TODAY: In 1865, William Butler Yeats is born. W. H. Auden, sadly, was not around to commemorate the birth.
- Guided by Dante through the electric air of grief: Joseph Luzzi on his memoir about becoming a widower and father in the space of one morning. | NPR
- White men whining about being white men and writing poetry: a vision of Hell. | The Atlantic
- Lamenting the loss of literary bullies: in criticism, “the bloodbath has become a featherbed.” | Literary Review
- “How could a book with a cover that beautiful have an author photo that ugly?” Amanda Filipacchi poses like a man, claims a small victory for women writers everywhere. | The New York Times Sunday Book Review
- “The essential work of art is to magnify the ordinary, to make that which is banal glorious through artistic exploration.” Chigozie Obioma in defense of prose that calls attention to itself. | The Millions
- Authors are shadowy, aura-creating figures of whom we are vaguely aware and by whom we are enthralled (so basically, wizards). | NYRB
- “Come, and take choice of all my library / And so beguile thy sorrow.” On bibliotherapy, the prescription of books for emotional ailments. | The New Yorker
- “I am confronted by an absurd world that kills in the name of the sun or Allah.” An interview with Kamel Daoud. | The Los Angeles Review of Books
- “…the color / of my mother’s hands, her flesh, the shrapnel is the same color / the propellers churn.” A poem from our new poet laureate, Juan Felipe Herrera. | The Poetry Foundation
- “There’s really no worse place to interview someone than a Russian bathhouse,” falsely attests this interview with (and excerpt from) Joshua Cohen. | VICE
- Valeria Luiselli on artists as sophisticated impostors, the torturous nature of writing, and translation as a method to create new networks of meanings. | Bookanista
- Ben Lerner advocates for the potentiality of poetry when it is read with perfect contempt. | London Review of Books
- “Because I’m a writer… I could either shut up, that’s the end, get on with dying. Or, get gripped, which is what happened.” Jenny Diski on writing with terminal cancer, without clichés. | The New York Times Magazine
- Due to avant-garde minstrel shows, this spring spawned forth the cruellest months for poetry. | Asian American Writers’ Workshop
- Anne Roiphe does not need your admiration, shares what 50 years of writing has taught her. | Publishers Weekly
- And in honor of his 150th birthday, Tess Gallagher, Eavan Boland, Tom Sleigh, and others are asked if Yeats was the best poet of the 20th century. | BBC
And on Literary Hub:
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- Sam George-Allen with the best version yet of the long-form “I worked in a strip club” essay.| Literary Hub
- Laird Hunt on writing gender identity in historical fiction. | Literary Hub
- Irvine Welsh on Hebdo, Porno, and writing in an American vernacular. | Literary Hub
- Cormac James talks to Philip Hoare about the spooky vision of whales, the fathomless depths of fiction, and the murderous power of the elements. | Literary Hub
- Ray Barfield on being both doctor and novelist: “The deepest moments of being a doctor and the deepest moments of being a writer feel similar to me.” | Literary Hub
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