TODAY: In 1932 Sylvia Plath, pictured here having a nice time with a deer, is born.
- Rupert Thomson goes to the wilds of industrial Russia for book research he won’t use. | Literary Hub
- Alexander Chee finds himself in an Iris Murdoch novel. | Literary Hub
- “Diversity as an editor begins with your friends, your teachers, and your books.” Editors respond to the Best American Poetry debacle and offer thoughts on improving the (dismal) state of diversity in publishing. | PEN America
- Poetry is a witness: on the poets documenting the devastation of the Syrian civil war in verse. | LA Times
- David Mitchell talks Twitter fiction, acts of literary escapology, and the harm of genre elitism. | Salon
- In defense of the poetics of Claudia Rankine’s Citizen, which demonstrates “a level of extraordinary attention that only poetry… can pay and reward. | The Guardian
- In what has been hailed as “the literary equivalent of a lost Beatles track” by the actor who will read it, a recently discovered Dylan Thomas poem will be presented to the public this week. | BBC
- “The dinner table, Salter understood, was the perfect stage for the frailty of our relationships.” Kathleen Alcott on James Salter’s writing about food. | The Paris Review
- An optimistic view of the future of libraries, the beleaguered bedrock of our culture. | NYRB
- Of Milton’s first disobedience: mechanically discovering incorrect lines in Paradise Lost. | AGNI blog
Also on Literary Hub: How author photos change the way we read · Five books making news this week: witches, bankers, and Irishmen · A poem-a-day countdown to the Irish Arts Center Poetry Fest: day six, Leontia Flynn · Operation Enduring Freedom, from Brandon Caro’s Old Silk Road
