Lit Hub Daily: September 11, 2025
THE BEST OF THE LITERARY INTERNET
TODAY: In 1862, O. Henry is born.
- Elaine L. Wang looks at “Try to Praise the Mutilated World,” Adam Zagajewski’s (accidentally) definitive 9/11 poem. | Lit Hub Poetry
- Natalie Diaz praises the “sensual intention” of Mary Oliver’s language. | Lit Hub Criticism
- “As capitalism has invented ever more ways to be miserable, so too has it invented ever more specific ways to ease that misery.” On the link between trauma and drug use. | Lit Hub Health
- Read the winners of American Short Fiction’s 2025 Insider Prize, as selected by Manuel Muñoz. | Lit Hub
- “Anyone making the case for Hiroshima and Nagasaki’s annihilation then is making the case for our annihilation now.” 5 book reviews you need to read this week. | Book Marks
- Glen Mimura on the groundbreaking work of Frank S. Matsura: “ Unlike his more prestigious white male counterparts, Matsura did not impose any particular interpretive frame onto his subjects and certainly not a dominant cultural belief or perspective with which he may or may not have been familiar.” | Lit Hub Photography
- “Just my life’s work there that you’re tossing around like scrap paper.” Sally Mann meditates on the crushing reality of artistic rejection. | Lit Hub Craft
- “We founded our community with the best of intentions…” Read the story “Home Sweet NewHome” by Matt Bell, from the new issue of Dædalus. | Lit Hub Fiction
- Simon Lewsen considers whether the crisis in the humanities is an existential one. | The Local
- Camille Tinnin makes the case for the educational power of speculative fiction, which “offers a productive playground in which readers can apply social theory to analyze power structures.” | JSTOR Daily
- “The customer is king, do you not understand?” Hu Anyan on delivering parcels in Beijing. | The Dial
- David Schurman Wallace goes to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival with his parents. | The Paris Review
- Jack Norton and Judah Schept report on the presence of ICE in Harlan County, Kentucky and the American deportation machine. | n+1
- “The State Department is acting in an arbitrary and capricious manner against victims of genocide by suspending these visas and not giving any context or reason for why.” On students from Gaza who were admitted to American universities. | The Intercept
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