Lit Hub Daily: April 4, 2025
THE BEST OF THE LITERARY INTERNET
TODAY: In 1914, Marguerite Duras is born.
- “In real-life Trump America, critical thought and political speech are shuttered in service of a belligerent agenda.” On the university as crisis and price of Columbia’s soul. | Lit Hub Politics
- Crystal Hana Kim on the many uses of food: “To pay attention to the meal in front of you is to commit your hope and faith.” | Lit Hub Food
- Nick Ripatrazone revisits Val Kilmer’s poetry. | Lit Hub Criticism
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David Szalay’s Flesh, Elaine Pagels’ Miracles and Wonder, and Joe Dunthorne’s Children of Radium all feature among the best reviewed books of the week. | Book Marks
- Nancy Kricorian on memorializing her grandmother in a novel and the traumas of Armenian Genocide. | Lit Hub Criticism
- “The mistake, in fact, is a gift. The break, or breakdown, allows for a breakthrough.” Maggie Smith on why we should embrace imperfection. | Lit Hub Craft
- “She clubbed her new husband to a pulp / with a fire extinguisher when she was young. / These things happen.” Read “The Bible as Literature,” a poem by Amy Gerstler from the collection Is This My Final Form? | Lit Hub Poetry
- There’s some sort of holdup. Every day they expect to fly out and every day they are told it will be “another twenty-four hours.” Read from David Szalay’s new novel, Flesh. | Lit Hub Fiction
- Why the present environment on American college campuses is “worse than McCarthyism.” | The Nation
- “A story of two truths: light / and shadows.” Read three poems by Dalia Taha, translated by Sara Elkamel. | The Dial
- “In no state today can a minimum-wage worker afford a two-bedroom apartment.” Michael Friedrich examines a new book on the phenomenon of working homelessness. | The Baffler
- Laura Marsh considers the role of family in Katie Kitamura’s Audition. | New York Review of Books
- “In Texas, there are at least 31 bills – the most of any state – that would impair libraries’ ability to ‘acquire and provide diverse materials, resources and programming,’ according to the library association.” The continuing right-wing assault on books and libraries. | The Guardian
- On how the publishing industry is preparing for Trump’s tariffs. | Publisher’s Weekly
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