Lit Hub Daily: February 15, 2023

• “As a Black American writer, Black music is an entry point to self.” Janelle M. Williams on a form of nourishment and inspiration. | Lit Hub Music

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• On the rise of astrotourism (commonly known as stargazing): “There’s something uplifting in that, despite everything, parts of the night sky can be preserved in today’s world of technology and illumination.” | Lit Hub Travel

• Book stalls and back rooms: Barry Yourgrau on traveling the world in search of literary serendipity. | Lit Hub Bookstores

• The principle of human alchemy in basketball—or, how the Golden State Warriors pulled off the biggest upset in NBA Finals history. | Lit Hub Sports

• Domenica Ruta reflects on terminating a pregnancy, and “the power of choice not as microcosm or metaphor” but tangible act. | Lit Hub Memoir

• M. E. Hilliard looks at the creepiest old houses in fiction. | CrimeReads

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• “What we have to do is give a damn about these kids. That’s where it begins.” LeVar Burton on the importance of literacy. | Los Angeles Times

• Take a look inside libraries in seven states: “It was impossible to look at these pictures and not feel hopeful about the state of humanity.” | The New York Times

• Today’s devastating book news: Catapult is closing its online magazine and writing classes program. | Publishers Weekly

• “I have been on first dates with 107 people in the past five years, without securing a long-term love relationship with anyone, which was always my goal.” Merritt Tierce on online dating. | The Paris Review

• A new forensic study has found that Pablo Neruda was poisoned, according to his nephew. | The Guardian 

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• “Across her oeuvre—novels, short stories, criticism, and other writing—Bambara consistently uses clothing as the carrier for a great many things.” How Toni Cade Bambara wrote about clothes. | Harper’s Bazaar

• Moira Marquis reports on how the New York Department of Corrections’ plan to digitize mail would further limit incarcerated people’s access to books. | PEN America

Also on Lit Hub: How (and why) Baudelaire showed up throughout my fiction • The unique pleasures of reading in public • Read a story from Mai Nardone’s debut collection, Welcome Me to the Kingdom