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“All I can think of is some of my idiotic statements in 200 newspapers.” Shirley Jackson writes to her parents about navigating literary fame, alongside with its infamous companion: financial insecurity. | Lit Hub
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Rae Nudson considers how makeup can strengthen the oppressed—like it did at Stonewall. | Lit Hub History
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It always comes back to stand-up: David Steinberg digs into the comedic success of Jerry Seinfeld. | Lit Hub
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Matt Bell recommends a reading list of speculative climate futures, featuring Octavia Butler, Rebecca Roanhorse, and more. | Lit Hub Reading Lists
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Rather than turn inward in response to the refugee crisis, writes Jamie Mackay, Sicily ushered in a new era of Italian politics. | Lit Hub Politics
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Katie Crouch suggests listening to your favorite song to figure out your novel’s plot (and shows her math with a CAKE single). | Lit Hub Craft
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Five books you might have missed in June, from fabulist stories to Cold War potboilers. | Lit Hub Reading Lists
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Killing and Dying, Nightbitch, Sweet Valley High, and more rapid-fire book recs from Kristen Radtke. | Book Marks
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A brief history of Edward Gorey’s hand-crafted toys, “a cast of creatures as strange and marvellous as children themselves.” | The New Yorker
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Kiese Laymon considers the challenges of writing about racism, what it means to practice self-care, and the meaning of love. | Los Angeles Review of Books
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“Pleasure is no enemy of discipline.” On Virginia Woolf and the Idiosyncratic School of reading. | The Hedgehog Review
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Marisa Crawford and Megan Milks share a reading list for adults who grew up with The Baby-Sitters Club. | The Rumpus
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“What feels indispensable about poetry is its ability to let the reader, me, inhabit an imaginative space.” Kathleen Ossip on the possibility of poetry. | McSweeney’s
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Anjali Enjeti on the “routine” of writing with chronic pain. | Poets & Writers
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“Slowly, story after story, my tongue unfurled. I went from mute to voluble.” Igiaba Scego on attending school in Italy, and finding her voice through fiction (translated by Aaron Robertson). | Words Without Borders
Also on Lit Hub: Chloe Shaw on learning grief and companionship from her childhood dog • A poem by Morgan Parker • Read from Luiz Ruffato’s newly translated novel, Late Summer (tr. Julia Sanches)
