Lit Hub Weekly: December 10 - 14, 2018

• “Is it really okay to talk about art right now? To leave the real and broken world behind and talk about fictional ones?” Rebecca Makkai on the role of literature in a world on fire. | Electric Literature
• “I couldn’t finish Fifty Shades of Grey. Are straight women really having such terrible sex and terrible lives?” Jeanette Winterson on the books in her life. | The Guardian
• On the state of the gay leftist movement in America. | The Point
• The CEO of one of Brazil’s biggest publishing houses penned an open letter to struggling booksellers. | Publishing Perspectives
• “It’s hard to imagine a less auspicious moment to try to bring the character back to life”: on the contested legacy of Atticus Finch. | The New Yorker
• “As radical as empathy and imagination can be, these qualities exist in the mind. But there is also a poetic language of embodied experience.” Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith on our new political poets. | The New York Times Book Review
• On the 100th anniversary of his birth, Nobel Laureate Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s biographer reflects on the author’s anti-Soviet legacy. | The New York Times
• 1. Be patient. 2. Be reasonable. 6 ways to be kind to your bookseller this holiday season. | The Guardian
• “The cover is an interface between that content and human society.” What is lost in the era of infinite browsing? | Real Life Mag
• In 2018, Michael Wolff joined Stephen King, James Patterson, and J.K. Rowling on Forbes’s list of the highest-paid authors in the world. | Forbes
• “I read so much about motherhood. Or maybe it was that everything I read seemed to be about motherhood.” Leslie Jamison on reading while nursing. | The Paris Review
• Did you know that Charles Darwin’s grandfather was famous for his poems about plant sex? Well, now you do. P.S: his name was Erasmus. | Smithsonian
• Tommy Orange has won the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize for his “groundbreaking, extraordinary” There There. | Center for Fiction
• Thank goodness for Elko, Nevada: The National Cowboy Poetry Gathering turns 35. | Poets & Writers
• “They are always transitioning”: On veterans and contemporary war literature. | Ploughshares
• “How lucky to have discovered that writing books made the miraculous possible, to be removed from the world, and to be a part of the world at the same time.” Read a profile of Sigrid Nunez. | The New York Times

Also on Lit Hub:

‘Tis the season to reflect on news cycles passed! We’re counting down the 50 most important literary news stories of the year: 50 – 41; 40 – 31; 30 – 21; 20- 11; and 10 – 5 • Sarahmay Wilkinson on the joys of designing the cover for a debut writer’s book • The novelist who works as a “seasonal associate” at Amazon • James Baldwin’s dispatches from the heart of the Civil Rights movement • The Center for Fiction First Novel Prize shortlisters on their early literary loves • Stacey D’Erasmo on the freedom of writing anonymously • On discovering the lost manuscripts of Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz • “Now, hardly a debutante, I am making my debut.” Because it’s never too late to start (or finally finish) that novel • The final judgment is here: the best book covers of 2018, as chosen by book designers • In praise of the long and complicated sentence • Screenwriter James Schamus on the business of storytelling in the age of the algorithm • Imagining a black, queer, Aboriginal Melbourne: on the urban design and activism of Lisa Bellear • On Nirvana’s legendary Unplugged set, 25 years ago this week • On the weird physical history of media and information • A highly specific, uncannily accurate literary gift guide for just about everyone in your life • Gabrielle Bellot on Sylvia Plath and the many shades of depression • How do you photograph the wind? Bill Buford on the Rachel Cobb’s photographic quest, Mistral • Tin House’s 20th Anniversary Issue, to be published in June 2019, will be the publication’s last

Best of Book Marks:

Dunking on Sean Penn, immolating James Frey, savaging Sean Spicer, and more of the Most Scathing Reviews of 2018 • From The Catcher in the Rye to Stuart Little: the author of The Dakota Winters, Tom Barbash, shares his five favorite books about New York • We take a look at the five books chosen for the National Book Foundation’s Literature for Justice program, which shines a light on mass incarceration in America • This week in Secrets of the Book Critics: Hannah Giorgis on Jamaica Kincaid, Vintage Addis Ababa, and Beloved Book Nerds • Leah Schnelbach on 5 Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books by Women to Bring You Into 2019 • Patricia Lockwood on Lucia Berlin’s stories, Doreen St. Felix on Michelle Obama’s memoir, and more of the Book Reviews You Need to Read This Week • Anna Burns, Val McDermid, Yan Lianke, and Rock Hudson all feature among the Best Reviewed Books of the Week

New on CrimeReads:

The CrimeReads editors attempt the exceedingly difficult exercise of selecting the very best crime and mystery releases of 2018 • The 15 best true crime books of 2018 •All the best reissues out this year • Life according to Ross Macdonald, in honor of his birthday this week • From 1348 to 1968, the year’s best historical crime and mystery novels • Ed Brubaker talks with Alex Segura about taking superhero comics into noir territory • Five action thrillers to check out this December •  A brief history of spy fiction, from spy novelist and former Director General of MI5 Stella Rimington • A look at the very best and most promising debut novels in the world of crime and mystery • From Killing Eve to Sharp Objects, ranking 2018’s best crime and mystery television • On economist Mary Jane Latsis and lawyer Martha Hennisart, who together demystified the world of financial crime under the pen name Emma Lathen • Crime in the far west of Ireland: Paul French guides us through Galway’s thriving crime-writing scene • A holiday gift guide for the true-crime obsessed, from true crime expert Tori Telfer • Mark Stevens on how reading the works of Patricia Highsmith helped him leave Christian Science