- “Criticism is the thing that’s going to make you better at what you do.” YA author Keira Drake on rewriting her debut novel after an earlier version drew online ire for its colonial overtones. | Vulture
- A man serving a life sentence for murder was offered a $150,000 advance for his debut story collection—and the Michigan Attorney General wants it to go toward the cost of his incarceration. | The New York Times
- “The narrative that ‘literary fiction’ is universally hostile to genre fiction and experimentation is real, but dated.” An interview with Carmen Maria Machado. | Guernica
- “He can’t help himself. In his crusade of defiance no line of criticism is beneath him, and no critic.” Nathaniel Rich on Philip Roth. | New York Review of Books
- To commemorate International Women’s Day and the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage in the UK, Penguin is opening a pop-up in London stocked entirely with titles by women. | Jezebel
- “I’m basically nuts. I sit by myself every day, most days, eight hours in this little room.” David Mamet on writing his first crime novel. | Vulture
- “While perhaps not surprising, it is deeply disturbing.” On the FBI’s war against black-owned independent bookstores during the height of the Black Panther movement. | The Atlantic
- Men, at it again: A study has revealed a “a fairly stunning decline” in the proportion of female novelists and characters from the mid-19th to the mid-20th century. | The Guardian
- “I think it’s useless to feel intimidated by certain subjects, because the books are there. The literature is there. You can learn.” An interview with New Yorker critic Doreen St. Félix. | The Creative Independent
- “When I read it, I thought it was an engaging fantasy. Now, over 30 years later, the prescience of Gibson’s novel is unquestionable.” How Neuromancer predicted increasing privatization in America. | NPR
- “The general tone and tenor of the contemporary book review is an advertisement-style frippery.” Rafia Zakaria makes the case for negative book reviews. | The Baffler
- “Can a woman be a muse and an artist? In theory, yes. In practice, the roles seldom overlap comfortably.” On Leonora Carrington and the women Surrealists. | New York Review of Books
- “As I was writing the first draft of this book, I kept thinking, ‘Am I allowed to do this?’” Matthew Cheney, Carmen Maria Machado, Rosalind Palermo Stevenson, and Sofia Samatar on the art of the speculative memoir. | Electric Literature
- On Terese Marie Mailhot, Tommy Orange and a new wave of Native literature emerging from the Institute of American Indian Arts’ MFA program, which launched in 2012. | Buzzfeed Reader
- In the lamest instance of catfishing to date, someone is impersonating Michael Chabon on Instagram. But. . . why? | Slate
Also on Lit Hub:
15 books that would make terrible movies (seriously, just put that camera down) • Getting over the myth of the solitary genius: how Kaethe Schwehn learned to love her writing group • On being the oldest guy at skate camp: sometimes immersive journalism gets awkward • Paul Vidich on the 60-year-old family mystery that became an Errol Morris documentary • Terese Marie Mailhot on motherhood, ghosts, and inherited sorrow • What if Kafka was the best relationship of my twenties? Rebecca Schuman shares the shameful joy of a life devoted to German • On glossy magazines and aspirational normalcy in post-Soviet Russia • Everything you’ve always wanted to know about writing obituaries • What is it really like to have your book adapted into a movie? In this episode of Fiction/Non/Fiction, Jeff VanderMeer and Christina Sibul talk to V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell about Annihilation and other adaptations • On the spooky and enduring power of the Rorschach test (and its dreamy originator) • Meet the spiritual sisters of Simone de Beauvoir, an intellectual force in post-war France • 15 major award-winning novels you’ve probably never heard of
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