Lit Hub Daily: October 20, 2021

• “______ began work on ______  in 1959, but the necessities of life delayed its completion.” Can you guess these famous writers based on their very first author bios? | Lit Hub

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• TEACHING THROUGH A PANDEMIC: Christy Tidwell on staying safe while teaching • Frances Starn on making a last-resort attempt at joy—by adopting a class pet. | Lit Hub Teaching

• “What haunts American land haunts its literature. Every pastoral, like every paradise, implies exclusion.” Brad Kessler on settler narratives and the unmaking of an American pastoral. | Lit Hub History

• Elaine Feeney considers how Ireland’s conservative attitudes about sex and the body inspired her new novel, As You Were. | Lit Hub

• “After the wave of attention from the first night, America seemed to shut down. Not for a natural disaster, but for a cultural awakening.” Wil Haygood on when 130 million Americans tuned in to watch Roots. | Lit Hub TV

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• On the lineage of protest music, from “Strange Fruit” to Black Lives Matter anthems. | Lit Hub Music

• “It is a book that can handle my exposed ass.” Dodie Bellamy on the intimacy and bodily experience of reading Paula Modersohn-Becker (in the bathroom). | Lit Hub Criticism

• J.M. Thompson describes the intensity of mountain ultrarunning (in aching, blistering detail). | Lit Hub Sports

• “Reality television can be as depraved as a Roman arena.” Sallie Tisdale on the manipulative, hunger-based tactics of Survivor. | Lit Hub TV 

• “Bram Stoker’s Dracula is the tits.” Rapid-fire book recs from Chelsea G. Summers. | Book Marks

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• A look at 10 new horror novels that are perfect for crime fans. | CrimeReads

• On Keen On, Myisha Cherry on anger as a tool for defeating racism, and Michael Lenox on “decarbonizing” the global economy. | Lit Hub Virtual Book Channel

• “The obsession with this fantasy is reflected at the highest levels of this industry.” On ghostwriting and the myth of the lone creative genius. | Study Hall

• Bad news from Vegas: The Believer will stop publishing after its spring 2022 issue. | The Hub

• Read a new poem about the pandemic by Jeannine Hall Gailey. | Image Journal

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• Colm Tóibín and Kiki Smith in conversation. | Interview

• “Who are the gatekeepers of history?” Mary Rambaran-Olm on the prevalence of white supremacy in Medieval history, and finding community in the archives. | Public Books

• In the new issue of Dorothy Parker’s Ashes, Vivian Conan discusses writing a memoir of dissociative identity disorder. | Dorothy Parker’s Ashes

• Justin Beal explores the figure of the architect in fiction. | The MIT Press Reader

• Libraries in Salt Lake County, Utah, are now providing naloxone to anyone who asks in an effort to address the opioid crisis. | The Salt Lake Tribune

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• The deadline is fast approaching to submit to the 2022 Zócalo Book Prize for nonfiction. | Zócalo Public Square

Also on Lit Hub: Patrick Nunn on rising ocean levels and climate change denial • A reading list for understanding Mexico’s complex, enthralling history • Read from Elizabeth Strout’s latest novel, Oh William!