Lit Hub Daily: April 7, 2022

• Does being sad make us better artists? Susan Cain explores melancholy and creativity. | Lit Hub Psychology

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• Getting the Goon Squad back together: Jennifer Egan chats with Jane Ciabattari about her new novel, The Candy House. | Lit Hub In Conversation

• “Here was a man who came to perform because he loved it, because it brought him joy, quads and medals be damned.” How watching men’s figure skating helped Jenny Tinghui Zhang fall back in love with writing. | Lit Hub Sports

• Culturally responsive education, writes Luma Mufleh, starts with culturally reflective stories. | Lit Hub Teaching

• “I am tired of knowing men better than they know themselves.” Holly Hayworth on Mad Men, Robert Bly, and the crisis of masculinity. | Lit Hub Gender

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• Dorothy Roberts considers the problem of anti-Black racism in the child welfare system. | Lit Hub Politics

• In trying to understand her stepsister’s murder, Rachel Rear turned to acting in true crime shows. | Lit Hub Memoir

• Hillary Kelly on Douglas Stuart’s Young Mungo, Jennifer Egan on Jenny Tinghui Zhang’s Four Treasures of the Sky, and more of the Reviews You Need to Read This Week. | Book Marks

• In Eli Crano’s latest “Shop Talk” column, Kellye Garrett finds a character, finds a murder, and starts filling up the notebooks. | CrimeReads

• Michael Dirda writes in praise of his favorite mystery books that defy expectations. | The Washington Post

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• Nazish Dholakia describes the cruel practice of banning books in prison and how activists are working to ensure access. | Vera Institute

• “I will welcome the darling creatures with the enthusiasm they deserve.” Marion Winik reconsiders the cicada. | Dorothy Parker’s Ashes

• Aidan Moher delves into the rise of the video game book club. | WIRED

• Married poets Ilya Kaminsky and Katie Farris contemplate the agony of waiting—one for news from Ukraine, the other to learn whether her cancer has returned. | Oprah Daily

• Lydia Kiesling on the darkness that underscores rags-to-riches stories. | The New York Times Magazine Was Wallace Stegner’s classic American novel, Angle of Repose, actually plagiarized? | Alta

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Also on Lit Hub: Reframing the legacy of 70s screenwriter Carole Eastman • How (and why) did cultural tastes for spicy food develop? • Read from Bonnie Garmus’s debut novel, Lessons in Chemistry