TODAY: In 1910, Josephine Johnson, American novelist, poet, and essayist who won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1935 at age 24 for her first novel, Now in November, is born..
- Valeria Luiselli on the choices people make when coming to America, and on how the bad times come one cut at a time · Thi Bui on nationalism’s unnatural strangeness · Vu Tran on his memories of being a four-year-old refugee · Inara Verzemnieks on the American tradition of turning away refugees. | Lit Hub
- For the first time online in full, read Roxane Gay’s short story “Sweet on the Tongue,” from her new collection, Ayiti. | Lit Hub
- “So when does my mythic writer’s life begin?” Dana Schwartz thought that publishing a book would change everything for her… Reader, it didn’t. | Lit Hub
- Kristen Arnett: librarians will guard your personal data fiercely (and they might even look the other way about the porn you watched that one time “by accident.”) | Lit Hub
- When making a book suitably “moral” meant making it less “gay.” Emily Temple looks at the pre-censored version of The Picture of Dorian Gray. | Lit Hub
- The 72 most-anticipated crime, mystery, and thriller reads to last you through the summer. | CrimeReads
- “The experience of art is a valid experience. But I think learning solely from art can be a problem.” Elissa Washuta interviews Alice Bolin. | Tin House
- Let’s stop nailing writers’ shoes to the floor: On the stories we keep asking writers of color to tell—and how authors like Porochista Khakpour, Zadie Smith, and Alexander Chee are telling new ones. | BuzzFeed Reader
- “My books are often faulted by bourgeois critics for prejudices that are theirs not mine.” A profile of French wunderkind Édouard Louis, who “uses literature as a weapon.” | The New York Times
- Wandering around a Japanese 7-11 with Sayaka Murata, author of Convenience Store Woman. | Lit Hub
- “When Satan tempted Adam and Eve, there’s a pretty good reason he didn’t transform into a talking clam.” A short story by (and interview with) Lauren Groff. | Esquire
- “This is the truth, whichever way you look at it. I’m not a bad guy.” Read a short story composed entirely of the first lines from 268 stories published in The New Yorker over the past 20 years. | BOMB
Also on Literary Hub: Chelsea Hodson on the urgency of making art · Why do people connive and cheat—and why do we love to read about it? · Writers of the Zodiac: Playful Gemini has a way with words · New fiction by Lee Martin from his collection, The Mutual UFO Network
