Lit Hub Daily: October 19, 2022

TODAY: In 1946, Philip Pullman, author of the His Dark Materials trilogy, is born.  

• In a new column, Nick Ripatrazone reveals treasures from the “eclectic, refreshingly wild” archives of America’s best literary journals. | Lit Hub

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• “If I draw a picture of a slug this afternoon, then somehow that will make those four years of awkward sex and moldy shower curtains all worth it.” New Yorker cartoonist Will McPhail on studying zoology. | Lit Hub Cartoons

• Renee Alsarraf, a veterinary oncologist with metastatic cancer, reflects on facing her own mortality alongside her patients. | Lit Hub Memoir

• “What if unhappy families are all alike, in a structural sense, because the family is a miserable way to organize care?” Sophie Lewis on why family isn’t everything—and how we can create more liberatory alternatives. | Lit Hub

• Veronica Esposito on graphic novelist Rhea Ewing, and why telling trans stories is more important than ever. | Lit Hub

• What it looks like to pioneer social equity in the cannabis space. (Plus, a recipe for peaches and herb cobbler with weed-infused butter!) | Lit Hub Food

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• How Serge Diaghilev took ballet “out of the realms of fairy story and lurid romance into uncharted aesthetic territory.” | Lit Hub History

• “Far from the oppressive ethos I once imagined, it represents the best of American vernacular.” Maud Newton on the inclusivity of “y’all.” | The New York Times Magazine

• Imogen West-Knights reports from the eight-day Gone Girl-themed river cruise. | Slate

• Hua Hsu praises the communal joy of Waffle Saturdays. | Bon Appétit

• “A story doesn’t have to be a coherent system of advice or belief.” George Saunders talks about writing, politics, and empathy. | Esquire

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• Chris M. Arnone recommends humorous works of horror. | Book Riot

• Carmen Callil, founder of the feminist publishing company Virago, has died at 84. | The Guardian

Also on Lit Hub: A reading list of polyvocal novels • New poetry by J. Estanislao Lopez • Read a story from Samanta Schweblin’s newly translated collection, Seven Empty Houses (tr. Megan McDowell)

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