Lit Hub Daily: January 25, 2019

• “How often do you stare into the middle distance? Me neither.” Benjamin Dreyer, the internet’s chief copy editor, on the bad writing habits he wishes you would quit. | Lit Hub
• “I want to prescribe nothing, to proscribe even less.” Daisy Johnson on the limits of writing the wholly new. | Lit Hub
• In honor of her 137th birthday, a look at what Virginia Woolf was like as a child (her nickname was “The Goat,” so…), and how reading her can help you to mourn. | Lit Hub
• New poetry by Sarah Gambito, from Who Loves You. | Lit Hub
• “It’s all right. Don’t mind not knowing.” Reflections on aging and life from Diana Athill, who died on Wednesday at the age of 101. | Lit Hub
• “If there is a secular American cathedral, it’s Hollywood.” James Lee Burke talks crime writing, film and Louisiana. | CrimeReads
• The finalists for the 2019 PEN America Literary Awards have been announced. | PEN
• Watch out, publishing professionals: the algorithms are coming for you. Storytelling app Wattpad is launching a publishing division that “will use Story DNA Machine Learning technology to take “the guesswork” out of the publishing equation.” | The New York Times
• “Making time for fiction helps me to stay out of the news bubble and ultimately enables me to be more engaged as a citizen.” Laila Lalami makes the case for fiction as an antidote to Trump burnout. | The Nation
• “I’d be lying if I said I didn’t also fall down a rabbit hole (one I absolutely don’t regret) of watching videos of swearing parrots.” 18 translations on the frustrations and joys of translating humor. | Words Without Borders
• “Nice change from what’s going on in the world”: Some furloughed workers are finding solace in reading. | The Washington Post
• Reading on the go: Oxford University’s Bodleian Library has acquired a rare 15th-century coffer that was once used to carry books. | The Guardian

Also on Lit Hub: Terry Gamble in conversation with C.P. Lesley on the New Books Network • My name is Fritz Mayer: an account of Buchenwald • Read a story from Hit Your Brights