Lit Hub Daily: April 14, 2020

• “In art, as in life, there is nothing accidental.” Translator Richard Pevear on the stories of Chekhov. | Lit Hub
• “For one exceptional point in time, all of our fears are aligned, and we are given a common language with which to speak of them.” A letter from Beirut, by Lina Mounzer. | Lit Hub
• Straight and silvery, big as buckshot, a thin knife of cool… and more of the best rain in literature. | Lit Hub
• Mark Doty considers the question of homoeroticism in Walt Whitman’s poetry. | Lit Hub
• ON THE VBC: Tommy Pico and Kristen Arnett talk White Claw and group chats on Books and Booze · On Sheltering, Rowan Hisayo Buchanan discusses mental health and relationship dynamics. | Lit Hub
• “Who willed your loss, O alcohol?” Two poems by Paul Valéry, translated by Nathaniel Rudavsky-Brody. | Lit Hub
• Chelsea Bieker, Maya Shanbhag Lang, and more take the Lit Hub Author Questionnaire. | Lit Hub
• Drag queen Crystal Rasmussen on the secret language of make-up. | Lit Hub
• Godshot author Chelsea Bieker shares five books about coming of age in the West, from Janet Finch’s White Oleander to Emma Cline’s The Girls. | Book Marks
• Hide your weird home from your friends and colleagues and make one of these beautiful libraries your Zoom background. | Library Journal
• “A person in my state of health should not have such miseries to bear”: Quarantine correspondence from John Keats. | Lapham’s Quarterly
• What fiction gets right—and wrong—about pandemics. | Mel Magazine
• Samantha Irby’s favorite books include titles by Gillian Flynn and Hanif Abdurraqib. | Vulture
• At a time when comfort is in short supply, these books give a sense of the familiar. | The Guardian
• Perhaps you would like a wine pairing to go with that novel you’re reading tonight? | Wine Enthusiast
• Italian writers are rushing to publish books about coronavirus. | The New York Times

Also on Lit Hub: On the anniversary of the killing of Abraham Lincoln by the coward John Wilkes Booth • On Yogi Berra’s journey from rookie to ten-time championship winner • Read an excerpt from Andrés Barba’s latest novel A Luminous Republic (trans. by Lisa Dillman).