TODAY: In 1745, English poet Henry James Pye is born. He is the first poet laureate to receive a fixed salary of £270 instead of the historic tierce of Canary wine.
- “Handsome, clever, and rich enough to knock its period predecessor off its pedestal.” Emily Temple on 2020’s Emma. | Lit Hub Film
- Sex! Revenge! Redcoats! The sensational true story of the build-up to the Boston Massacre. | Lit Hub History
- Three trees that tell the story of ancient cultures: Legends of the kapok, tōtara, and Judas trees. | Lit Hub Nature
- “If people don’t feel safe, it doesn’t matter whether they are objectively safe or not; they will eventually start to take matters into their own hands.” On the madness of crowds in the global age of terror. | Lit Hub Politics
- Name a more iconic duo than humans and beans. We’ll wait. | Lit Hub… Beans?
- Ruth Franklin on Emily St. John Mandel’s The Glass Hotel, Jeremy O. Harris on Brandon Taylor’s Real Life, and more of the Book Reviews You Need to Read This Week. | Book Marks
- Sylvia Moreno-Garcia on how mid-century Gothic romances paved the way for the rise of the domestic thriller. | CrimeReads
- After a nearly six-decade-long career, renowned Malaysian author KS Maniam died on Wednesday at 78. | New Straits Times
- Four places to visit on that literary tour of Iceland you’ve been meaning to take. | BookRiot
- “The point of killing your darlings is to create a controlled environment for heightened feeling.” On deathfic, the “ice bath of recreational reading,” in which writers kill off beloved characters again and again. | The Atlantic
- “Ach! it’s a terrible, horrible job / hauling a hippo out of a bog.” Anthony Madrid on the unique challenges of translating “Russia’s Dr. Seuss.” | The Paris Review
- In praise of the New York Times Spelling Bee: Laura Lippman on her obsession with the “no-holds-barred Boggle.” | Slate
- Megan O’Grady excavates the history of literature’s female trios, solidarity, and “the malleability of female identity.” | The New York Times
- These random literary encounters remind us that surprise is instrumental to good storytelling. | The Guardian
Also on Lit Hub: When music is your first language: Philip Kennicott on finding Bach amidst the family chaos • How to be a Beatles fan without really trying • Read an excerpt from Mercè Rodoreda’s newly-translated novel Garden by the Sea (trans. Maruxa Relaño and Martha Tennent).
