TODAY: In 1855, Alfred Tennyson reads from his new book Maud and other poems at a social gathering in the home of Robert and Elizabeth Browning in London; Dante Gabriel Rossetti makes a sketch of him doing so (see above).
- Looking for working class representation in literature? Adrian McKinty suggests you try some genre fiction. | Literary Hub
- What we can learn from “ordinary” Nazis: Jessica Shattuck on the dangers of making monsters of men. | Literary Hub
- 10 songs for J.G. Ballard’s post-apocalyptic vision of a drowned London. | Literary Hub
- Danez Smith: “My grandparents were the first poets I knew.” | Literary Hub
- “Critics are responsible for more than naming their likes and dislikes. They are writing in service of a larger idea of literature.” Speaking with Wall Street Journal book critic, Sam Sacks. | Book Marks
- On The Lonely Doll, the creepy, cult-classic children’s book that is also a favorite of Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon and many other women artists. | The New Yorker
- “Before plot or dialogue or even character, the mind needs to be observant, nimble, playful, and curious around the world around it. Without that, fiction is DOA.” An interview with Her Body and Other Parties author Carmen Maria Machado. | The Millions
- “As scientists’ projections about the effects of climate change have increasingly become reality, some works of apocalyptic fiction have begun to seem all too plausible.” Climate experts weigh in on the likelihood of 7 cli-fi premises coming to pass. | The New York Times
- Why are fiction writers of color always presumed to be writing about themselves? | The Awl
- “Virginia Woolf once said that women need money and rooms of their own in order to create works of genius. In 1979, the Raincoats didn’t have any money, but they found their room in the form of a crumbling basement squat in London.” An excerpt from Jenn Pelly’s new 33 1/3 book on British punk band The Raincoats. | Pitchfork
- Death, sex, and defiance: Why the journals of Etty Hillesum deserve a place in the canon of Holocaust writing. | Literary Hub
- “It wasn’t just me reading under the covers anymore. Other people wanted to connect over these books.” How Glory Edim took Well-Read Black Girl from a homemade t-shirt to a literary movement. | Lenny
- Are the editorial enterprises of start-ups like Airbnb and Dollar Shave Club the future of digital publishing? | The Ringer
- How bad, exactly, was the tell-all memoir that scandalized 1980s literary London? | Literary Hub
