Lit Hub Daily: April 2, 2021

• “Our letters are a closeness we can keep.” Jackie Polzin on writing letters to her grandfather during COVID, and the joys of slow correspondence. | Lit Hub

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• On American Pastoral’s Merry Levov, American literary fiction’s peerless female stutterer, and what we lose by singular representation. | Lit Hub Criticism

• “Everyone who digs through the archaeological site of their own addiction has to do so a few square inches at a time.” Steven Wingate on the addict as archaeologist. | Lit Hub

• A conversation between Katy Derbyshire and Ayça Türkoğlu, about their
  15-year translation project to bring Selim Özdoğan’s The Blacksmith’s Daughter into English for the first time. | Lit Hub Translation

• INTERVIEW WITH AN INDIE PRESS: Coffee House staffers talk publishing outside the margins, launching the Coffee House Writers Project, and how they really, really want you to get in touch. | Lit Hub

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• Edward Hirsch gives a close reading of Robert Hayden’s poem “The Whipping,” a refusal to sentimentalize the past. | Lit Hub Poetry

• Erica Robuk on five fearless female spies and resistors who fought the Nazis. | CrimeReads

• Kaitlyn Greenidge’s Libertie, Sharon Stone’s The Beauty of Living Twice, and Melissa Febos’ Girlhood all feature among the Best Reviewed Books of the Week. | Book Marks
  

• “America has ruined the name Bich for me, and I have let it.” Beth Nguyen on anti-Asian racism, violence, and the space afforded by choosing a new name. | The New Yorker

• Lynn Novick and Ken Burns discuss their new documentary series about Hemingway, and the work of re-evaluating our icons. | The New York Times

• Think you might have one great song in you? Maybe you should read Jeff Tweedy’s new book, How to Write One Song. | Los Angeles Review of Books

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• Lucille Clifton, Mark Doty, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Rita Dove… Jill Krementz digs into her photo archive in honor of Poetry Month. | New York Social Diary

• “The tragedy in Baartman’s story makes people slow to recognize her as a body-positive heroine.” Shayla Lawson on body image and Saartjie Baartman. | Bustle

• “Vonnegut and Everett, even if commodifying art through disparate philosophies, would never expect their work to function in a vacuum.” On abstraction and legacy in Bluebeard and So Much Blue. | Ploughshares

• “One will find works inspired by family histories, captivating tribal myths, tales imbued with intense spirituality, ecological intimacy, painful historical awareness, and a fantastically broad emotional palette.” André Naffis-Sahely explores a new anthology of Native Nations poetry. | Poetry Foundation

• “Often, when you’re writing novels, you’re not only writing toward things. You’re also pushing against them as you’re working.” Lauren Groff on religion, individualism, and writing her new book. | ELLE

Also on Lit Hub: An interview with Melissa Febos • Read Kim Addonizio’s poem, “Night in the Castle” • Read from Susan Orleans’ new essay, “You Are Ready for Takeoff”