TODAY: In 1974, poet Anne Sexton dies.
- The National Book Awards finalists have been announced, and include Jesmyn Ward, Min Jin Lee, Masha Gessen, Layli Long Soldier and more. | CBS Morning News
- Haruki Murakami on his favorite young novelist, Mieko Kawakami, “[her novella] took my breath away.” | Literary Hub
- 10 tales of manuscript burning (and some that survived). | Literary Hub
- Hanya Yanagihara revels in the pleasure of reading the first 100 pages of Lolita. | Literary Hub
- How death became big business in America. | Literary Hub
- Darkest Vienna: criminal city of spies, shrinks, and shadow. | Literary Hub
- How Jeffrey Eugenides fell in love with reading. | Literary Hub
- A small but powerful opera in the unexpected form of a novel: Read Michiko Kakutani’s 1993 review of Jeffrey Eugenides’ The Virgin Suicides. | Book Marks
- 2017 Nobel Prize in Literature predictions—from the guy who swore he’d eat his copy of Blood on the Tracks if Bob Dylan ever won. | The New Republic
- “They go to a ton of parties, and I am always wondering . . . when do they have a chance to read?!” Four publishing professionals fact-check Lifetime’s book industry comedy, Younger. | ELLE
- “In the manner of [Instagram], her work is human experience, tidily aestheticized and monetized, rendered inspirational and relatable in perfect balance.” A profile of Rupi Kaur. | The Cut
- Poetry as revolt. Poetry as documentation. Poetry as survival: An interview with Safiya Sinclair. | PEN America
- Cynan Jones has won the BBC National Short Story Award for “The Edge of the Shoal,” which judge Eimear McBride calls “as perfect a short story as I’ve ever read.” | The Guardian
- “Do you want a politics of permission that allows you to live the way you do now, or one that makes demands of you?” On Nasty Women and the future(s) of post-Trump feminism. | The Baffler
- From Louis Sachar to Shirley Jackson, Her Body and Other Parties author Carmen Maria Machado on the American classics that influenced her debut collection. | Library of America
