TODAY: In 1932, John Updike is born.
- By publishing F. Scott Fitzgerald’s long-lost short story “The I.O.U.,” the New Yorker will provide a happy ending to their “doomed, romantic” relationship with the writer. | The New Yorker
- “I realized the embarrassing parts were most moving to me.” An interview with Elif Batuman. | Vulture
- S.E. Hinton’s beloved novel The Outsiders turns 50 this month and will soon have its own museum, an initiative spearheaded by superfan Danny O’Connor. | The New York Times
- Having wrapped filming on her adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time, director Ava DuVernay shares film stills and behind-the-scenes images of cast and crew members. | Entertainment Weekly
- Porochista Khakpour, Alexandra Kleeman, Durga Chew-Bose, and 28 other women recommend the books every woman should read in her twenties. | NYLON
- The Man Booker International Prize longlist has been announced: nominees include Ismail Kadare, Amos Oz, Dorthe Nors, Yan Lianke, and more. | The Guardian
- Esteemed poet and scholar Kevin Young will take over as the New Yorker’s poetry editor in November. | The New York Times
- Emily Ruskovich on 10 rural American novels that capture the “danger and beauty, hostility and hope” of life in the country. | The Guardian
- The winners of the National Book Critics Circle Awards, including Louise Erdrich, Ruth Franklin, and Ishion Hutchinson, were announced. | NBCC
- “We can rewrite our own dystopian reality.” On the usefulness—and limits—of interpreting Trump’s presidency through dystopian fiction. | The Nation
- On the writing of Grace Paley, which embeds “us in slow daily time in order to confront us, obliquely or directly, with urgent historical time.” | The Atlantic
- More than 200,000 Americans, including Hanya Yanagihara, Salman Rushdie, and Neil Gaiman, have called on Congress to reject the proposed federal budget, which will cut funding to the NEA and NEH. | PEN America
- The Oxford comma (which, as is usefully pointed out, is disdained by Vampire Weekend) “has helped a group of dairy drivers in a dispute with a company about overtime pay.” | The Guardian
- I had the sense of being at someone else’s family reunion: Carvell Wallce on attending the 33rd National Cowboy Poetry Gathering. | MTV News
- In praise of Stump the Bookseller, a blog that tries to reconnect readers with the titles of partially-remembered books. | T Magazine
Migration is the starting point for everybody: An interview with Mohsin Hamid · How working at WORD Bookstore changed Jami Attenberg’s life · Wendy C. Ortiz on the lessons she learned by programming the Rhapsodomancy Reading Series · On the life and death of the library of Alexandria · Nell Stevens on writing (and watching Eat Pray Love) on an island on the bottom of the world · The unimaginable story: Valeria Luiselli on translating for unaccompanied child migrants · Is pedantry the mother of the essay, and other questions Ken Chen has for the essay at the end of time · Roxane Gay, Aimee Bender, and more on assault and harassment in the literary world · When femininity is code for feelings: Lynn Steger Strong on failure, motherhood, and flightless birds · Anna Pitoniak on discovering her New York apartment’s secret literary past
