TODAY: In 1931, E. L. Doctorow is born.
- Tobias Carroll explores the literary intersection of climate disaster, apocalypse, and folk horror. | Lit Hub
- “I went to graduate school searching for something that might cure my writing-related loneliness, and I left two years later more ready than ever to be alone.” Sean Adams on the pressures of community. | Lit Hub
- “Crossing the line between belles lettres and pulp, Petry is a pioneer of the literary thriller.” Tayari Jones on the necessary American history of Ann Petry’s The Street. | Lit Hub
- Has African migration to the US led to a literary renaissance? Yogita Goyal considers “Afropolitan” literature. | Lit Hub
- On knafeh and a vision of the borderless world: what a beloved dessert reveals about cultural appropriation. | Lit Hub Food
- Jake Gyllenhaal is adapting Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home for the big screen (and plans to star as Bruce Bechdel, the author’s father). | The Mary Sue
- Reading Elena Ferrante allows us to “see our own rough, unfinished seams, not completely stitched together, perhaps already in the midst of falling apart.” | Los Angeles Review of Books
- What role do conversations around accessibility play in library renovations? | Book Riot
Gish Jen, Ilya Kaminsky, Franny Choi, and more imagine life in the age of surveillance with poetry and fiction. | The New York Times - Why did Emma Southworth—one of the most successful writers of the 19th century—fall into obscurity? | DCist
- France opened a rape investigation into writer Gabriel Matzneff following the publication of Vanessa Springora’s Le Consentement (Consent), in which she describes being coerced by Matzneff as a 14-year-old. | National Post
- John Addington Symond’s 1873 essay, “A Problem in Greek Ethics,” was controversial for praising the ancient Greeks’ liberal view of sexuality. Five of only ten known copies were known to survive—until now. | Smithsonian Magazine
Also on Lit Hub: Sarah Vallance on the strange connection between brain damage and sex drive • Celebrating the 50th anniversary of Feminist Press • Read from Miranda Popkey’s debut novel Topics of Conversation.
