Lit Hub Daily: August 12, 2022

• “No freedom in these ruins.” Four poems of war by Marianna Kiyanovska. | Lit Hub Ukraine

• In praise of Dame Maya and cringe queen Vanessa Bayer: Annie Berke on the SNL spinoff vehicles Loot and I Love That for You. | Lit Hub Film & TV

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• On the gruesome methods of justice in Medieval Europe—or, a pig and a locust get in trouble with the law. | Lit Hub History

• “We are what we eat, because the things we consume become part of our cells, the movement of our thoughts, even what we perceive as the beautiful.” Jehanne Dubrow on the many experiences of taste. | Lit Hub Food

• Why Lucy Sante recommends writing at the “juncture between knowing and not knowing.” | Lit Hub Craft

• After Katrina, impossible decisions: Read a scene from Sheri Fink’s Five Days at Memorial, newly adapted by Apple TV+. | Lit Hub Film & TV

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• What do Michael Mann, Jim Thorpe, and Kiki de Montparnasse have in common? They all feature among the Best Reviewed Books of the Week. | Book Marks

• Olivia Rutigliano on the breakneck fun of Bullet Train. | CrimeReads

• “Publishing, originally geared toward offering new writers the chance to connect with readers, evermore trends toward an industry narrowly engineered to produce repeat best sellers.” Square Books founder Richard Howarth weighs in on the pending Simon & Schuster acquisition. | The New York Times

• Weston Brown speaks out about his estranged mother’s campaign to ban library books in her Texas town. | The Texas Tribune

• Coty Wamp, who was just elected district attorney for Hamilton County, Tennessee, denies that she said she would prosecute librarians—although a viral video shows her suggesting she would do just that. | Jezebel

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• Samantha Facciolo talks to the teenagers starting a banned book club in response to attempts to limit what they read. | Reader’s Digest

• “The speed of writing is an attempt to not have my originating ‘self’ that surrounds and creates the work shift too much.” Jesse Ball discusses his writing process. | The Wall Street Journal

• Rehooked on phonics: Inside the effort to change the way kids are taught to read. | TIME

• “What baffles me? What am I afraid of? The answer came, spelled out as if in alphabet blocks: ALABAMA.” Andrew Sean Greer on going South to research his novel. | Esquire

Also on Lit Hub: Leslye Penelope on fact, fiction, and truth • Read from Eva Baltasar’s newly translated novel, Boulder (tr. Julia Sanches)