Lit Hub Daily: September 16, 2021

TODAY: In 1987, Toni Morrison’s Beloved is published by Knopf.  

• “Our immediate thought was, Jesus, look at it. This is from Emily Dickinson’s head!” Jen DeGregorio investigates the curious case of Emily Dickinson’s locks of hair (maybe), which have been quietly traded among a group of literary men for years (that part for sure). | Lit Hub

• Fifty great literary cameos in (terrible) early 2000s movies, from Bring it On to Gigli. | Lit Hub Film

• “How does a moment among a small, niche group of people constitute the creation of a new wave of literature?” Katie Yee has had enough of the literary internet. | Lit Hub Criticism

• Lauren Elkin on Annie Ernaux, who “charts the tangible moments of everyday life gleaned from the most undramatic of outings.” | Lit Hub Criticism

• On the medieval brilliance (and blind luck) that gifted us with the concept of the quarantine. | Lit Hub History

• “Even the self you take to be so real / falls away while you labor.” Read “The Mountaintop,” a new poem by Sandra Lim. | Lit Hub Poetry

• Louise Nealon on the books that have helped her find new ways to talk about mental health. | Lit Hub

• Nice Leng’ete remembers the teacher who led her to question the Maasai practice of female genital mutilation, and gave her hope. | Lit Hub Memoir

• Margaret Mizushima on ten novels set in the high country of the American West. | CrimeReads

• Lauren Michele Jackson on Sally Rooney, Karan Mahajan on Colson Whitehead, and more of the Reviews You Need to Read This Week. | Book Marks

• Take a look inside the headquarters of America’s largest publisher of community cookbooks (including one by a San Francisco gay clown collective). | Atlas Obscura

• “The Summer Woman,” a newly discovered story by Tennessee Williams, has been published for the first time. | The Guardian 

• Hate ebooks? You’re not alone. | The Atlantic

• These monographs tell the stories of “outsider artists” who produced work apart from the mainstream. | ARTnews

• Kristofer Collins digs into books with a close connection to Pittsburgh. | Pittsburgh Magazine

• Rax King discusses her new essay collection and the meaning of “tacky.” | Publishers Weekly

• Aekta Khubchandani rethinks the loss of her childhood and the harshness of the male gaze. | Entropy

Also on Lit Hub: On Suat Derviş and how a writer gets erased from literary history • Eric Pallant on the first great sourdough boom • Read from Joy Williams’ latest novel, Harrow

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