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TODAY: In 1864, Henrik Ibsen arrives in Rome in a self-imposed exile from Norway that will last for 27 years.
- “In many ways, the Stonewall revolution is still happening.” In honor of Stonewall’s 50th anniversary, writers share their views of the uprising across time: Alexis De Veaux on Stonewall’s black leaders • Rita Mae Brown: Stonewall created a market for stories of struggle • Cheryl Clarke on the Rutgers student who opened up a world of gay liberation • Adrian Brooks recalls the “bursting forth” of queer poets in California • Max Wolf Valerio on the constantly shifting mythology around Stonewall. | Lit Hub
- Gutenberg didn’t actually invent the printing press: on the unsung Chinese and Korean history of movable type. | Lit Hub
- “The way we group and separate and name them shapes our relationship with these animals.”
- Molly Reid on the weirdness, wonder, and terror of the contemporary zoo. | Lit Hub
- “We hope that you have in hand some tales of a more cheerful nature.” Cheer yourself up with a collection of rejection letters sent to (now) famous writers. | Lit Hub
- This week in Secrets of the Book Critics: Amal El-Mohtar on Naomi Mitchison, Sofia Samatar, and the critical dance of destruction. | Book Marks
- Kelsey Rae Dimberg on noir storytelling as “an expression for the darkness that lies just beneath the surface of everyday life.” | CrimeReads
- Locals from Athens, Copenhagen, Florence and more on the books you should read before visiting their hometowns. | Harper’s Bazaar
- “The transference of what I want to say pours from one container into an incompatible receptacle. Inevitably, something is lost.” Ingrid Rojas Contreras on living between languages. | The Paris Review
- Did you miss any of these great books from the first half of this year? | The A.V. Club
- “The family was her great obsession”: On the recent U.S. renaissance of Italian novelist Natalia Ginzburg’s work. | The New York Times
- “Without hormones my femininity is fraying.” In an excerpt from her new book, Darcey Steinke discusses the “ungendering” effects of menopause. | BuzzFeed News
- “Maybe there are occasions where incomprehension is liberation.” Rumaan Alam, in praise of non-critical thinking. | Gay Mag
- “That Airbnb you rented for a long weekend in the Florida Keys or Myrtle Beach? She was there, too.”: A profile of Elin Hilderbrand, the reigning queen of the “beach read.” | The Cut
Also on Lit Hub: Reading Women talk Jesmyn Ward and Sarah Smarsh • On Otherppl, Elvia Wilk on fictionalizing Berlin • Kathy Acker: a desk, a disease, an accounting • On the first openly gay reporter at a major American newspaper • Read from Mamta Chaudhry’s debut novel, Haunting Paris.
