TODAY: In 1913, Robert Hayden, poet, essayist, and educator who served as Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1976–78 (the first African-American writer to hold the title, which is today known as US Poet Laureate), is born.
- Haunted by the ghost of Lizzie Borden, Sarah Schmidt decided to write her story. | Literary Hub
- Wallace Shawn on the appetites of Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, taking yourself seriously, and the downside of civilization (hint: it is not insignificant). | Literary Hub
- 10 female killers in literature: on our fascination with women murderers. | Literary Hub
- Remembering legendary editor Judith Jones. | Literary Hub
- Michael Clune on the relentless cognitive grip of heroin addiction. | Literary Hub
- How trying (and failing) to finish a crime novel helped my literary writing. | Literary Hub
- Porn addiction, Lizzie Borden, alt-right trolls, and more: The best-reviewed books of this week. | Book Marks
- 100 great works of dystopian fiction, from Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels (1726) to Omar El Akkad’s American War (2017). | Vulture
- I can see the mind of my twenties, thirties, forties: Penelope Lively on her autobiographical library. | Granta
- “Am I escaping the expectations of what a brown writer is supposed to make when I write as Ripley?” On writing under a white pseudonym. | The Walrus
- Between word and image vast migrations seem to flicker: On Teju Cole’s photography exhibition, “Blind Spot and Black Paper.” | The New York Review of Books
- Is handwriting history? On the past, future, and fetishization of the handwritten word. | Public Books
- The list of the highest-paid authors of 2017 is entirely unsurprising, but here it is if you want to see how many millions of dollars J.K. Rowling made. | Forbes
- A new initiative called The Global Anthology will showcase “a work of prose from every country on Earth, as well as many nations, states, sovereignties, territories, and flag-less regions.” | Culture Trip
