TODAY: In 1998, Mexican poet and diplomat Octavio Paz dies.
- So, who’s actually funny in the age of Trump? Sloane Crosley and Alexandra Petri talk to Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan on Fiction/Non/Fiction. | Lit Hub
- From Ishiguro to Faludi to Koestler, 12 books that are guaranteed to make you cry (even if, like us, you’re just a little bit dead inside). | Lit Hub
- “I’m not the supplicant anymore…” Olivia Laing on moving up in the world (and writing a novel!). | Lit Hub
- “Those memories will forever remain too raw for me to explore.” Hannah McKinnon on losing a friend in a cult’s mass suicide. | CrimeReads
- Michiko Kakutani’s return to the NYTBR, Justin Taylor on Thomas McGuane’s “wise and moving” collected stories, and 3 other must-read reviews from this week. | Book Marks
- “Can language even bear the weight of this mess of our lives?” Jhumpa Lahiri on translating the novels of Domenico Starnone (aka Elena Ferrante’s husband). | The Paris Review
- Kate Briggs poses some tricky questions on how, exactly, we judge translations. | Lit Hub
- Josephine Livingstone on Kendrick Lamar’s Pulitzer and “the way hip hop has compromised the distinction between music and literature.” | New Republic
- Why is caring about fashion considered unserious? | Lit Hub
- Geoff Dyer on the marriage of writing and photography, from James Agee and Walker Evans’s Let Us Now Praise Famous Men to Teju Cole’s Blind Spot. | The New York Times Magazine
- “Love for the willy-nilly / And Willy Nelson is welcome.” Read a poem by Terrance Hayes. | Ploughshares
- “What does it mean to be a ‘local author’ in Hawaii, this distinct nation encased within a state?” Hawaiian authors on the island’s literature and literary community. | Catapult
- A look at the Qatar National Library, which “celebrates its collection of more than a million books by incorporating them into the infrastructure of the building.” | Co.Design
Also on Literary Hub: When war comes: In Iraq, it comes with many names · Celina Su blends inquiry with poetry: The author of Landia in conversation with Vi Khi Nao · Read from Elle Nash’s debut novel, Animals Eat Each Other.
