Lit Hub Daily: May 16, 2025
THE BEST OF THE LITERARY INTERNET
TODAY: In 1955, James Agee dies.
- Ed Simon on grifters, the Chicago World Fair, and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz at 125. | Lit Hub Criticism
- “Whether a screenwriter, an actress with a vision or a woman uplifting a recently-dumped friend, the world appreciates someone who clearly recognizes how to make love’s woes more palpable.” Why we owe the modern rom-com to Jane Austen. | Lit Hub Film
- Malia Márquez considers the similarities between being a writer and being a chicken. | Lit Hub Craft
- A bee learns about the history of the scientists who have studied its species (and accidentally makes a fly jealous). | Lit Hub Science
- Ron Chernow’s Mark Twain, Ocean Vuong’s The Emperor of Gladness, and Mark Whitaker’s The Afterlife of Malcolm X all feature among the best reviewed books of the week. | Book Marks
- “I needed to know about houses—big and rambling houses, and how they alter people.” Dwyer Murphy explores how to build a house on the page. | Lit Hub Craft
- “We were in the crater of an active volcano, and every extra minute we spent down there increased our chances of disaster.” On exploring life inside Earth’s most extreme environments. | Lit Hub Science
- “Mickey learned of her father’s death from the obituary. She wasn’t listed among his loved ones, which didn’t surprise her.” Read from Morgan Dick’s new novel, Favorite Daughter. | Lit Hub Fiction
- Kaitlyn Greenidge revisits Erika Kennedy’s prescient hip-hop satire, Bling. | Harper’s Bazaar
- Judith Santopietro on writing poetry in both Spanish and indigenous languages. | Asymptote
- “Some of the trainings were given by explicitly pro-AI organizations and authors, and organizations backed by tech companies.” Schools were never equipped, it turns out, to deal with AI. | 404 Media
- Joshua Edwards considers the meaning of a poet’s grave. | Poetry
- Rosie Stockton and Rachel Kushner converse about unexpected journeys, apocalyptic poetry, and the nature of love. | Interview
- Jed Perl looks back on a century of surrealist art. | New York Review of Books
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