TODAY: In 1959, Nigerian writer Ben Okri is born.
- “We downplay issues with food as just par for the course, the cost of doing business in girlhood.” Emily Layden on eating disorders and the secret lives of teenage girls. | Lit Hub
- If we can’t live in the utopia of a world without emails, Cal Newport suggests that we at least take a page from academia. | Lit Hub Tech
- “The fact that authors like Norman Mailer have contributed more than their share of neologisms to the world’s word pool is due not only to their hunger for recognition but to the very nature of authorship.” Ralph Keyes on the surprising contributions that authors have made to language. | Lit Hub
- Elon Green looks back to the NYC-based 1980s Anti-Violence Project, “at heart, a reaction to systemic apathy to queer life.” | Lit Hub History
- “Today, I know that the words were the proof of an unchronicled legacy.” Fatima Shaik on a hidden history of Black brotherhood, rediscovered through New Orleans Economie journals. | Lit Hub History
- When Don Lee needed to write (good) song lyrics for his character, he did what any of us would do: cold-emailed Centro-matic lead singer Will Johnson to ask for help. | Lit Hub Music
- “I read things like on average, it takes at least seven years for a blended family to feel like a family, if ever.” How dipping a toe into the waters of stepmotherhood inspired Emma Duffy-Comparone’s new book. | Lit Hub Memoir
- Sula, The English Patient, The Portrait of a Lady, and more rapid-fire book recs from Miranda Popkey. | Book Marks
- The National Endowment for the Humanities will receive $135 million in supplemental funding as part of the American Rescue Plan. | Publishers Weekly
- “He told us that he was going to leave everything, good and bad, behind—to begin a new chapter in his life.” The story of Antonio Sajvín Cúmes, who wanted to write a memoir about the American Dream. | Guernica
- “Breadcrumbs were there, small hints at the story that would be waiting when I was ready to find it.” Eiren Caffall uncovers a hidden family history. | LARB
- “A transracial home does not need to be a synonym for trauma if it is a place of openness and honest dialogue.” Georgina Lawton on racial identity and discovering the truth about her heritage. | The Guardian
- Reading this year’s NBCC Award finalists: Carlin Romano on Martin Amis’ Inside Story. | Lit Hub
- Casey Cep details the Raven bookstore’s ongoing fight with Amazon. | The New Yorker
- “By the time I was thirteen, I had divorced my body. Not before or since have I felt such animosity toward another being.” Melissa Febos on finding the sublime in a body. | The Yale Review
- “Even as a child, I was working out some idea of suburban literature.” On TikTok, suburban gothic aesthetics, and being the main character in the movie of your life. | Dirt
Also on Lit Hub: Your week in virtual book events • Kate Washington on caregiver burnout and Jane Eyre • Read from Nona Fernandez’s newly translated novel, The Twilight Zone (trans. Natasha Wimmer)
