Lit Hub Daily: August 31, 2023

TODAY: In 1946, John Hersey’s “Hiroshima” is published in The New Yorker, taking up every page except the “Goings On” calendar.     

• How the pocket calculator got made (bless). | Lit Hub Math

• “Other than my husband, all day long I was surrounded by people who didn’t care whether I ever wrote another word, including my beloved children.” Lightsey Darst muses on what it means to write after having children. | Lit Hub

• 24 books finally out in paperback this September. | The Hub

• Lauren Carroll Harris delves into two Oppenheimer documentaries that counter “the mythical tropes of the tortured genius biopic.” | Lit Hub Film

• The 13 best book covers of August are a feast for the senses. | Lit Hub Design

• “Maybe it’s foolish to lament the proliferation of characters defined by grief at a moment when grief can be a personal brand—one I can’t seem to stop consuming.” Jessie Gaynor considers television’s shortcut to character development. | Dirt

• Lauren Lassabe Shepherd looks into the founding (and funding) of conservative media on college campuses. | Lapham’s Quarterly

• “My priority right now is to experience being young. A lot of my life, I haven’t gotten to do that.” Leila Mottley on finding literary fame at 21. | Harper’s Bazaar

• A forgotten sketch of Winnie-the-Pooh and Piglet, discovered in a basement, wrapped in an old tea towel, is headed to auction. | Smithsonian Magazine

• “Her doppelgänger was a signal that there was a problem, and she decided it must be this: Instead of being so cautious and apprehensive, she needed to double down.” Jennifer Szalai profiles Naomi Klein. | New York Times Magazine

• Brandon Taylor talks to Sam Sanders about why literary criticism is broken (and *that* Slate review). | Into It

Also on Lit Hub: New poetry by Jared Harél • Audiofile’s best audiobooks of August • Read a story from Steven Millhauser’s new collection, Disruptions

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