Lit Hub Daily: April 23, 2024
THE BEST OF THE LITERARY INTERNET
TODAY: In 1861, Herbert Coleridge, first editor of what will become the Oxford English Dictionary, dies at 30 of tuberculosis; Frederick James Furnivall is appointed to succeed him.
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Jane Smiley, Judi Dench, Amy Tan, and more! These 24 new books are out this week. | Lit Hub Reading Lists
Article continues after advertisement - “My grandmother, who survived the Nazi occupation of Ukraine, never thought she’d live to see another war, especially started by Russia.” Sasha Vasilyuk on growing up in both Russia and Ukraine. | Lit Hub In Conversation
- Gabrielle Bellot on the failures of America’s two party system: “But America’s current political binary can’t last much longer as it is. It’s straining at the seams.” | Lit Hub Politics
- It took nine years to write a novel. Or, depending on how you look at it, a month. Justin Taylor on the value of restarting. | Lit Hub Craft
- “I hope to become someone who uses a pen filled with the blood of reality and the moralistic spittle of the masses to create his own literary tomb.” Yan Lianke on state censorship, artistic integrity, and the market forces behind publishing. | Lit Hub Criticism
- Judi Dench and Brendan O’Hea in conversation about a lifetime of performing Shakespeare: “Then they heard an American voice say: ‘Bartender, give these two Shakespearean cats a drink.’ They looked up and it was Frank Sinatra.” | Lit Hub In Conversation
- “Lilacs, rain, a hint of bitter chocolate: Stella sniffed the air as she entered the small shop, enjoying the soft golden light that enfolded her.” Read from Ruth Reichl’s new book, The Paris Novel. | Lit Hub Fiction
- “We’re watching it play out. And yet, what are the biggest stories? What does everyone care about? It’s not climate change, which freaks me out.” Elizabeth Kolbert in conversation about writing and climate change. | Los Angeles Review of Books
- Emily Barr writes about libraries, Encyclopedia Brown, and her brother, Philip Seymour Hoffman. | The Paris Review
- Ever wish your vacation destination had a book butler? On the rise of literary travel. | Esquire
- A.O. Scott sings the praises of “literary fan fiction.” | The New York Times
- In honor of Immanuel Kant’s 300th birthday, three scholars discuss their favorite Kant passages. | The Point
- “Even the most basic scraps of writing we do—lessons in cursive, text messages, marginal jottings, postcards, all the paltry offcuts of our minds—improve us.” Samanth Subramanian on AI and the end of the human writer. | The New Republic
