Lit Hub Daily: January 28, 2021

• “In the years when Christa and I grew up, women didn’t get to be astronauts. They married or gave birth to them.” Joyce Maynard reflects on the day she spent with Christa McAuliffe before the Challenger disaster, 35 years ago today. | Lit Hub History
• Now that the COVID-19 vaccine is being (slowly, unevenly) distributed, can we start daydreaming about travel again? | Lit Hub Travel
• Grimy rainbows and Big Book Vibes: here are the best book covers of January. | Lit Hub
• “We’ve got citizens in our classrooms, and if we want to influence future citizens to exercise voice—to vote—they need to see themselves reinforced as a presence within their own country.” Helen Betya Rubinstein talks to Felicia Chavez about the Anti-Racist Workshop. | Lit Hub
• If your attention span is dwindling in this year-long month, might we suggest audiobook essay collections? | Lit Hub
• “The expert recommendation is rather grandfatherly—join a bowling league.” Billy Baker on the struggle of middle-aged men to sustain friendships. | Lit Hub
• Najib Sharifi and Shafi Sharif remember photojournalist David Gilkey, who died on assignment in Afghanistan. | Lit Hub
• Parul Sehgal on Lauren Oyler, Ruth Franklin on Rumaan Alam, Durga Chew-Bose on Joan Didion, and more of the Reviews You Need to Read This Week. | Book Marks
• Milan Terlunen on Psycho, Les Diaboliques, and the subtle art of the shocking plot twist. | CrimeReads
• Experiencing “information overload”? Turns out, people have been complaining that there are too many books since the printing press was invented (and in some cases even before that). | Lapham’s Quarterly
• “What I have done to language in the service of cover letters haunts me.” On the art and history of the dreaded cover letter. | The Paris Review
• Read an interview with “proud multihyphenate” David Duchovny, whose fourth(!?) novel is out now. | Los Angeles Times
• Today in unexpected crossovers: inaugural poet Amanda Gorman will perform an original poem during the Super Bowl pregame show. | Sports Illustrated
• “Once at the age of 14 I decided to be a poet, I knew what wasn’t going to happen, like matched dishes, a washing machine, a regular consensus lifestyle of any sort.” The late Diane di Prima on writing, music, and the Beats. | LARB
• Michael Dirda on the “dangerously fascinating” world of books about books. | Washington Post
• “One lesbian at every company is often tasked with speaking for LGBTQ+ people as a whole.” Former NYLON editor-in-chief Gabrielle Korn talks about representation in women’s media. | Vogue

Also on Lit Hub: What do Michael Jordan and the Dalai Lama have in common? It’s all about relaxed awareness • Alexander Weinstein on the role of spirituality in literary fiction • Read Zeinab Belail’s story “Al-Nar Street,” trans. by Nesrin Amin.