Lit Hub Daily: February 2, 2023

• “There is nothing logical about wanting to have a baby.” Tiphanie Yanique on the hope and grief of pregnancy and childbirth. | Lit Hub Memoir

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• Behind the scenes of an emotional Fresh Prince of Bel-Air episode about fatherhood: “The studio audience, who had been so conditioned to laugh, was silent.” | Lit Hub Film & TV

• Jess deCourcy Hinds asks how literary spaces can support neurodivergent readers and writers. | Lit Hub

• “Reading the New York diaries feels like bearing witness to a version of Highsmith that she largely managed to destroy.” 5 Book Reviews You Need to Read This Week. | Book Marks

• Steven Womack on writing while dying. | CrimeReads

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• If you were outbid on Joan Didion’s sunglasses, fear not—you can still buy her apartment. | The Hub

• Ben Okri reflects on writing The Famished Road: “I went back to the roots of language, back to being a child.” | The Booker Prizes

• Barnes & Noble is making a comeback by (gasp) focusing on books. | Los Angeles Times

• Lavelle Porter revisits Lucille Clifton’s Generations. | JSTOR Daily

• “Gatsby’s American identity is so ambiguous that the students could layer on top of it any ethnic or racial identity they brought to the novel. When they did, the text was freshly lit.” Alonzo Vereen recounts finding new ways to teach a classic. | The Atlantic

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• Legendary book cover designer Carin Goldberg has died at 69. | The New York Times

• “Libraries exist in service to us—and in America, you’d be forgiven for being perplexed by the concept.” Katrina vanden Heuvel on the GOP’s war on libraries. | The Nation

Also on Lit Hub: Toni Morrison on craft, inspiration, and the time she met Obama • Planet Koresh: Inside the Mount Carmel compound in Waco, Texas • Read from Jen Beagin’s latest novel, Big Swiss