Lit Hub Daily: November 24, 2021

TODAY: In 1849, Frances Hodgson Burnett is born. 

• So you want to write a novel? Stephanie Gangi recommends starting with a mission statement. | Lit Hub Craft

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• “I gave a little blood to make it possible for all people to be able to participate in a democratic process.” In the Last Interview series, John Lewis discusses the symbolism of the Edmond Pettus Bridge. | Lit Hub Politics

• Jonathan Gottschall muses on the drug-like trance of reading. | Lit Hub

• “It might be a masterpiece.” Ryan Chapman on Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s three-hour adaptation of the Haruki Murakami story “Drive My Car.” | Lit Hub Film

• The sorrow songs: Joseph Horowitz considers how Black spirituals gave rise to new musical genres. | Lit Hub Music

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• “Lovecraft made me realize that I not only have trauma, my own personal life experiences, I also have blood trauma from my ancestors.” The cast and creators speak to the making—and unmaking—of Lovecraft Country. | Lit Hub

• SECRETS OF THE BOOK DESIGNER: How Sunra Thompson took inspiration from pulp fiction covers to reimagine Albert Camus’ The Plague. | Lit Hub

• Days of Abandonment, Pnin, The Phantom Tollbooth, and more rapid-fire book recs from Mina Seçkin. | Book Marks

• Josh Emmons tries to name the “sad amazed amused alarm that something excellent can come into the world and be roundly ignored.” | LARB

• Imani Perry on the subversive storytelling of Charles Chesnutt, who “acted as a ventriloquist for those who left no written record.” | The Atlantic

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• These are the books some parents and politicians want to ban in schools. | Vice

• Mathew Lyons reflects on the career of Russell Hoban. | The Quietus

• “All of my protagonists are always close to me in some way.” Nnedi Okorafor on her latest novel, Africanfuturism, and disability representation in sci-fi. | Bustle

• Elisa Gonzalez considers the perks of alienation. | The New York Times Magazine

• “At some level, it feels a little like Mad Men for a younger generation.” Lili Anouk discusses her (Donna Tartt-disapproved) podcast, Once Upon a Time… At Bennington College. | Vulture

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Also on Lit Hub: Helen Chau Bradley’s reading list of the irreal • Behind the Scenes of David Fincher’s Fight Club • Read from Wanjiku Wa Ngugi’s latest novel, Seasons in Hippoland 

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