Lit Hub Daily: June 11, 2021

TODAY: In 1900, Leopoldo Marchal, one of the most important Argentine writers of the 20th century, is born.  

• Emma Goldberg on the young doctors who went from medical school into a pandemic, graduating early to enlist in “the COVID army.” | Lit Hub Health

• Thomas J. Lax on the work of Carrie Mae Weems, who transformed museums into “unlikely occasions for her and others to stay awhile.” | Lit Hub Art

• Christine Mangan recommends female-driven gothic narratives, a genre that endures “as a site in which to expose fear and trauma.” | Lit Hub Reading Lists

• What can we learn about the COVID-19 aftertimes from the period following the Black Death? Lawrence Wright considers 14th-century Italy and the consequences of the plague. | Lit Hub History

• “When two mothers both love and have a tangible tie to a baby, how do you choose who gets custody?” Genevieve Gannon on the impossible narrative task she set for herself. | Lit Hub

• Against “light” summer reading: Bethanne Patrick recommends five complex, immersive books you might’ve missed in May. | Lit Hub Reading Lists

• INTERVIEW WITH AN INDIE PRESS: How Wave Press is taking a new audiovisual approach to poetry. | Lit Hub

• WATCH: Anjali Enjeti talks to Sari Botton about reckoning with complicity, shame, and power dynamics in memoir. | Lit Hub Virtual Book Channel

• New titles from Rivka Galchen, Lionel Shriver, Akwaeke Emezi, and Lawrence Wright all feature among the Best Reviewed Books of the Week. | Book Marks

• If you’re looking for the perfect summertime crime movie, consider these thrillers and mysteries set at the beach, from Olivia Rutigliano. | CrimeReads

• Amber Sparks considers mythologies of writing practices, and the slippery dream of being “just a writer.” | Why Be Happy When You Could Be Writing

• Read these eight queer titles in translation, recommended by international writers and translators. | Words Without Borders

• How André Aciman defines success and failure. | The Creative Independent

• “Revisiting The Beauty Myth, I found it beautifully written, accessible, and righteous. I also found it daft.” Rereading Naomi Wolf’s seminal feminist text in the wake of her turn toward public anti-vax propaganda. | The New Republic

• Kristen Arnett discusses her childhood reading habits, her home state of Florida, and her new novel. | PEN America

• “I think there’s probably some anxiety in mainstream publishing about novels that are about ideas, language, or form, as opposed to novels that are driven by story, plot, or characters.” Kate Zambreno on playing with language and opacity. | Full Stop

• On the glossy gay lifestyle magazines of the 70s, whose audience “embraced a gay identity, if not necessarily one that was particularly political.” | JSTOR Daily

Also on Lit Hub: Kristan Higgins recommends books for when you need a good cry • Libby Copeland on America’s obsession with genealogy • Read a story from Henry Dumas’ Echo Tree 

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