Lit Hub Daily: January 28, 2025
THE BEST OF THE LITERARY INTERNET
TODAY: In 1813, Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is published anonymously in London.
- Scott W. Stern explores how America reacted to Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings: “Many of the reviewers betrayed their own racial politics, seeing in Caged Bird confirmation of what white writers hoped to see from Black literature.” | Lit Hub Criticism
- The 27 new books out today include titles by Betty Shamieh, Edmund White, Neko Case and more! | Lit Hub Reading Lists
- Dorian Lynskey on Pierrepoint B. Noyes, H.G. Wells, and how the “superweapons” of early science-fiction predicted the atomic bomb. | Lit Hub History
- “I can’t bear to recall the scenes of my crawling toward him, arms outstretched, or the moment when I saw him as an emanation of God.” Edmund White recalls sex and love in the gay New York of the 70s. | Lit Hub Memoir
- “I asked the grasses if they believed / but they said believe is a poor verb. / I asked the sun but it had eclipsed.” Read “In the Name of the Bee,” a poem by Pádraig O’ Tuama from the collection Kitchen Hymns. | Lit Hub Poetry
- Mark Rowlands considers what dogs can teach us about finding meaning in life. | Lit Hub Memoir
- “Nell said she was going to give the marmot to our mother as a present. My sister was always like that, disguising her mischief as kindness.” Read from Leyna Krow’s story collection, Sinkhole. | Lit Hub Fiction
- On the 800-mile walk at the heart of Forrest Gander’s latest book of poetry. | Poetry Foundation
- “When I followed her into the flat on this early-autumn day, it was therefore a little like stepping into a painting.” Karl Ove Knausgaard on profiles painter Celia Paul. | The New Yorker
- “If we want labels to matter, then what does it say about us that these men can’t be queer anywhere but here? But what good are labels, anyway? What good is language when there are so many other things a mouth can do?” Danez Smith on cruising at the gym. | The Paris Review
- George R.R. Martin has coauthored a peer-reviewed paper in the American Journal of Physics. Neat! | Wired
- Matthew Wills explores Arthur Miller’s comedies. | JSTOR Daily
- “I do love Battlestar Galactica, all versions of it, but definitely the new version the most.” Mandana Chaffa interviews translator and novelist Anton Hur. | Words Without Borders
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