Lit Hub Daily: March 8, 2022

• “It is hard to imagine anyone writing a poem or a novel about this current moment, but someday they will.” Kate Tsurkan on how Ukrainian writers are contributing to the war effort. | Lit Hub Ukraine

  Article continues after advertisement

• What really happened to Abu Zubaydah at notorious Polish black site Stare Kiejkuty? The Forever Prisoner fills in many of the blanks. | Lit Hub Politics

• Why are so many men still resistant to reading women? Mary Ann Sieghart digs into the literary authority gap. | Lit Hub

• How the magic happens: Amanda Pellegrino on writing for TV versus writing a novel. | Lit Hub TV

• “There are many ways the beef can begin with a dance move.” Hanif Adburraqib on famous dustups, from James Brown and Joe Tex to New Jack City. | Lit Hub

  Article continues after advertisement

• Lee Cole considers the problem of writing place when confronted with American uniformity. | Lit Hub Craft

• This month’s 5 Authors, 7 Questions, No Wrong Answers features Sindya Bhanoo, Kathryn Davis, Maud Newton, Stewart O’Nan, and Peng Shepherd. | Lit Hub Questionnaire

• Lee Kravetz talks to Jane Ciabattari about Sylvia Plath, 1950s psychiatry, and confessional poets. | Lit Hub Poetry

• “One can never have too much Zora in one’s intellectual diet.” Gene Seymour considers the “mercurial audacity” of Zora Neale Hurson. | Bookforum

• Rachel Cordasco makes the case for the necessity of speculative fiction in translation. | Words Without Borders

  Article continues after advertisement

• “Its length is often glorious—but it is also an admission of failure.” Tom Whyman on learning to love really long books. | Gawker

• How Laura Gao’s viral tweet about anti-Asian racism turned into a queer coming-of-age graphic novel. | Input

• “We are left to fight a war and to fill the giant information gap about Ukraine that still exists in the West.” Ostap Ukrainets reports on life during the war in Ukraine. | Los Angeles Review of Books

• Brad Meltzer on how a community fought a school book ban in Pennsylvania and won. | CNN

• “We need a culture of free speech, which ultimately means that we have to be tolerant as human beings.” Jacob Mchangama discusses the importance of free expression. | Christian Science Monitor

  Article continues after advertisement

Also on Lit Hub: Erin Kate Ryan imagines the futures and humanity beyond the “missing girl” archetype • How the Inca used knots to tell stories • Read from Karen Joy Fowler’s latest novel, Booth