TODAY: In 1564, church records indicate William Shakespeare is baptized in Stratford-upon-Avon. Since three days was a customary amount of time to wait before baptizing a newborn, Shakespeare is traditionally described as being born on April 23.
- Dear Internet: Here is Sally Rooney writing about the Avengers and the superhero myths of American power. | Lit Hub Archive
- “Every returned text is wasted words.” Philip K. Dick Award-Winner Meg Elison’s rules for writing. . . an entire novel in ten days. | Lit Hub
- “A superhero narrative—or a fairy tale—means nothing if there’s no adversity to overcome.” Amanda Leduc on disability, Captain Marvel, and fantasies of the perfectable body. | Lit Hub
- Can a little bit of data make parenting easier? Emily Oster talks to Pamela Druckerman about her “parenting book for economists.” | Lit Hub
- “I am still rather Victorian in my prejudices regarding the intelligence of women.” William Faulkner’s grudging, misogynistic fan letter to Anita Loos. | Lit Hub
- A poem from Deborah Landau’s collection Soft Targets. | Lit Hub
- When the world of fact helps fiction do its job: on the importance of getting the science right in your novel. | Lit Hub
- Like Twitter, but cold: on the literary culture of Arctic expeditions. | Lit Hub
- New titles from Ian McEwan, Oliver Sacks, and Louis Bayard all feature among the Best Reviewed Books of the Week. | Book Marks
- Lisa Levy scours the last two decades of crime fiction in search of The Great Hipster Mystery. | CrimeReads
- A beginner’s guide to locked room mysteries and impossible crimes, from Gigi Pandian. | CrimeReads
- Read a new story by Booker-shortlisted author Daisy Johnson (major bonus: it’s about Love Island). | New Statesman
- A previously undiscovered manuscript for a follow-up to A Clockwork Orange, which is “part philosophical reflection and part autobiography,” has been discovered in Anthony Burgess’s archive. | BBC
- Joy Harjo has won the 2019 Jackson Poetry Prize, which carries with it a $65,000 award. | Poets and Writers
- For those of you who stan the scientists who photographed the black hole (so basically everybody, right?), here’s what they like to read. | The Paris Review
- “For decades people will say it’s strange that a book this visionary and bizarre was written by someone with Gene’s background. But what does that mean, since The Book of the New Sun is a work virtually without precedent?” On the life and legacy of Gene Wolfe. | The Ringer
- A 500-year-old letter found in the UK’s National Archives suggests that Elizabeth Woodville, the grandmother of Henry VIII, died from the plague. | The Guardian
- How has feminist art since 1970 responded to the physical and emotional injuries inflicted on women? Coco Fusco discusses Vivien Green Fryd’s new book on this question, in light of #MeToo. | NYR Daily
- Writers from around the world, including Ma Jian, Jennifer Clement, and Ahmed Naji, will discuss “growing economic inequality, social injustice, political oppression, and eroding freedoms” at the PEN America World Voices Festival. | PEN
Also on Lit Hub: On the New Books Network, Kristin L. Hoganson talks to Stephen Hausmann about the American heartland’s white nationalist roots • Natasha Lennard on anti-fascism and the criminalization of protest in America • A statement on borders at the O, Miami Festival • Read from Lena Wolff’s The Polyglot Lovers (trans. Saskia Vogel).
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