TODAY: In 1968, Nobel Prize laureate John Steinbeck dies.
- Is Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas a work of genius? On Russell and Lillian Hoban, giants of 20th-century children’s literature. (The answer is probably yes.) | Literary Hub
- The best crime and mystery books of 2017: As chosen by our crime editors · As chosen by critical consensus. | Literary Hub, Book Marks
- The literary biopic may be the worst kind of movie, but it’s still a pleasure to watch writers struggle on screen. | Literary Hub
- How to bake a pie for the holidays: David Howard on some important lessons learned from his mother. | Literary Hub
- The best reviewed science & technology books of the year. | Book Marks
- “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
- “It just seems like white writers had sort of settled on their knowledge of Asian American writing, and felt like it was okay that, well, at least they know one.” Chen Chen on political poetry, navigating multiple identities, and the white gaze. | AAWW
- Following a “contentious exchange” with Cornel West, Ta-Nehisi Coates has deleted his account. | AP
