TODAY: In 1906, Hannah Arendt is born.
- “I’ve already bought about twice as many books as I’ll ever be able to pay for.” Young John Berryman is just like us! | Lit Hub
- “Lorde’s view of poetry and the imagination clarified my own inclination to disappear, at times, into my own head.” Tracy K. Smith reads Audre Lorde’s Cancer Journals. | Lit Hub
- How a young John Brown became the legendary militant abolitionist: H.W. Brands on the early life of an American avenger. | Lit Hub History
- Insider or outsider… who decides? Anaïs Duplan offers a brief history of the classification of Black music. | Lit Hub Music
- “That’s why I’m so thankful I can write songs. I can capture all those memories in my songs and keep those memories alive.” We’re thankful, too, Dolly Parton. | Lit Hub Music
- In praise of readings: Kirk S. Walsh looks back at 33 years of watching writers stand up in public to share their work, from William Trevor to Carmen Maria Machado. | Lit Hub
- Read from this year’s Cundill History Prize longlist, from the Aztec Empire to the birth of modern Greece. | Lit Hub History
- “If there was a handbook for writing an erotic scene, I’m sure it would say “Don’t do that.” But that’s what I love about the scene.” Emily M. Danforth on the Very Good Sex in Patricia Highsmith’s The Price of Salt. | Vulture
- Unfortunately, now seems like the perfect time for this series of critical essays on Ling Ma’s Severance. | Post45
- “What are we doing here?” Dave Eggers reflects on being a Californian in 2020. | The New Yorker
- The Swedish Academy, which administers the Nobel Prize in Literature, has filled its remaining two vacancies after years of controversy. | Reuters
- This year saw a surge of interest in Black-run book clubs with an anti-racist focus. Not all the book club hosts think that was inherently good. | Style Caster
- Eritrean poet Amanuel Asrat, who has been detained without charges for nearly 20 years, has been named International Writer of Courage. | The Guardian
- “We’re crucial to the American story. There would be no America without Indigenous peoples.” Joy Harjo on creating an anthology of Indigenous poetry. | Chicago Review of Books
