Lit Hub Daily: March 20, 2020
THE BEST OF THE LITERARY INTERNET
TODAY: In 1899, “tramp-poet” W. H. Davies loses his foot trying to jump on a freight train at Renfrew, Ontario.
- THESE TIMES: Meet THE VIRTUAL BOOK CHANNEL (aka The Veeb”), our attempt to connect writers with readers (and each other) in these isolating times · Stephen Sparks on bookselling at the end of the world · By popular demand: the last lines of 10 classic novels rewritten for social distancing · 50 custom book recommendations for 50 readers (and everyone else!), from us to you. | Lit Hub Coronavirus Coverage
- “You love this place like a person you can’t stop making love to—you dream about this person when they’re right in front of you.” Paul Lisicky on his Provincetown. | Lit Hub Memoir
- Silver spoons, broken arms, and Monte Carlo: the life and times of Lucy Schell, the heiress who dominated early motorsports. | Lit Hub Biography
- A people’s history of the poetry workshop: Mark Nowak on workshops and the Watts rebellion. | Lit Hub
- “The world was wet, drippy magic.” Scenes from Harry Dodge’s San Francisco. | Lit Hub Memoir
- A tale of murder on the Mayflower, Paul Lisicky’s Provincetown memoir, and a multigenerational Vietnamese saga all feature among the Best Reviewed Books of the Week. | Book Marks
- Karen Dietrich on red herrings and the art of misdirection in contemporary crime literature. | CrimeReads
- Jenny Odell recommends watching live eagle cams in these times of isolation and uncertainty. | Jezebel
- As physical bookstores began closing to prevent the spread of COVID-19, unit sales of print books fell 10 percent last week, in every category except juvenile nonfiction. | Publishers Weekly
- “We are living in interesting times — I would argue too interesting. There will be things to say about it. Let yourself say them, if you want to.” Sari Botton offers some encouragement—and resources—for continuing to write, right now. | Longreads
- English PEN has called for the release of Egyptian author Ahdaf Soueif after she was arrested following a protest about prisoner treatment amid the coronavirus outbreak. | The Bookseller
- 35 black artists, including authors like Ta-Nehisi Coates, Jesmyn Ward, and Margo Jefferson, reflect on some of the 21st-century artwork that has inspired them. | The New York Times
- Eight writers witness the coronavirus pandemic from around the world. | New York Review of Books
- Winning a Windham-Campbell Prize feels like a “complicated gift,” says Maria Tumarkin. | The Guardian
Also on Lit Hub: What Ray Bradbury understood about the narrative power of tattoos • Reading and learning on
the bohemian homestead • Read an excerpt from Brian Platzer’s new novel The Body Politic.
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