Lit Hub Daily: December 22, 2022

• Book bans, publishing strikes, and the DOJ vs. Penguin Random House: We’ve made it to the end of the biggest literary stories of the year. | Lit Hub

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• “Naira’s stories have the weight of writing we should remember.” Aram Mrjoian considers the short fiction of Naira Kuzmich, whose posthumous collection was published this year. | Lit Hub

• Claire Alexander recommends five books to read when you’re lonely. | Lit Hub

• Estelle Paranque recounts the event that transformed Catherine de Medici from Florentine orphan to French princess. | Lit Hub History

• THE ANNOTATED NIGHTSTAND: What Simone White is reading now and next, from Gayl Jones to Imani Perry. | Lit Hub

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• Kyle Chayka reports on a tumultuous year for American literary magazines, and the “vital bellwether of book culture” that has been lost with the shuttering of Bookforum. | The New Yorker

• Lonely fireflies, ambling grasshoppers, and more of the best bugs in children’s literature. | Orion

• “Theater offers a life together rather than a life alone.” Will Blythe on the underappreciated genius of Denis Johnson’s plays. | Esquire

• “Labor is at its best and most powerful when it’s at its most inclusive and radical.” Kim Kelly reflects on a year of labor movements. | Catapult

• “I had other plans for it of course. / The lung.” Read a previously unpublished poem by Paul Newman. | The Nation

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• One for the memoirs: Booker Prize winner Shehan Karunatilaka reflects on a whirlwind of a year.  | Los Angeles Times

• Why is it so heartbreaking to part with books? | The Washington Post

Also on Lit Hub:

Nchanji Njamnsi recommends Cameroonian Anglophone literature • A poem by Liu Zongyuan (tr. Nathaniel Dolton-Thornton and Yu Yuanyuan) • A poem by Gabrielle Octavia Rucker