Lit Hub Daily: February 29, 2024
THE BEST OF THE LITERARY INTERNET
TODAY: The poet Ruth Pitter dies in 1992.
- “At a time when books are being banned in schools and public libraries in unprecedented numbers, it’s alarming how writers have been reproached simply for signing letters that call for peace.” Maris Kreizman on the Jewish Book Council’s new initiative. | Lit Hub Politics
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The best book covers in February, featuring Alphabetical Diaries, You Glow in the Dark, and more. | Lit Hub Criticism
- Gretchen Sisson recommends Jessamine Chan, Ann Fessler, Dorothy Roberts, and more literature on reproductive rights. | Lit Hub Reading Lists
- “The adaptations based on the work of Black writers often involved considerable restructuring, usually because the studios changed the narratives to appease white audiences.” Charlene Regester on the fraught relationship between early Black writers and the American film industry. | Lit Hub Film
- Tajja Isen on how to subtitle your book so that people will read it. Or, how to balance marketing and artistry. | Lit Hub Criticism
- From Kaveh Akbar to Rebecca Boyle, here are the best audiobooks of February. | Lit Hub Reading Lists
- Featuring new titles by Tommy Orange, Francis Spufford, Kelly Link, and more, this is February’s best fiction, reviewed. | Lit Hub Reading Lists
- These are the best reviewed nonfiction books in February, including titles by Leslie Jamison, Sloane Crosley, and Lucy Sante. | Lit Hub Reading Lists
- “The largest island cemetery is at sea level. / Sprawling with frangipani blooms / and feral roosters, it seats the non-living to watch the sea.” Read from Stephanie Niu’s new collection, Survived By: An Atlas of Disappearance. | Lit Hub Poetry
- Lee & Low’s 2023 survey on diversity in publishing reveals that the industry remains overwhelmingly white. | The New York Times
- Katie Tobin considers the enigma of Simone Weil, “one of the twentieth century’s most compelling—and contradictory—figures.” | Verso
- In a newly found letter, Arthur Miller explains Death of a Salesman to a college student. | The Atlantic
- “It kept me somewhat sane, hopeful to dive into a future where the words I write would outlive the powers that wanted them dead.” Aria Aber interviews Palestinian-American poet Fady Joudah. | The Yale Review
- “..if it helped the book, then of course I would do it. But after losing several Sundays to a blank document, I realized that mining for soundbites felt deeply at odds with the work I wanted to put into the world.” Tajja Isen on writing promotional essays as an author. | Vulture
- Doctor T.J. Eckleburg has a few words for the marketing agency he hired for his billboard. | McSweeney’s
