TODAY: In 1631, poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright John Dryden, who was made England’s first Poet Laureate in 1668, is born.
- Lessons from Nabokov: Rajia Hassib on finding freedom in a foreign language. | Lit Hub
- “By not participating in the self-erasure of double consciousness, you make its futility evident and palpable.” Gregory Pardlo writes a letter to Yusef Komunyakaa. | Lit Hub
- “Belonging is not a language you can learn.” On translating a childhood between five countries. | Lit Hub
- Is there such a thing as an ethics of cosmopolitanism? Martha C. Nussbaum goes all the way back to Cicero. | Lit Hub
- Kanako Nishi on Jun’ichiro Tanizaki’s subversive attention to detail in an age of endless scrolling. | Lit Hub
- Nile Cappello on the stranger-than-fiction tale of the Bloody Benders, America’s first family of serial killers. | CrimeReads
- 13 books that will actually make you laugh out loud: from A Confederacy of Dunces to The Sellout. | Book Marks
- Paule Marshall, author of Brown Girl, Brownstones, has died at the age of 90. | The Philadelphia Tribune
- “It’s less a ghost than a fingerprint: personal, private, not meant to be observed.” Inside Philip K. Dick’s archives. | LA Times
- Take a look at graphic novelist Rutu Modan’s illustrated homage to Israeli author Leah Goldberg. | The New York Times
- Revisiting the understated career of Dorothy West, the bestselling novelist who was the last writer associated with the Harlem Renaissance until her death in 1998. | The Guardian
- From Olga Tokarczuk to Yoko Ogawa: 10 great new books by women in translation. | BookRiot
- “Jesus never was like, ‘Yo, y’all should really have a lot of guns right now.’” Lyz Lenz on Christianity, rural America, and nuance in reporting. | New York Magazine
- Migrant workers in Singapore are writing poetry and memoirs “highlight[ing] their daily lives of drudgery and the wrenching heartache of being away from home.” | Mint
Also on Lit Hub: Edoardo Albinati on masculinity, Italy, and fascism • Tory Bilski recommends 5 books for horse girls (of any age and gender) • Read an excerpt from Roy Scranton’s I Heart Oklahoma!
