TODAY: In 1849, The Astor Place Riot takes place over a dispute between two Shakespearean actors. Over 20 people are killed.
- Patricia Lockwood and Mallory Ortberg on religion, dad vs. “daddy,” and bananas. | Literary Hub
- Unreality in the real world: How Haruki Murkami captures political life in a dark timeline. | Literary Hub
- What makes a house a home? Megan Daum on the complexities of where we take shelter. | Literary Hub
- A review of P.D. James’ 1992 dystopian novel about a world plagued by mass infertility, The Children of Men, which is “at its most fertile in evoking unfruitfulness.” | Book Marks
- “There is an obvious risk all people will see are just bad Munch paintings—there is probably a reason why many of them have never been exhibited. But even that is better than the usual rounds of hallelujahs and awe.” Speaking with Karl Ove Knausgaard about curating an exhibition of Edvard Munch’s paintings. | VICE
- I don’t find the fantasy itself creepy: An interview with Mary Gaitskill. | NPR
- Richard Ford recalls uncanny memories of his parents in love. | Literary Hub
- Jeff VanderMeer on Kirsten Bakis’s recently reissued novel Lives of the Monster Dogs, which “strives to exist perpetually in a place between discomfort and resolution.” | The Atlantic
- Curtis Sittenfeld’s next novel will imagine a world in which Hillary Rodham never married Bill Clinton. | EW
- “I think literature can play a powerful role in emotionally translating political events, allowing people to connect to the individuals and families behind history.” An interview with Hala Alyan. | Electric Literature
- Morgan Entrekin, the CEO and Publisher of Grove Atlantic (and co-founder of Literary Hub) has won the 2017 Maxwell E. Perkins Award for Distinguished Achievement in the Field of Fiction. | Center for Fiction
- “Ugh, I’m dying, you say, but you just mean nothing changes.” A poem by Max Ritvo. | Guernica
And on Literary Hub: On Shel Silverstein’s death day, 10 wonderful children’s poets you should know • 10 small press books you should read this May • Crime fiction with a bookish bent · A short story by Joshua Ferris
