Lit Hub Daily: October 18, 2023

• “The Israeli Army can now call my mobile phone to inform me of its intention to bomb my house, but my tongue is struck dumb.” Adania Shibli on bombings in Ramallah. | Lit Hub Politics

• In the final installment of The Journey That Matters, a new series of video shorts on Ursula K. Le Guin, Ursula reflects on balancing motherhood and her writing career with the help of her husband, Charles. | Lit Hub Biography

• John Freeman says goodbye to Freeman’s: “It can make you feel a bit gloomy, unless you accept that like New York City itself, literary magazines are by nature—most of them, not all—meant to be ephemeral.” | Lit Hub

• Yes, your cat really is talking to you (a scientist says so!). | Lit Hub Animals

• “The story of Hilary Mantel is scattered throughout her novels. But in her journalism and essays, a full and exhilarating self-portrait emerges.” Hilary Mantel’s longtime editor reflects on a writer at the peak of her powers. | Lit Hub

• Michelle Nijhuis considers how the film adaptation of Butcher’s Crossing betrays its brilliant source material. | Lit Hub Film & TV

• Diksha Basu on graduating from WebMD: “Everything isn’t a hop, skip, and click away from a death sentence.” | Lit Hub Health

• In the face of the rising tide of bans, Scholastic is taking the cowardly stance of allowing schools to opt out of providing diverse books at its bookfairs. | NPR

• “What there isn’t, and what there never is, is a genius every three months. This is something promoted by the publishing industry, and not just publishing, but every single walk of life you can imagine.” Sophie Vershbow interviews Fran Lebowitz. | Esquire

• Kevin Young, Elisa Gonzalez, and more writers remember Louise Glück. | The New Yorker

• A 21-year-old computer scientist used machine learning to read a 2,000-year-old scroll that was buried under volcanic ash in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. Neat! | Vice

• Emily Zarevich considers Sylvia Plath’s fascination with bees. | JSTOR Daily

Also on Lit Hub: Ritu Mukerji on the life of Ann Preston • How mass media made mass protest • Read from Adam Thirlwell’s latest novel, The Future Future