Lit Hub Daily: June 16, 2020

• Letter from Houston: Daniel Peña on the Black and Brown voices bringing light to America. | Lit Hub Politics
• “The list is the first tool I reach for when I’m trying to express something basically inexpressible.” How Lit Hub editor and debut novelist Emily Temple learned to stop worrying and love the list. | Lit Hub
• Chris Green on creating a collective poem in response to Chicago gun violence—with 100 poets’ voices. | Lit Hub
• Francesca Marciano recommends five Italian short story collections, from an anthology curated by Jhumpa Lahiri to Chiara Barzini’s experimental flash fiction. | Lit Hub
• When the despair of being alone coincides with a desire for freedom: Sanaë Lemoine finds lessons in solitude from French cinema. | Lit Hub Film
• “Possibility is a safe space from which to love.” Zaina Arafat on living and writing without shame. | Lit Hub
• Olivia Rutigliano on Alan Bradley’s Flavia de Luce series, a brilliant reimagining of the English village mystery. | CrimeReads
• Sheila Kohler recommends five short novels with water at the heart of the drama, from The Talented Mr. Ripley to Lord of the Flies. | Book Marks
• The recent English translation of Adel Kamel’s Malim the Great (1941) opens up an Egyptian classic—and its elusive author—to a new international audience. | Al-Jazeera
• President Laurie Hertzel and five other board members of the National Book Critics Circle have resigned amid allegations of racism and violations of privacy. | LA Times
• In the UK, the newly formed Black Writers Guild is calling on publishing houses to “introduce sweeping reforms to make the overwhelmingly white industry more inclusive at all levels.” | The Guardian
• Black literature encompasses far more than politics: A case for literary explorations of joy. | Harper’s Bazaar
• “For half a century, the particulars have been held close by executors, smoothed over by editors, and justified by exegetes.” On the racism of Flannery O’Connor. | The New Yorker
• A new literary prize is meant to provide support to BIPOC writers in the UK. | The Bookseller
• The legacy of Dickens fanfic is nearly as long and storied as the legacy of the man himself. | Scroll

Also on Lit Hub: How three royal brothers ended an English dynasty • “Shithole Song #1106”: A poem by Daniel Borzutzky • Read an excerpt from Deni Ellis Béchard’s new novel A Song from Faraway.