Lit Hub Daily: July 2, 2020

TODAY: In 1877, Nobel Prize laureate Hermann Hesse is born.

• “Dear Black America: We are many things, aren’t we?” A letter from Tracy K. Smith. | Lit Hub
• “A creative writer must study carefully the works of his rivals, including the Almighty.” And more writing advice from—who else—Nabokov. | Lit Hub
• “Jaboozie Turns Me On to Deep Cuts.” A prose poem by Eric Gansworth for the Fourth of July. | Lit Hub
• The New Yorker article heard round the world: Revisiting John Hersey’s groundbreaking “Hiroshima.” | Lit Hub History
• “What if Benjamin Braddock, having rescued Elaine from marriage, had concluded that society’s rules were not for him?” Beverly Gray on The Graduate author Charles Webb’s unexpected life of charity. | Lit Hub
• At long last, it’s time to move past the myth of the clutch swing voter. | Lit Hub Politics
• Neil Nyren guides us through the dark, poetic crime fiction of P.D. James. | CrimeReads
• Jonathan Dee on David Mitchell’s Utopia Avenue, Veronica Roth on Sophie Mackintosh’s Blue Ticket, Hari Kunzru on Masha Gessen’s Surviving Autocracy, and more of the Reviews You Need to Read This Week. | Book Marks
• Eight Black publishing professionals speak out about their experiences in the industry. | The New York Times
• Rudolfo Anaya, “godfather” of Chicano literature and author of Bless Me, Ultima, has died at 82. | The Washington Post
• The details of The Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown’s divorce include allegations of extramarital affairs, a clandestine children’s book, and “several Friesian horses.” | AP
• Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker announced John Prine as the state’s first honorary poet laureate. | Rolling Stone
• “For eel thou art, to eel returnest.” On the uncanny figure of the eel in literature and art. | The Paris Review
• Ezra Klein speaks to Nicholas Carr about deep reading, deep thinking, and how technology has altered our brains. | Vox
• A retired schoolteacher from Cincinnati on starting The Book Bus, a mobile bookstore in a 1962 VW Transporter. | Forbes

Also on Lit Hub: “Three Liberties: Past, Present, Yet to Come”: A poem by Julia Alvarez • Dylan Mulvaney on 50 years of covers of Camus’ The Plague • Read a story by Laura van den Berg from The Georgia Review‘s Summer 2020 issue.

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