TODAY: In 1935, Yoshihiro Tatsumi, a Japanese manga artist who is widely credited with starting the gekiga style of alternative comics in Japan, having allegedly coined the term in 1957, is born.
- “Sometimes, when she prayed, she said ‘Dear Big Bang,’ and she was half certain that God enjoyed the inside joke.” A short story by Sherman Alexie. | The New Yorker
- America constantly reminds me of Ray Bradbury’s Martian Chronicles, and other notes from Victoria Lomasko’s book tour diary. | n+1
- “I will follow her anywhere she decides to go.” Maggie Nelson on Darcey Steinke’s novel Suicide Blonde at 25. | The Paris Review
- Take a look, inside . . . the making of beloved children’s program Reading Rainbow. | Mental Floss
- Some kind of emotional utopia where no one ever gets hurt at all: An interview with Catherine Lacey. | Chicago Review of Books
- A failure of imagination when it comes to the fate of the world: on the dearth of literary fiction devoted to climate change. | The Baffler
- “If we seem doomed despite the evidence, why continue to support us?” A roundtable discussion of the challenges facing university presses. | The Chronicle of Higher Education
- I had to consciously work to root out cultural, societal, religious and even feminist notions about who did sex work and why: On writing (accurately) about sex work. | Hazlitt
- Independent bookstores are having a comeback: A bookstore from each of the 50 states. | Culture Trip
- Following reports that Senate Republicans were attempting to suppress still-classified sections of the Senate Intelligence Committee Report on Torture, Melville House is offering their e-book of the report for free. | Melville House
- Revisiting Trinidadian socialist C. L. R. James’ essay on Moby-Dick, a “deft rendering of modern capitalism in living, breathing characters.” | Jacobin
- “Lobo felt envy, the bad kind first and the good kind after, because suddenly he saw that this was the most important day of his life.” An excerpt from Yuri Herrera’s novel Kingdom Con, translated by Lisa Dillman. | Guernica
- How writing 1984 nearly killed George Orwell. | Signature
- There is no easy answer for our bodies: An interview with Roxane Gay. | VICE
- “Our society’s most successful storytellers are probably the people who make television commercials.” Rumaan Alam on his time spent working in advertising. | The Millions
The ship I’m in would like to save the sea from more mass graves: Onboard a migrant rescue ship in the Mediterranean · Why is one hundred years of solitude eternally beloved? · From Penelope’s shroud to Pussyhats, the ancient origins of feminist craftivism · Is Richard Brautigan’s most famous novel a minor masterpiece or naive relic? · On the dissonance of being being both queer and Southern· Gabe Habash on how to write an internet essay to support your novel · Embrace your monstrous flesh: On women’s bodies in horror· Joseph Kanon on why there is no better place to write than the library · Jill Eisenstadt on surviving the Literary Brat Pack· Walter Mosley on being black, being a writer, and Cave Canem
The Best of Book Marks:
From 1998, Jose Saramago’s Blindness and the endless darkness of the human heart · Claire Messud on Arundhati Roy’s first novel in 20 Years · “The last great set-piece battle of the Western World”: a look back at Stephen Ambrose’s D-Day · The Wall Street Journal calls Catherine Lacey’s darkly satirical new novel “a sparking satire and spiritual lament” . A 1952 review of Patricia Highsmith’s groundbreaking lesbian romance The Price of Salt · In Raymond Chandler’s fiction, “dead men are heavier than broken hearts” · Serpents, surrogate girlfriends, the Vietnam war, and more: The best-reviewed books of the week
