TODAY: In 1817, Henry David Thoreau, whose essay “Civil Disobedience” presents an argument for disobedience to an unjust state, is born.
- “Perhaps I’ve seen enough of the interior lives of that generation of Canadians.” Jonny Diamond on Alice Munro, Andrea Skinner, and his own mother’s failure to protect him. | Lit Hub
- Abbe Smith on the importance of criminal defense attorneys and why everyone deserves their day in court. | Lit Hub Politics
- Brittany Ackerman on her mental breakdown at an esteemed writing conference: “Everyone I encounter asks me who my agent is, then shrugs when I tell them because no one’s heard of him. But I love my agent. I’ve heard of him.” | Lit Hub Memoir
- “In the absence of any structure, Anonymous could become anything at all.” Barrett Brown chronicles the origins of Anonymous, from 4chan and beyond. | Lit Hub Technology
- “My book ran to the meter of many internal measures of time that make up our routines.” Ayşegül Savaş examines the process of building your novel’s clock. | Lit Hub Craft
- Kevin Barry’s The Heart in Winter, Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s Long Island Compromise, and Laura Van den Berg’s State of Paradise all feature among the best reviewed books of the week. | Book Marks
- Why would an American set novels in Nova Scotia? Howard Norman on finding his literary home in the Canadian maritimes. | Lit Hub Criticism
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Zoë Eisenberg and Rhaina Cohen on writing about intimate friendships: “I’m aware that I am very romantic in my friendships.” | Lit Hub In Conversation
Article continues after advertisement - “Fereydun put his head down and left his village. Then the rumors flew: Everyone said something different.” Read from Farhad Pirbal’s The Potato Eaters, translated by Jiyar Homer and Alana Marie Levinson-LaBrosse. | Lit Hub Fiction
- “How do you make what was traditionally a genre for preteen boys into something that speaks to contemporary adult lives?” Andrew Schenker considers the second coming of the sports novel. | Esquire
- Marsha Gordon on the life and work of novelist Ursula Parrott, “a trenchant observer of women like her, who were smart, ambitious and adventurous but who failed to navigate a brave new world in which the odds seemed stacked against their well-being and continued success.” | The New York Times
- “Like many parts of my life during this time, Kundera became a secret.” On the influence of Milan Kundera. | The Point
- Alexander Billet considers literature, cybernetics, and what happened to the avant-garde. | Los Angeles Review of Books
- “If someone comes to me and they like my work and they’re artists of some kind, if you just take them seriously and treat them as peers and show support for their work, it means a ton.” Dennis Cooper discusses filmmaking, amusement parks, and the differences between poetry and fiction. | Interview
- Choire Sicha talks to Lev Grossman: “Books, they fight dirty.” | Vulture
