Lit Hub Daily: June 13, 2025
THE BEST OF THE LITERARY INTERNET
TODAY: In 1888, Fernando Pessoa is born.
- “We believe Lapham’s Quarterly should live on because, to quote Marilynne Robinson, a writer Lewis was proud to have published, ‘This country is in a state of bewilderment that cries out for good history.’” Donovan Hohn remembers Lewis H. Lapham as Lapham’s Quarterly relaunches. | Lit Hub Biography
- Iryn Tushabe on writing stories of African Black queer joy under oppression as an act of faith. | Lit Hub Craft
- Emily Hauser looks at ancient Greek visions of gender and resurrects a forgotten woman from Homer’s Iliad. | Lit Hub Criticism
- Caroline Fraser’s Murderland, Jess Walter’s So Far Gone, and Geoff Dyer’s Homework all feature among the best reviewed books of the week. | Book Marks
- “A lackluster character was on the prowl, and he’d become the King Midas of meh.” Lucas Schaefer on how to troubleshoot a character problem. | Lit Hub Craft
- Joan C. Williams on the rise of right-wing populism in America and how retro masculinity fooled working class men in the present. | Lit Hub Politics
- Mike Curato reflects on the validation he experienced while learning to cook Filipino food. | Lit Hub Food
- Danny Lorberbaum explores how new parenthood changes (or doesn’t change) a writing practice. | Lit Hub Craft
- Prentis Hemphill examines relationships as arenas for social transformation: “History was never the story of great men alone, as our textbooks would have us believe. It was always the story of relationships.” | Lit Hub History
- “He was on fire. Adrian’s son was on fire.” Read from Robert P. Baird’s new novel, The Nimbus. | Lit Hub Fiction
- “What Sabir wants is food, medicine, diapers, and a decent home rather than a tent. He wants what all Palestinians want—not to line up for aid packages, not to fight over flour, but to eat the foods that our own hands grow.” Mosab Abu Toha on the everyday horror of life in Gaza now. | The New Yorker
- Melissa Febos explores the legacy of Shulamith Firestone, radical feminist and “political celibate.” | Hazlitt
- “But Goshen was not an attempt at charity. It was, according to my parents’ interpretation of scripture, a tangible manifestation of holiness…” Caleb Gayle on family, refuge, and Mansfield Park. | The Paris Review
- Sarah Aziza on the Palestinian American dream: “The US, for all the violence it wreaked outside its borders, promised safety and privilege to those inside its fold. In short, gaining entry here might protect my father and his family from what happened there.” | The Nation
- Rebecca Jennings explains why reading long, challenging books might be the key to restoring your attention span. | Vulture
- “The heart of the matter is how can we believe the seemingly incredible?” Greg Eghigian explores an American history of belief in alien abduction. | Aeon
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