The Best of the Literary Internet, Every Day
TODAY: In 1968, Valerie Solanas, the author of SCUM Manifesto, attempts to assassinate Andy Warhol.
-
The kids are OK: Kelly McMasters on the ethics of family memoir. | Lit Hub
-
“Shall these horrors await our future generations?” How WWI inspired Black Americans to fight for dignity at home. | Lit Hub History
-
Cat Sebastian on the unexpected power of Mary Renault’s The Charioteer, the 1950s novel that presaged queer liberation. | Lit Hub Criticism
-
Edwin Heathcote in praise of the park bench, a place of both solitude and belonging. | Lit Hub Design
-
Jonathan Eig’s King: A Life, Emma Cline’s The Guest, Jonny Steinberg’s Winnie and Nelson, and Abraham Verghese’s The Covenant of Water all feature among May’s Best Reviewed Books. | Book Marks
-
Five mysteries featuring musicians in Tinseltown. | CrimeReads
-
Inside the black box: Scientists are trying to figure out what books ChatGPT is being fed. | Business Insider
-
In a conversation with Sally Rooney, Annie Ernaux said the Nobel Prize fell into her life “like a bomb.” | The Guardian
-
“The books are all in my orange-grove farmhouse, in towering stacks, like a movie set for an old bookstore. I see America through fiction.” Susan Straight maps 1,001 books across America. | Los Angeles Times
-
Is art prostitution? Kate Wolf looks at two new books on sex work and commoditization. | Momus
-
“Writing shouldn’t be so unstable that one needs another job to support it. But having another job doesn’t diminish the work of writing, either.” Rainesford Stauffer on the hobby/job dichotomy. | Esquire
-
“It could be argued that she isn’t a writer but a performance artist’s take on a writer.” Lili Anolik profiles Caroline Calloway. | Vanity Fair
-
In conversation: Walt Whitman and Taylor Swift. | McSweeney’s
-
“In challenging economic times, readers are turning to books as affordable.” Are books actually recession-proof? | Fortune
-
“We had the idea to try to collapse the space between young readers and publishers and authors…” Dave Eggers wants people to see how books get made. | The New York Times
-
Diego Rodríguez Landeros draws a line between urban smells and revolution in Paris and Mexico City. | Words Without Borders
-
“Before my father died in 2001, I knew that I loved him but only dimly. I didn’t really feel it, and to the extent that I did, I experienced it as painful.” Mary Gaitskill on the last days of her father’s life. | The Paris Review
-
Aimee Levitt considers the impact of Madhur Jaffrey’s An Invitation to Indian Cooking on American home cooks. | Eater
-
Jack Hamilton revisits Stephen King’s Night Shift, the story collection that represents “some of the most purely terrifying work of his career.” | Slate
-
California is set to join Illinois in “banning” book bans. | Axios
-
Rebecca F. Kuange explains why she finds the idea that authors should only write characters of their own race “deeply frustrating and pretty illogical.” | The Guardian
Also on Lit Hub:
Gabrielle Bellot looks to literature to better understand our relationship to artificial intelligence • Laura Tillman explores the contradictions of migrant chef Lalo Garcia • Amelia Possanza on the power of uncovering hidden LGBTQ lives • On the enduringness of Ernie Pyle’s Brave Men • Grace Lavery on the devices of trans identity in literature • Monica Potts on the pre-destination of motherhood in rural America • AudioFile’s best audiobooks of May • Alba Donati on returning to her rural Tuscan roots • 37 Drag Race contestants (and RuPaul) on drag as an art form and the show’s legacy • Alexis Gunderson talks to authors on the WGA picket line • A look at the long tradition of sexism in wine culture • Joanna Biggs on reading Ferrante with other women • On Cary Grant, crop dusters, and character arcs • On learning life lessons from Anne of Green Gables • Steph Catudal recalls the beginning of her husband’s mysterious illness • Zara Raheem on finding Muslim women in fiction • Lucy Scholes makes the case for Shirley Hazzard The Bay of Noon • Charlotte Gill on adjusting to American life
