Lit Hub Daily: April 5, 2019

• “There is such a thing as overcapitalizing the A in artist.” Writing advice from Saul Bellow. | Lit Hub
• “Living with a death sentence, having no idea when it will be enacted, is to straddle a void.” Raynor Winn takes a final walk with her husband on the longest path in England. | Lit Hub
• Read from Renee Nault’s graphic novelization of The Handmaid’s Tale. | Lit Hub
• How to spend a literary long weekend in Queens (because Brooklyn and Manhattan aren’t the only bookish boroughs in town). | Lit Hub
• “Being trans is not some fad, not some scheme. . .” Gabrielle Bellot on the shameful debate on Equality Act. | Lit Hub
• Rumors of the “gay gene” have been greatly exaggerated: on Richard Dawkins and the dangers of reductive science. | Lit Hub
• Lia Purpura on the actual eagles—or as Ben Franklin called them, “Birds of bad moral Character”—in her life. | Lit Hub
• Author and competitive poker player Jane Stanton Hitchcock on the joys of embracing obsession. | CrimeReads
• New titles from Miriam Toews, Nell Freudenberger, Mark Bowden, and Chris Rush all feature among the Best Reviewed Books of the Week. | Book Marks
• “No offense—we’re tired of reading about pink nipples.” A deep dive into the years of racism in the romance novel industry. | The Guardian
• One of the strangest literary scams of the 20th century is getting a screen treatment: Laura Dern and Kristen Stewart will star in JT LeRoy, about an author who created a literary persona—then had her sister-in-law pose as the character in public. | IndieWire
• Richard Wright’s Native Son had twice been adapted for film before this year. Both movies bombed. Will the work of playwright Suzan Lori-Park and artist Rashid Johnson make the third time a charm? | The New York Times
• On the origins of “bluestockings,” a term that originally described groups of female British intellectuals in the 18th-century that met to discuss literature, philanthropy, and more. | JSTOR Daily
• A new reason not to neglect your TBR pile: a Canadian couple found a winning lottery ticket tucked into a book a year after they bought it (just in time to claim their cash). | BBC
• “I always had this desire, and I don’t know where it comes from, to find out how things work and explain them to people.” Read an interview with historian Robert Caro. | Time
• Perhaps you’d like to know about Pete Buttigieg’s reading habits? | Vulture

Also on Lit Hub: On Literary Disco, Ryder, Julia, and Tod discuss Therese Marie Mailhot’s memoir Heart Berries • LaTanya McQueen and Eric LeMay in conversation on the New Books Network • What are the elements of a good children’s poem? • The real-time thrill of reading a writer’s diary • Read from Steward O’Nan’s new novel, Henry, Himself