Best of the Week: March 14 – 18, 2016

TODAY: In 1933, Philip Roth, perennial Nobel prize bridesmaid, is born. 

• “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
• The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis but for emoji: Elisa Gabbert on naming, timeless writing, and our conception of color. | Guernica
• A vision of loneliness and riot: A profile of author and publisher Danielle Dutton. | LA Times
• Hatred nourished by bread and milk: An excerpt from Barkskins by Annie Proulx. | The New Yorker
• Garth Greenwell on the queer tradition of autofiction, the thrill of writing prose, and combining patience and indulgence. | Bookforum
• A new issue of The Scofield, featuring Jeffery Renard Allen, Helen Phillips, and a lot of doppelgängers, is now live. | The Scofield
• “I sat at my desk and contemplated all that I had accomplished this year.” James Tate’s final poem, as it was found in his typewriter. | The Paris Review
• “When I hear my father has died, I get a tremendous craving for mushrooms.” An essay by Kaitlyn Greenidge. | BuzzFeed Books
• Writing about the Internet now is supposed to be this Wild West of a fictional setting: An interview with Tony Tulathimutte. | Full Stop
• Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney on reimagining her career, the elevated location of fiction, and the appropriate reaction to a million-dollar advance (laughter, whiskey). | Vulture
• Jessa Crispin on pre-constructing narratives, having an antagonistic relationship to the publishing industry, and having to deal with men. | The Rumpus
• Love, loss, and neoliberal capitalism: On Beijing Comrades, a gay erotic novel that became a touchstone for queer men in China. | Broadly
• From challenging the canon to “aimless, anti-critical, abstracted pro-‘book’ propaganda,” the rise and (limited) utility of “bookchat.” [Possibly bookchat.] | Flavorwire
• “People have been concerned about what my mother and my (hypothetical) children would think of things I’d written—things that had nothing to do with them—long before I ever got pregnant.” On the condescending questions asked of women writers. | The Cut
• Mysterious, doomed, reckless, but also deeply alive: On Chicago’s greatest poet, Gwendolyn Brooks. | The Toast

And on Literary Hub:

• 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.
• When Chris Offutt lost his virginity at the World Science Fiction Convention of 1969…
• Rosalie Knecht reflects on the stories she tells as a social worker and how they bleed into fiction.
• Darcy Steinke in conversation with Samantha Hunt: on loneliness, motherhood, hauntings, and cults.
• At 97 years old, Doris Grumbach looks back on a most extraordinary literary life (including getting fired from The New Republic, before it was cool).
• Danielle Dutton questions some terrible writing advice from famous writers.
• They just dig: Elissa Washuta on memoir, coal mining, and the hard art of excavation.
• How social networks play favorites: the hidden forces behind going viral.
• Paul Holdengraber continues his phone call with Adam Phillips: on Walt Whitman, self-discovery, and American rock n’ roll.
• David L. Ulin in conversation with John D’Agata about the art of the American essay.
• Lisa Levy profiles Adrian McKinty, working-class hero of Irish crime fiction.
• From Ireland to Iowa, Sara Baume tries to understand America one pattern at a time.
• Junot Diaz and Hilton Als talk masculinity, science fiction, and writing as an act of defiance.
• Why you should watch the new Nora Ephron documentary: Michelle Dean on the art of Ephronology.
• When the apocalypse is your religion: on leaving the church and finding a haven in science fiction.

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