Lit Hub Daily: March 3, 2022

• Stanislav Aseyev on life in occupied Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, circa 2015. | Lit Hub Politics

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• “I was 36 when I realized that not everyone in their twenties and thirties was in pain all the time.” Megan O’Rourke considers the self-dissolving difficulty of chronic illness. | Lit Hub Health

• Their own nightmare alley: Sharon DeBartolo Carmack tells the story of a fake spiritualist medium’s encounter with a Scientific American editor. | Lit Hub

• Christiane Bird revisits “bad-boy celebrity photographer” Robert Mapplethorpe and his years on West Twenty-Third Street. | Lit Hub Photography

• “New heroes can always be rediscovered in the historical record, especially in an era sorely in need of them.” J.D. Dickey recommends five essential voices from the abolition movement. | Lit Hub History

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• How to bring the National Book Awards to your classroom and engage in some “authentic reading.” | Lit Hub Teaching

• Leanne Kale Sparks with six thrillers guaranteed to make even the steeliest readers squeamish. | CrimeReads

• Natalie Walker on method acting, Ryan Ruby on translingual writing, Lily Meyer on the Bolaño mythos, and more of the Reviews You Need to Read This Week. | Book Marks

• “Ulysses is a symbol for all the wrongheaded and frustrating ways we talk and think about the way art is made and received and appreciated.” Jessa Crispin on the creation(s) of Ulysses. | The Baffler

• Lydia Kiesling talks to Nicole Chung about establishing a freelance career, revision, and fleeing her home to finish a novel. | The Atlantic

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• A new series of Dr. Seuss-inspired books will feature diverse authors and illustrators. | AP

• Srikantha Reddy considers the overlooked brilliance of the poet Margaret Danner, the first Black woman on Poetry’s editorial staff. | Poetry

• Brian Boone breaks down the best comedy books of 2022 (so far). | Vulture

• Remembering Shirley Hughes, whose work in children’s literature made her a “a warm and benevolent presence in the lives of uncountable numbers of children.” | The Guardian

• From Sula to Purple Rain and family photos, Marlon James lists some of his favorite things. | Wall Street Journal

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Also on Lit Hub: On the shaky foundations of America’s Constitution • Instructions for dating a fellow writer • Rebecca Kauffman’s latest novel, Chorus