Lit Hub Daily: May 6, 2022

• MOTHER’S DAY: Emma Knight on the revelatory rise of the bad mom in fiction • Michael Bourne on his mother’s late-in-life literary renaissance • Candice Iloh on understanding their mother’s pain through writing • Eula Biss on how motherhood radicalized Adrienne Rich • What will the literature of motherhood look like after COVID? | Lit Hub

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• “There’s no magic potion or silver bullet that will save abortion rights. There never really was.” Why Roe v. Wade was just the beginning. | Lit Hub Politics

• Big (couture) shoes to fill: When Lady Bird Johnson became First Lady after JFK’s assassination. | Lit Hub History

• How Zabar’s became a culinary icon. | Lit Hub Food

• “To be a woman online is an inherently dangerous act.” Nina Jankowicz on the problem of harassment and self-censorship. | Lit Hub

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• “What is a city if not a giant urn, a vast receptacle of memories, hopes, and disappointments?” David Farrier on the work of artist Katie Paterson, creator of Future Library. | Lit Hub Art

• Vauhini Vara advice for keeping a writing project alive over the span of several years. | Lit Hub Craft

• Colin Barrett’s Homesickness, Ali Smith’s Companion Piece, and Monica Ali’s Love Marriage all feature among the Best Reviewed Books of the Week. | Book Marks

• Joshua Prager highlights ten books on the history of the debate over abortion in the United States. | The New York Times

• Maayan Silver talks to Cree Myles, who created the Instagram @allwaysblack “to celebrate Black writers and the readers who love them.” | NPR

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• Catherine Halley on the history of the New York School poets. | JSTOR Daily

• Kim Kelly looks into the many ways in which the publishing industry mistreats workers, and the recent wave of bookstore unions. | Teen Vogue

• “Cruelty and tragedy are the ordinary facts of living. We have little reason to dwell; more to laugh.” Annie Geng on Cookie Mueller’s singular talent. | Gawker

• Herman Hesse reflects on chestnut trees. | The Paris Review

• “I cannot consider death as anything but a removing from one room to another.” John Higgs on the last days of William Blake. | Lapham’s Quarterly

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Also on Lit Hub: Lara Bazelon on womanhood and ambition • Beppe Severgnini on the Italian love (and need) for poetry • Read Eyad Barghuthy’s “Curses” (tr. Nashwa Gowanlock)