks to Emily St. John Mandel about what she’s been up to this year. | Slate

Take a look at the most borrowed books from New York City’s public libraries this year. | Gothamist

Ilana Masad recommends six classics actually worth your time. | The Atlantic