Lit Hub Daily: September 10, 2021

• 20 YEARS AFTER 9/11: Photographer Joe Woolhead on documenting the chaos of the fallen Twin Towers · How New Yorkers turned to poetry in their grief and resilience · Remembering the mariners who ferried New Yorkers to safety · Sasha Sagan on the sea-change of our news cycle and watching history through the eyes of her daughter. | Lit Hub

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• Considering Tolstoy’s changing notions about brutality and war, as espoused through one of his most famous characters. | Lit Hub Criticism

• “God forgive me if this letter is ever opened by mistake.” Read an, ahem, steamy letter from Henry Miller to Anaïs Nin. | Lit Hub

• “The ivory tower is ivory for a reason; it is not ebony, it is not the color of honey, nor the color of café con leche, and I was never meant to thrive there.” Prisca Dorcas Mojica Rodríguez on white supremacy in higher education. | Lit Hub

• Ellen Feldman on fictionalizing the Ritchie Boys, German-Jewish refugees who went undercover during WWII. | Lit Hub History

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• Lauren Groff considers the books that have made an impact on her life. | Elle

• “Spontaneity is learning.” Leanne Shapton on visual knowledge and the power of browsing. | Curbed

• Samuel Moyn discusses post-9/11 hysteria, US imperialism, and the pretext of humanitarianism. | The Drift

• Meet Ashley M. Jones, Alabama’s first Black poet laureate. | NPR

• Announcing the winner of the 2021 Words Without Borders Ottaway Award. | Words Without Borders

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• Kayleb Rae Candrilli breaks down the meaning of acts of creative recovery under capitalism. | Poetry Foundation

• “Even though it’s a picture that Chicagoans might not find flattering, I think it’s an honest portrayal.” Sandra Cisneros on writing about her hometown. | Chicago Magazine

Also on Lit Hub: Dawn Turner chronicles her sprawling family history in Chicago • Vanessa Bohns on our unbearable fear of social embarrassment • Read from Kim Thúy’s newly translated novel, Em (tr. Sheila Fischman)