Lit Hub Daily: January 29, 2024

TODAY: In 1845, “The Raven” by Edgar Allen Poe is published in the New York Evening Mirror.

Life in wartime: Aminatta Forna on what fiction can reveal about the fragile fabric of our societies. | Lit Hub
“Both of my parents had a hard time letting things go.” On book hoarding and the perilous paradox of clutter. | Lit Hub
Playing the Dozens: Rafi Kohan on the joys and functions of sh*t talk. | Lit Hub
Collaboration, not competition: How Betty Smith helped her fellow writers. | Lit Hub
No safe place to grieve: Aisha Abdel Gawad on the danger of talking openly about Palestinian pain. | Lit Hub
“We know life is finite.Why should we believe death lasts forever?” Read from Anne Michaels’s new novel, Held. | Lit Hub Fiction
“[T]he writing space, the notebook space is my privacy. And it always has been.” Daisy Alioto and Kate Zambreno in conversation. | Dirt
An Oregon couple working as chauffeurs were charged with wire fraud and money laundering for allegedly stealing $34 million from Win McCormack, the founder of Tin House Books. | NBC News
“The tragedies inflicted on the people of East Africa as a result of European rivalries are belittled and forgotten.” Abdulrazak Gurnah on German East Africa. | Granta
Livia Gershon explores the history of dream interpretation in the Arab world. | JSTOR Daily
Beyond beauty: Bruce Handy considers four new picture books that “dare to flirt with body negativity, exploring unattractiveness from myriad angles.” | The New York Times

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