Lit Hub Weekly: May 26 - 29, 2020

• WHAT COMES NEXT: Writers, activists, and organizers offer their visions of life in America beyond this pandemic, and share their ideas on how to deconstruct and rework the systems that led us to this point. | Lit Hub
• Masculinity as radical selfishness: Rebecca Solnit on the maskless men of the pandemic. | Lit Hub
• “Are you too deeply occupied to say if my Verse is alive?” On the letter that changed Emily Dickinson’s life. | Lit Hub
• Chris Power on Catherine Lacey’s Pew, Christian Lorentzen on Lionel Shriver’s The Motion of the Body Through Space, and more of the Reviews You Need to Read This Week. | Book Marks
• Marc E. Fitch reflects on the “subtle horror of life that pervades literary fiction.” | CrimeReads
• “No theoretical language I know of serves me in describing or interpreting this era of American unhappiness.” Marilynne Robinson considers the future of America. | NYRB
• What made Swedish journalist Patrik Svensson’s debut book, The Book of Eels, which blends memoir and science history, a breakout success in his home country? | The New York Times
• On the timeless art of the bookcase flex. | JSTOR
• In Japan, where bookstores juxtapose English instruction books and literature about the uniqueness of the Japanese language, the debate over learning English is incredibly divisive. | Foreign Policy
• Joyce Carol Oates has won the Cino del Duca, one of France’s most prestigious literary awards and among the world’s richest. | Economic Times
• “Writers are notoriously bad people, a truism pronounced most often by people who go out with writers and second most often by writers themselves.” Lauren Oyler on morality in contemporary fiction. | Bookforum
• Meredith Talusan on trans memoir and writing to a reader who is “an observer in my self-exploration.” | The Paris Review
  J.K. Rowling is publishing a new children’s book, The Ickabog, online. | J.K. Rowling
• Larry Kramer, the writer and AIDS activist who Susan Sontag called “one of America’s most valuable troublemakers,” died Wednesday at 84. | NPR
• “As soon as people discovered the pleasures of a diverting novel, some starchy scold swooped in to make them feel bad.” Ron Charles on the meaning of “summer reading”—this year and every other. | Washington Post
• Essential workers in New York City are writing haiku about their experiences during the pandemic. | The City
• Scientific advancement and the triumph of reason are aims we typically associate with the Italian Renaissance. But what if we’ve been romanticizing this period too much? | New Statesman
• Could China’s entry into U.S. publishing lead to fallout for writers? | Los Angeles Times
• “Whenever I have been about to set off anywhere, I can’t help but wonder: how will I be received?” Jini Reddy on entering the (very white, very male) travel genre. | The Guardian
• Former n+1 editor Nikil Saval is running to be a state senator in Pennsylvania, on a socialist platform. | The New York Times
• How did book publishers handle the decision of whether to move publication dates around the pandemic? | Forbes

Also on Lit Hub:

Patrik Svensson on the mysteries of the European eel • Meredith Talusan on race, drag, and transitions • Szczepan Twardoch on our need to give meaning to catastrophe • On the life and times of Fred Birchmore, pioneering sportsman who cycled around the world • When all of New York City stopped reading the news at once • The letter that changed Emily Dickinson’s life • Rebecca Spang on restaurant culture amid the 1918 pandemic • John Barth deserves a serious reassessment: John Domini rereads the author of The Sot-Weed Factor • Women who did what they wanted: A reading list • The story of urban resilience is a capitalist convenience: Mark Jay and Philip Conklin on the narrative around Detroit •  Nick Ripatrazone talks to English teacher Matt Carton about structure, music, and vocation • Marta Bausells on the unseen work of Dorothea Lange, American master • The long-buried correspondence of Eileen Alexander reveals a feminist vision of war • Build those TBR piles ever higher with round ten of our personalized quarantine book recommendations • Amid the pandemic, the Book Industry Charitable Foundation has never been busier • Find a little beauty in the best book covers of May

Best of Book Marks:

The Shining, Matilda, Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls, and more rapid-fire book recs from Kristen Arnett • Beloved, The Remains of the Day, The Master and Margarita, and more rapid-fire book recs from Téa Obreht • From The Sympathizer to The Incendiaries, Katie Yee recommends 25 Books by Asian-American and Pacific Islander writers to read right now • J.K. Rowling has a new book, George R. R. Martin bought a railway, and more book news on The Week in Books • From the archives: Marilynne Robinson’s 1988 review of Raymond Carver’s Where I’m Calling From • New titles from J. M. Coetzee, Elliot Ackerman, Meredith Talusan, and Michael Connelly all feature among the Best Reviewed Books of the Week

New on CrimeReads:

5 debut crime and mystery novels to check out this May • Martin Edwards on the enduring popularity of traditional mysteries • Lisa Braxton on the literature of neighborhoods in peril • “ Fiction is the act of forging a myth” Laird Barron on noir fiction and capturing the essence of reality • Paul Renfro on stranger danger and the specter of childhood • Read a roundtable discussion on diversity in crime fiction in honor of the Eleanor Taylor Bland Award • Olivia Rutigliano takes us into the copyright battle that that gave cinematic birth to Dracula • Tracy Clark introduces 8 fictional divas in desperate need of a reality check • Richard Z. Santos looks into the abyss of Bob Dylan’s apocalyptic visions • Peter Carlaftes on building community out of noir story anthologies in times of crisis