TODAY: In 1896, author, playwright, composer, and activist Shirley Graham Du Bois is born.
- [If you’re a book publicist, please look away.] Emily Temple finds a little pandemic peace in reading old books. | Lit Hub
- “I have a habit of making tragedy out of nothing.” In conversation with poet Matthew Dadonna. | Lit Hub
- When Allen Ginsberg and Gary Snyder roamed the Pacific Northwest: snapshots from a Beat icon’s diary. | Lit Hub Memoir
- “Despite more than 300 years since the origins of colonial law in North America, nightwalking remains a socially transgressive activity.” On walking as a dissident act. | Lit Hub History
- “The problem with the word ‘opera’ is that even if you have never seen or heard one, you will have a very definite opinion about what it is, and why it is not for you.” What this essay wonders is… maybe opera is for you? | Lit Hub Music
- “She was and remains a revolutionary voice.” Tracy K. Smith on translating the world of Yi Lei. | Lit Hub Translation
- “In this moment we crave understanding. Right ways of writing that might transmute into right ways of being. But I suspect we’re looking in the wrong places.” Larissa Pham on eliding the space between author and subject and the limits of the viral book review. | The Nation
- “Talking with Bell is like talking to your most introspective and good-natured friend, the one who’s actually read all the Brené Brown books you’ve been meaning to and definitely won’t.” Jennifer Weiner profiles Kristen Bell. | Romper
- “Diane di Prima knew firsthand what it was like to make a seat for herself at tables that had no space for women like her—women who challenged the system, and who thrived in the act.” Amber Tamblyn remembers the feminist poet. | The New Yorker
- A statue honoring writer and pioneering feminist Mary Wollstonecraft prompted backlash in the UK for its depiction of a nude woman. | BBC
- An interview with Matthew Desmond, whose writing on evictions and moratoriums in the US have only become more relevant throughout the pandemic. | Columbia Journalism Review
- Agatha Christie’s first murder myster was published in October 1920. One-hundred years later, what still draws so many readers to her work? | The Boar
- Literary Twitter responded to the Four Seasons Total Landscaping fiasco in the best conceivable way: by integrating the name in quotes from classic books. | Pajiba
