TODAY: In 1906, Grace Brown is murdered in Herkimer County, NY, which later inspires Theodore Dreiser’s novel An American Tragedy.
- “Here were two lessons bundled into one for queer little boys: what to desire and what to desire to become.” Matt Ortile on Calvin Klein, race, and stereotypes of masculinity. | Lit Hub
- In celebration of bookstores reopening, Monika Zgustova reflects on reading and resistance. | Lit Hub
- Alice Miller on fictionalizing Georgie Hyde-Lees, the “extraordinary, fiercely intelligent woman” who loathed the spotlight (and married a famous poet). | Lit Hub
- “You fuckster! You are so fucksome. I love you very much.” On Larry Kramer’s anger, activism, and great expectations. | Lit Hub
- Liam Pieper rereads Nevil Shute’s resolutely nihilist On the Beach, a true end-times classic. | Lit Hub
- Molly Odintz on Good Girls, Weeds, and network television’s problematic love affair with white suburban criminality. | CrimeReads
- Tayari Jones on Stacey Abrams’ striking political manifesto, Susan Choi on Megha Majumdar’s fierce and assured debut novel, and more of the Reviews You Need to Read This Week. | Book Marks
- “These are the realities of today’s Black boys. The extremes.” Erica Dawson on white reactions to, and attempted ownership of, Blackness. | The Paris Review
- Maris Kreizman on the publishing world, why negative reviews are valuable, and what books she’s looking forward to reading. | Poets & Writers
- Some kids will be getting their summer reading lists via drone delivery this year. | The Washington Post
- Among the many buildings destroyed in the Australian bushfires was the hut of Kylie Tennant, an Australian literary icon best-known for her novels of the Depression-era working-class. | The Conversation
- Tim Parks proposes his own way of categorizing novels. | The New York Review of Books
- On “riots,” “mobs,” and the linguistic framings that have historically been used to delegitimize protests against oppression. | The Guardian
- Merriam-Webster is updating its definition of the word racism after a 22-year-old Missouri woman pointed out that the current definition “is not representative of what is actually happening in the world.” | CNN
Also on Lit Hub: Death and the Cloud: how to grieve in the digital afterlife • Two poems by Claudiu Komartin • Read a story by Amanda Ajamfar, excerpted from The Georgia Review.
