TODAY: In 1843, literary realist Henry James is born.
- Colson Whitehead has won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction; other Arts & Letters award winners include Hisham Matar, Lynn Nottage, and Tyehimba Jess. | The Pulitzer Prizes
- Rebecca Mead profiles Margaret Atwood, a “buoyant doomsayer” who “takes evident satisfaction in providing an accurate diagnosis, even when the cultural prognosis is bleak.” | The New Yorker
- “This is the only necessary form of humility: the realization that difference is normal.” An excerpt from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions. | Signature
- Unpublished correspondence from 1960 – 1963 between Sylvia Plath and her therapist, Dr. Ruth Barnhouse, alleges multiple instances of domestic abuse by Ted Hughes. | The Guardian
- “Paley became a knower of women, a conscious feminist, and a writer all at once.” On Grace Paley’s collected writing. | The New Republic
- There are many ways to sing the song of home: Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib on Mari Evans and what it means to be a black poet in the Midwest. | The Baffler
- My work is more like dissociative personality disorder: An interview with Max Winter. | Catapult
- As part of its annual State of the Libraries report, the ALA has announced the Top Ten Most Challenged Books of 2016, which include George, I Am Jazz, and Eleanor & Park. | American Library Association
- From Black Easter to The Devil’s Bride, a roundup of Satan-centric pulp novels. | Tor
- Every once in a while, poetry is called for: On Gavin Grimm, Naomi Shihab Nye, and the use of poetry in United States courtrooms. | The New York Review of Books
- Veteran bookseller Angela Marie Spring has launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund Duende District, a new bookstore that will be “owned, operated, and managed by a majority of people of color.” | Publishers Weekly
- “I don’t shy away from reading boring or difficult things anymore. Those teach you a lot of words.” An interview with Wayne Koestenbam. | The Creative Independent
- Have we had the video game Citizen Kane yet?, and other thoughts on video games from Tony Tulathimutte. | Electric Literature
- “Why didn’t you contact my agent? … You’re all so selfish.” On the man who tracked down J.D. Salinger in pursuit of film rights to The Catcher in the Rye. | The Paris Review
- Helen Rosner on the artistic legacy of Lucky Peach, which “completely changed the visual language of food media, full stop, no qualifier.” | Eater
Race is the original American fiction: On reuniting with the descendants of Thomas Jefferson’s slaves · Kurt Vonnegut’s greatest writing advice · 10 debut novels that are also their authors’ masterpieces, from Madame Bovary to The Secret History · Kerri Arsenault on growing up in Maine’s “Cancer Valley” in the shadow of a smoke-spouting paper mill · Seeing Bruce Springsteen live in 1984 · Lidia Yuknavitch on her lifelong love of swimming and water’s significance for her · Actual social justice warriors: The women of Celtic mythology · Sarah Gerard on mourning her grandfather through The Velveteen Rabbit · Louise Erdrich on spirits and returning to her home reservation in the Turtle Mountains · On surrealist painter Gertrude Abercrombie, queen of the bohemian artists
This week on Book Marks:
The unpredictable machinery of life: Looking back at Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle on the 10h anniversary of his death · On Mary Gaitskill’s “gutting, brutal, lovely” new essay collection · Self-help for Sarah Lawrence girls: Joan Didion’s 1961 takedown of J.D. Salinger · “Why is Florida so f*cked up?”: Laura van den Berg on Sarah Gerard’s Sunshine State · A 1981 New York Times review of Marilynne Robinson’s Housekeeping · “They get jailed, escape, die, or go mad”: On The Accusation, the first work of fiction to be smuggled out of North Korea · A murderous conspiracy tale, a journalistic memoir of Florida life, and a novel of doomed friendship are among the best-reviewed books of the week
