TODAY: In 1917, Maeve Brennan, Irish-born short story writer and journalist, is born.
- Would Hollywood even exist without books? Your essential literary guide to this Sunday’s Golden Globes. | Literary Hub
- Emily Fridlund offers her personal canon of Gothic tales, from Bronte to Munro. | Literary Hub
- On the evolution of sex writing, from Victorian exoticism to first-person immersion. | Literary Hub
- “In its antiquity, its pageantry and its evocation of deep English history… I wondered if seeing swan upping firsthand could help me understand a little more about the state I was in.” Helen Macdonald attempts to understand post-Brexit England through an antiquated tradition. | The New York Times Magazine
- The National Book Foundation has announced the Book Rich Environment Initiative, which will combat “book deserts” by donating books to residents of public housing. | Los Angeles Times
- Beyond Chris Martin’s tepid interpretation: On the extent to which Rumi’s Muslim teaching shaped his ideas and his poetry. | The New Yorker
- on A Series of Unfortunate Events, “a book that suggested that maybe it wasn’t so bad, or wrong, or unusual that I lived my life in a constant state of dread.” | BuzzFeed Reader
- “Men write dark stories all the time, and rarely is that darkness obsessed over… But when women write dark, all of a sudden it’s a thing. It’s like: Why so dark? I mean, have you seen the world? It’s an appropriate response.” A profile of Roxane Gay. | Vogue
- “Yiannopoulos is both the offspring and natural heir of the conservative publishing industry, a market that’s always valued angry bombast over substance.” On conservative imprints’ reliable profitability and their rewarding of hate-mongering. | Jezebel
- Fever Dream, Marlena, and more: Sara Nović selects 25 highly-anticipated books by female authors coming out this year. | Elle
Also on Lit Hub: Talking to Mike Mills about 20th Century Women · Watch a great poet talk on the TV (John Berryman!) · From Josip Novakovich’s new story collection
