Lit Hub Weekly: August 5 - 9, 2019

• Remembering Toni Morrison, who died this week at age 88: PEN America members, from Margaret Atwood to Elif Shafak, pay tribute to Toni Morrison; Hannah Giorgis on Morrison’s “kaleidoscopic vision of literature”; Doreen St. Félix on speaking to her mother through Toni Morrison; revisit Hilton Als’ 2003 profile of Morrison, whom he calls “both mother and father to black writers of my generation.” | The Hub, PEN America, The Atlantic, The New Yorker
• “The phrase ‘common-or-garden dick’ in a medieval poem? Yes, please.” On the gleefully indecent verse of the Medieval Welsh feminist poet Gwerful Mechain. | Lit Hub
• “Primero las lágrimas y después el coraje. I say this because we are Americans, meaning we try to embody the best of that ideal, meaning we won’t turn away from injustice. Punto.” Oscar Villalon on the shootings in El Paso. | Lit Hub
• Jia Tolentino’s elegantly incisive essays, Téa Obreht’s sublime sophomore novel, Margaret Atwood on Toni Morrison’s Beloved, and more of the reviews you need to read this week. | Book Marks
• How North by Northwest’s meticulous set-pieces, bewildering action, and iconic fashion choices changed action movies forever. | CrimeReads
• “White nationalism applies fantastical details to historical source material but forgets that it is fiction.” How white nationalists co-opt fan fiction. | Wired
• Read a profile of the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning sci-fi master Samuel Delany. | Public Books
• What are the execs from Apple, Google, Spotify, and more reading this summer? Everything from Tara Westover to David Atkinson. | NBC News
• The Library of Congress is looking for volunteer assistants to transcribe 16,000 documents from suffragists. You, yes you, can help right now. | Book Riot
• Mental essay-writing, trampoline calisthenics, and Cher: how Candace Bushnell spends her Sundays. | The New York Times
• On journalist Janet Flanner, whose “high class gossip” changed America. | JSTOR
• “I tend to bristle at what feels like the suggestion that the sex in my writing must be the point.” Kristen Roupenian on Mary Gaitskill and the trouble with writing about sex. | The Guardian
• Some (small) comfort for broke novelists: despite being a best-selling author, Jane Austen didn’t make a lot of money from her writing either. | Jezebel
• “We deserve a larger space for expression so we can examine our interior lives without the gaze of others.” Well-Read Black Girl’s founder Glory Edim on Black literature’s place in American history. | CJR
• “It doesn’t seem to occur to him that poets of color might be expanding the audience for poetry or creating new readerships; their gain can only be his loss.” Timothy Yu responds to Bob Hickok’s now-infamous essay about the future of poetry. | The New Republic
• “What is translation if not an intimate act between two people, away from the eyes of the world?” Jennifer Croft on the “daily alchemy” of her craft. | NYRB
• The strange story of Frank Sheeran, the Teamster unionist who claimed to have killed Jimmy Hoffa, and whose life inspired a book and Martin Scorsese’s new film The Irishman. | Slate
• “If I felt the world could be a frightening place — and I did — then these drawings, these stories, offered a kind of validation.” Victor LaValle on the comforting terror of Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. | The New York Times
• “How does this story pull you in, engage, and give you pleasure?” Ira Glass on narrative storytelling and what he learned from Roland Barthes. | NYRB
• Here are some free books! Jenny Offil, Jasmine Guillory, and more recommend “surprisingly fresh” public domain books. | Lifehacker

Also on Lit Hub:

Lessons from a decade reporting on women during the Iraq War • On the novel F. Scott Fitzgerald never wrote • Amanda Lee Koe on her teenage role model, Marlene Dietrich • Nick Ripatrazone on how InterLibrary Loan will change your life • Tope Folarin on the misguided urge to carve the world into binaries • Elvia Wilk on a feminist understanding of weird fiction • From Doris Lessing to Toni Morrison, Julie Phillips on what contraception meant to a century of women writers • Some reasons to become a literary digital nomad—even if you fail • Elissa Altman on being her mother’s sole caregiver • On the pitfalls and power of the religious essay • On Nell Blaine and the young abstract painters of downtown New York • Kate McQuade on teaching a high school class in trauma literature • On the Oneida experiment and other failed utopias • Gov. Terry McAuliffe on white nationalism and the lessons of Charlottesville • How the long persecution of the Rhineland Jews shaped Karl Marx • Steve Greenhouse on the false freedom of the perilous gig economy • Elliott Holt revisits Alison Lurie’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Foreign Affairs, and reflects on the enduring appeal of expat lit • Brandon Shimoda on the work of five artists who explore Japanese-American incarceration and internment • On the history (and future) of YA and speculative fiction by Black women • Rick Moody on the curious case of the cursed Charles Manson autograph • When plastic grew on trees: a brief history of tagua • Brock Clarke on capturing the messy, individual voices of his hometown, Little Falls, NY • For the anxious historical fiction writer, Caitlin Horrocks offers some permissions for writing into the past • Eleven famous writers on the genius and influence of Shirley Jackson • Bhakti Shringarpure on the surreal, virtual worlds of Palestinian science fiction

Best of Book Marks:

Rita Meade on serving the community, marriage proposals, and Rue McClanahan’s resting librarian face • Jess Row recommends three books and two films about white flight, from Middlesex to The Last Black Man in San Francisco • Booklist‘s Donna Seaman on Virginia Woolf, George Orwell and reading to be enthralled • New titles from Jia Tolentino, Ruth Ware, Jess Row, and more all feature among the Best Reviewed Books of the Week

New on CrimeReads:

“‘I don’t like mornings either,’ he said. “That’s why I’m a writer.” Happy Birthday, Dorothy B. Hughes! • Laura McHugh didn’t see her life reflected in pop culture—until she found rural noir • Curtis Evans revisits The Leavenworth Case, once the most popular mystery novel in the world, only to become the most reviled • 5 new psychological thrillers to read this month • “Nothing is ever easy in the world of crime fiction, so why should parenthood get a pass?” • Hallie Ephron rounds up 10 novels in which the narrators get everything wrong • Halley Sutton on Los Angeles’s Charles Manson-inspired bus-tours • Priscilla Royal on writing medieval mysteries for 21st century audiences • The best one-star reviews of Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment • Once Upon a Time in Hollywood isn’t as good as you think it is (and Bad Times at the El Royale is better)