TODAY: In 1850, Honoré de Balzac marries Ewelina Hanska, whom he met after she wrote him a letter criticizing his work.
- Tracy Chevalier, past president of the Laura Ingalls Wilder Club. | Literary Hub
- The novel is a mad, rambling, genius hobo: Dana Spiotta and Christopher Sorrentino in conversation. | Literary Hub
- When Chris Offutt lost his virginity at the World Science Fiction Convention of 1969… | Literary Hub
- “He is objectively ridiculous, his career is murky at best and the campaign will be passionate and long.” Marilynne Robinson on Donald Trump. | The Guardian
- Clancy Martin explains why “the confusion of the Trump supporter is less dangerous than the conviction of the voters who support Ted Cruz.” | The New Republic
- Joyce Carol Oates on American landscape art, the “real,” and the photography of David T. Hanson. | The New Yorker
- The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis but for emoji: Elisa Gabbert on naming, timeless writing, and our conception of color. | Guernica
- “What do you want, I asked, forgetting I had/no language.” A poem by Ocean Vuong (and a response by artist Not Vital). | T Magazine
- Harper Lee’s estate is at it again: Mass-market editions of To Kill A Mockingbird will no longer be published. | The New Republic
- A vision of loneliness and riot: A profile of author and publisher Danielle Dutton. | LA Times
- Of Benjamin Franklin and makerspaces: How public libraries “are becoming gateways to technological tinkering.” | The Atlantic
Also on Literary Hub: Want more friends? Open a bookstore: inside Avid Bookshop · Poem-doodles by bill bissett Trump, as told by Shirley Jackson: the everyday horror of “The Lottery” still has much to teach us… · A trip across the border, 1978: from Jonathan Lee’s High Dive
