TODAY: In 1968, Nobel Prize laureate John Steinbeck dies.
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- The best crime and mystery books of 2017: As chosen by our crime editors · As chosen by critical consensus. | Literary Hub, Book Marks
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- “What about those who harm other people carelessly, thoughtlessly, drunkenly, ignorant of the consequences?” Michelle Dean on the word “predator” and the Powerful Literary Men who evade its definition. | The New York Times Magazine
- Read new work by Nicole Dennis-Benn, Esmé Weijun Wang, Kashana Cauley, and Lauren Mechling in Lenny’s Winter Fiction issue.| Lenny
- “The impending matter of Christmas finally split me open and I had to say it, on a call to a college friend across the country: I did not know where I would be spending it.” Kathleen Alcott on a lifetime of nontraditional Christmases. | The Guardian
- “Now that I have people’s attention, how can I push them to read differently? To look at language differently?” An interview with Hanif Abdurraqib. | The Creative Independent
- If you write a sexist article about Jane Austen, Jane Austen Twitter will come for you, and Jane Austen Twitter is mean (and witty). | The A.V. Club
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- Following a “contentious exchange” with Cornel West, Ta-Nehisi Coates has deleted his account. | AP
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