Best of the Week: July 27 – 31, 2015

TODAY: In 1819, Herman Melville, uncredited Baby Belgua lyricist, is born.

• “Law enforcement officers see only the color of my skin, and in the color of my skin they see criminality.” Roxane Gay on Sandra Bland and driving while black. | The New York Times
• “He saw us clearly and tenderly, just as we are, but also was able to see past that – to what we might, at our best, become.” George Saunders on the bravery of the late E. L. Doctorow. | The New Yorker
• Margaret Atwood imagines three futures without oil, ranging from a mindful eco-paradise to a hellscape in which we eat our dogs. | Matter
• “I don’t think it’s industry pressure, I think it’s the way we’re brought up.” Nicola Griffith on the scarcity of female narratives in literary fiction. | The Seattle Review of Books
• The much beloved, void-loving Clarice Lispector is finally “getting the Bolaño treatment.” | The New Republic
• On the difficulty of understanding Arabic literature without understanding the Arabic literary tradition. | The National
• “The point of having a child is to be rent asunder, torn in two.” Sarah Manguso on writing, motherhood, and finding fulfillment. | Harper’s Magazine
• “The Custom of the Country is everything Primates of Park Avenue is not and strains to be.” On the true Queen of Manhattan’s bored, brilliant, and bourgeois, Edith Wharton. | The Oyster Review
• The Man Booker longlist was announced today: Enright, Yanagihara, Clegg, and ten others will be culled into a list of six in September. | The Man Booker Prize
• On Marie Darrieussecq, the Marquis de Sade, and writing, uneasily, about fictionalized violence against women. | Full Stop
• The implied possibility of connection: Mia Alvar discusses her debut collection, the gap between outer and inner lives, and the limits of belonging. | The Rumpus
• From the alleged illiteracy of Homer to Alcuin’s scribes, Western writing got off to a “supremely leisurely start.” | Lapham’s Quarterly
• Blind submissions don’t eliminate the literary biases of editors; we must actively work to overcome our cultural conditioning. | Apogee Journal, The James Franco Review
• Didion fever: an interview with the biographer of everyone’s favorite “perfect advertisement for herself.” | i-D
• This week marked the 88^th birthday of John Ashbery, poet, translator, visual artist, and Nell Zink character. | Biographile

And on Literary Hub:

• Tim Parks on death, family, and a text from the afterlife. | Literary Hub
• The invention of the modern monster in fin-de-siecle London. | Literary Hub
• The search for C. S. Lewis’s one true love, Joy Davidman. | Literary Hub
• “I’ve had to reinvent myself every five years to keep making a living, reinvigorate and shake things up.” Susan Shapiro on making the jump from big house to small press, and being addicted to book events. | Literary Hub
• Jennine Capó Crucet on turning her fear and frustration as a first-generation college student into fiction. | Literary Hub

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