TODAY: In 1961, Dashiell Hammett dies.
- “The world of Sanditon is absurd, unsettled and unsettling.” On the restless comedy of Jane Austen’s unfinished novel. | Lit Hub
- What Nina Schuyler managed to learn from leading a nightmarish writing workshop. | Lit Hub Craft
- “I feel calmer when reading, and more like myself.” To that end, Liz Moore has some practical suggestions for finding time to read after becoming a parent. | Lit Hub
- On architect Paul Rudolph’s strange vision of a cross-Manhattan expressway (and other unfinished projects). | Lit Hub Design
- “Monterey.” A poem by Maggie Millner from Freeman’s California Issue. | Lit Hub Poetry
- Kiley Reid’s Such a Fun Age, Liz Moore’s Long Bright River, and David Zucchino’s Wilmington’s Lie all feature among the Best Reviewed Books of the Week. | Book Marks
- As the new decade dawns, the crime podcast boom continues! Lizzy Steiner recommends all the best podcasts to listen to in 2020. | CrimeReads
- “It was, avowedly, a quest narrative, if one told in an esoteric register, its mood often shading melancholic, sometimes aggressive”: Through criticism, did Harold Bloom accomplish what he believed his favorite poets tried to do? | The Point
- Among the writers nominated for a 2020 NAACP Image Award are Imani Perry, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Sarah Broom, Jacqueline Woodson, and many more. | NAACP
- In praise of Elizabeth Gilbert, whose “writerly persona violates of one of the central mandates of serious, literary woman writerhood: avoid sincerity, avoid earnestness, avoid women.” | Outline
- “We are now in the mature stage of a book-to-film boom that is quietly transforming how Americans read and tell stories—and not for the better.” James Pogue on the decline of nonfiction in the IP era. | The Baffler
- Take a tour of For Keeps, Atlanta’s new home for rare and classic books by black writers. | NBC News
- Queer literature is “not on the margins of the literary tradition: That’s right at the heart of it.” says Garth Greenwell. | The New York Times
- How Ohio groups are organizing and working to provide books to incarcerated people. | Teen Vogue
Also on Lit Hub: At Nancy Mitford’s grave, where romanticism meets reality • An oral history of the thrash metal mosh pit • Read a story from Nicolette Polek’s collection, Imaginary Museums.
