TODAY: In 1917, novelist, short story writer, and playwright Matthew Hillsman Taylor, Jr., known professionally as Peter Taylor, is born. Here he’s pictured with Robert Lowell and Jean Stafford.
- If it wasn’t for my corporate job, I couldn’t be a novelist (Jillian Medoff would rather talk about sex than reveal how much her novels have made). | Literary Hub
- Translation as an act of political power: Chenxin Jiang on what it means to bring the stories of Syrian refugees into English. | Literary Hub
- Delicious dish, but watch out for the aftertaste: what the critics said about Michael Wolff’s other most infamous book, Burn Rate: How I Survived the Gold Rush Years on the Internet. | Book Marks
- “The President of the United States is a deranged liar who surrounds himself with sycophants. Who knew? Everybody did. So why has a poorly written book containing this information become an overnight sensation, a runaway best-seller, and the topic of every other political column, podcast, and dinner conversation?” Masha Gessen on Fire and Fury. | The New Yorker
- Preeminent bird defender and occasional novelist Jonathan Franzen has reiterated his stance that outdoor cats are “an ecological catastrophe.” | The New Republic
- “Television might offer strong competition and attention spans might be sagging, but there may be deeper cultural trends that have led to the decline of novels.” On the TV vs. fiction debate, and also what it misses. | New York Review of Books
- We Need Diverse Books executive Dhonielle Clayton on her experience with sensitivity reading, “a band-aid over a hemorrhaging problem in our industry.” | Vulture
- “Nixon needed a poster child—someone to vilify in his burgeoning war on drugs.” An interview with the authors of The Most Dangerous Man in America, a new book about Timothy Leary. | NPR
- Readers and booksellers (along with Television frontman Tom Verlaine) remember the late Strand owner Fred Bass. | Electric Literature, The New York Times
- “We let ourselves think we are monsters. We let the monsters carry on.” Lynn Steger Strong on the anger of women. | Catapult
Also on Literary Hub: G is for Gratitude: Remembering the amazing Sue Grafton · Beyond the usual suspects: A look at contemporary Moroccan crime writing · Read from Hallgrímur Helgason’s novel, Woman at 1,000 Degrees
