Lit Hub Weekly: August 21 – 25, 2017

• The remaining members of the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities have resigned; Donald Trump’s former ghostwriter has predicted that President will soon follow suit. | The Washington Post, CNN
• “Vladimir Lenin . . . saw in the development of a black proletarian consciousness the greatest potential for revolution in America.” When the Harlem Renaissance came to the Soviet Union. | The New York Times
• “You enter this world where these people are their superhero personas; their secret selves, but in public.” Speaking with Savannah Knoop and Justin Kelly, co-writers of JT Leroy (which stars Kristen Stewart and Laura Dern). | W Magazine
• “The ugly heart of the South still beats with this idea that one group of people is worth less.” A profile of Jesmyn Ward. | Vulture
• A “paradigm shift” at the New York Times Books Desk: On changes both recent and forthcoming to the NYT’s books coverage, spearheaded by Pamela Paul. | Publishers Weekly
• “We count birds because birds count.” How Margaret Atwood and Graeme Gibson founded a bird sanctuary on Pelee Island. | The Walrus
• “(How many exclamation points do I have to use nowadays to come off as normal???)” Short fiction by Joshua Cohen. | WIRED
• “I sat down to start writing my next book—and it was going to be this, or it was going to be about witches.” Lindsay Hunter and Roxane Gay in conversation. | Work in Progress
• How the post-Trump thirst for dystopian fiction is serving for readers as “a gateway to other books” from new authors—or in the activism/politics section. | Entertainment Weekly
• “I’ve always felt very splintered and resistant to labels in a weird way.” Kaveh Akbar interviews Morgan Parker. | Divedapper
• Hillary Clinton has released an audio excerpt from her forthcoming memoir, in which she has written “about moments from the campaign that [she wishes she] could go back and do over.” | MSNBC
• “To me, the great poignancy of Acker’s life was that she’d outlived her dream.” Chris Kraus in conversation with Jarrett Kobek. | The Millions
• Norway’s Lydia Davis: On the short fiction of Gunnhild Øyehaug, who at 42 is making her American debut. | The New Yorker
• “For me, the right to say what happens to my body is the right to make art.” Claire Vaye Watkins is hosting an auction to benefit Planned Parenthood, featuring contributions from writers like Lauren Groff, Emma Straub, and Tom McGuane. | Charity Auctions Today
• Netflix has announced that it will release two new literary documentaries—Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold and Gay Talese’s Voyeur. | Deadline

Also on Lit Hub: 

 100 books across America: Fiction and nonfiction for every state in the union · How Sigmund Freud tried to break and remake his fiancée · Mark Bray on why The Big Lie, Dinesh D’Souza’s terrible book about the American left, is worth our attention · Rebecca Schuman on trying to be an expert and a woman at the same time ·  On the dark, wondrous optimism of Ray Bradbury · Speaking with the students behind Howl, the best high school lit mag in America · An ode to the sun by Karl Ove Knausgaard · Two never-before-published letters from Marcel Proust to his neighbor, translated by Lydia Davis · Claire Messud reflects on what she learned from her mother’s library · Ayobami Adebayo on writing about infertility in a world that sees childless marriage as tragedy

In honor of this week’s rare celestial event, Jim Shepard on John Banville’s Eclipse · Amal El-Mohtar, in his NPR review of The Stone Sky, says “N. K. Jemisin’s books are a revolution in which I want to take part” · The voice of the sea speaks to the soul: an 1899 review of Kate Chopin’s The Awakening · Turtles all the way down: On Stephen Hawking’s bestselling 1988 popular science book, A Brief History of Time · The repainted world of Knausgaard’s Autumn · The “waves of shockingly bestial detail” in Hubert Selby Jr.’s cult classic, Last Exit to Brooklyn · Never love a wild thing: A 1958 New York Times review of Capote’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s · Doomed romances, American exceptionalism, the Russian Revolution, and more: the best-reviewed books of the week