Lit Hub Weekly: April 1 - 5, 2019

• Read a profile of Susan Choi, author of Trust Exercise, who “is willing to set fire to traditional narrative, to undermine her own characters, to stomp all over her own beautiful sentences.” | Vulture
• “They’ve survived car accidents and multiple strokes. They’ve had fifty-seven-year marriages and many, many grandchildren. And at least eleven are skilled tap dancers.” Alexandra Kleeman reports from the Ms. Senior America Pageant in Atlantic City. | The Believer
• “The corporate embodiment of the English teacher trying anything possible to show kids how relatable classic lit still is”: A kind of complimentary, somewhat backhanded take on the meme-friendly SparkNotes Twitter account. | The A.V. Club
• Meet Dr. Alan Gribben, the Mark Twain die-hard who has spent the last 45 years discovering and cataloging the author’s library collection. | The Guardian
• From James Frey to Penelope Ashe: a selection of the best literary hoaxes from the last 100 years. | The New York Times
• The Marshall Project has launched News Inside, a print publication featuring stories relating directly to life as an incarcerated person that will be distributed in prisons and jails across the country. | The Marshall Project
• “I grieve for what has been so carelessly and thoughtless thrown away.” Irish writers respond to Brexit. | The Irish Times
• Just as you suspected: it’s much better to read to your child from a print book than from a tablet. | Mental Floss
• “Nabokov was never to mourn the immense wealth from which he had been separated, only the lost, liberal chapter of Russian history”: How did the Russian Revolution, and exile, shape Vladimir Nabokov’s writing career? | The New York Times
• “It was standing room only in Narragansett A as Paula Froke, the lead editor of the A.P. Stylebook, ran through her slides.” Mary Norris reports from the American Copy Editors Conference. | The New Yorker
• Salvador Dalí’s side project: illustrating books, from Don Quixote to the Bible. | Artsy
• Words, pictures, sound, and architecture: Five translators on the joys and challenges of translating kids’ books. | Words Without Borders
• Listen to Henry Louis Gates, Jr. discuss Reconstruction and the origins of the American white supremacy movement on NPR’s Fresh Air. | NPR
• Richard Wright’s Native Son had twice been adapted for film before this year. Both movies bombed. Will the work of playwright Suzan Lori-Park and artist Rashid Johnson make the third time a charm? | The New York Times
• “I always had this desire, and I don’t know where it comes from, to find out how things work and explain them to people.” Read an interview with historian Robert Caro. | Time

Also on Lit Hub:

“Unfortunate the land whose citizens pass the buck to a hero.” Rebecca Solnit on Robert Mueller, Greta Thunberg, and what we risk by relying on heroes • Katherine Dunn sure knows how to cuss • A reading list of modern Greece from our beloved Comma Queen, Mary Norris • Édouard Louis on his father • Jenni Fagan on the urgency and life-saving necessity of writing poetry • Beth Nguyen on making MFA workshops better for writers • Belle Boggs: Why don’t more writers become public school teachers? • Polly Rosenwaike on motherhood, a job like any other • On the stray dogs of Mexico City • Douglas Brinkley considers five books to help us understand the present moment • Sloane Tanen on the lessons of Sloane Peterson • 1984: still-relevant classic or “a wet, moody rag”? (Decidedly the latter, according to these one-star Amazon reviews) • Valerie Jarrett recalls 26-year-old Michelle Obama’s remarkable job interview, and her first dinner with a young political super couple-to-be • An afternoon at María Gainza’s Buenos Aires home • On the protean etymology of spring, season of marvels • Mary Laura Philpott on the surprisingly tricky art of subtitling • On Bryan Washington, rising star of literary Houston • Enjoy these unused alternative covers of modern classics • On Eso Won Books, one of the country’s oldest Black-owned bookstores • Cherríe Moraga on her mother’s struggles and being Mexican in a white world • Why is domestic labor a source of so much ambivalence (no matter who performs it)? • 19 books you should read this month • Learning to love the worst commute in America • Raynor Winn takes a final walk with her husband on the longest path in England • Gabrielle Bellot on the shameful debate on Equality Act • On Richard Dawkins and the dangers of reductive science • Writing advice from Saul Bellow

Best of Book Marks:

New on CrimeReads:

Sarah Weinman on Sandy Fawkes, the British journalist who crossed paths with an American serial killer • April’s must-read crime and mystery books • JoeAnn Hart investigates the long-unsolved murder of a friend • Craig Pittman delivers an ode to John D. MacDonald, crime writer and environmental activist •  All the bestpsychological thrillers out this April • Mark Bowden on true crime research in an era of boundless raw footage • Leslie S. Klinger and Lisa Morton on the evolution of ghostly literature • Stephanie Jo Harris on Victor Hugo’s creation of the archetypal cop: Inspector Javert • Your guide to what’s streaming this April • Gyles Brandreth has a new theory about Jack the Ripper • “I think perhaps all of us go a little crazy at times.” The world according to Psycho author Robert Bloch, born this week in 1917 • Scarlett Harris asks, why do we keep romanticizing evil men? •  Author and competitive poker player Jane Stanton Hitchcock on embracing obsession • Max Allan Collins on the risks and rewards of writing outside your comfort zone • Seth Fried on AI and the noir of the future • Olivia Kiernan recommends 7 thrillers in which small town secrets breed dark crimes • Parnell Hall’s adventures in competitive crossword puzzling