Lit Hub Daily: August 19, 2025
THE BEST OF THE LITERARY INTERNET
TODAY: In 1687, Samuel Richardson, author of Pamela, one of the first modern English novels, is born.
- “She became fascinated with how human beings—especially those who didn’t have much power—could empower themselves and others and change the world.” What Octavia Butler’s early writings reveal about her trajectory as a literary icon. | Lit Hub Biography
- Charlie Jane Anders explains just how much dark academia owes to A.S. Byatt’s Possession. | Lit Hub Criticism
- The 20 new books out today include titles about Octavia Butler, James Baldwin, and more! | Lit Hub Reading Lists
- “Are poets useful?” Raymond Antrobus on deafness, writing, and finding a purpose. | Lit Hub Memoir
- River Selby talks to Jane Ciabattari about fighting fires, sending messages to her past self, and writing trauma in memoir. | Lit Hub In Conversation
- “Horses were a part of the daily fabric of life for many enslaved Black people.” On the importance of the horse in escaping slavery. | Lit Hub History
- Zhang Yueran on how her family’s nanny inspired her novel, Women, Seated: “I knew that Jiao might leave us someday.” | Lit Hub Craft
- “The mass of all Ruth knew was a dot in the void.” Read from Kate Riley’s new novel, Ruth. | Lit Hub Fiction
- Vivian Gornick considers “the solipsism of low self-esteem… So inexplicable is its grip, so binding its influence, it can feel almost mythic.” | The New Yorker
- Angelina Mazza makes the case for the unexpected pleasures of a “merciless hellscape overrun by petty, perpetually aggrieved readers,” Goodreads. | Slate
- “When Richard and I hit the Play button on Kanopy, I didn’t know we were in store for a work of art as tender as it is beautiful.” Laurie Stone rewatches Paper Moon. | The Paris Review
- Han Zhang on exposing American readers to Chinese literary fiction and challenging fixed perceptions of Chinese books. | NPR
- April White explores efforts to archive the life and career of Lulu Adams, clown extraordinaire. | JSTOR Daily
- How a group of Michigan parents fought back against right-wing activists in their school district. | The New Republic
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