Lit Hub Weekly: November 11 - 15, 2019

• “When I read her translations I feel I am responding to paragraphs penned by Turgenev and Tolstoy themselves.” Sara Wheeler on Constance Garnett and the problem of era-specific translations. | Lit Hub Translation
• What was it like to be edited by Barack Obama? Speechwriter Adam Frankel on writing for a writerly president. | Lit Hub Politics
• Observe; take notes; revise constantly: ten recommendations for good writing habits from Lydia Davis. | Lit Hub Craft
• Michael Crichton’s posthumous Andromeda sequel, Margaret Atwood’s survivors, Nona Fernández’s political space invaders, and more of the Reviews You Need to Read This Week. | Book Marks
• “Crime is the literature of outsiders.” Gabino Iglesias on how the new Latin noir moves between borders, languages, and cultures. | CrimeReads
• In praise of The Public Domain Review, which features writing, maps, films, and other media oddities that have outlasted their copyright. | The Outline
• “Today, when a woman artist sets out to create, who is she?” Rachel Cusk on Cecilia Paul, Cecily Brown, and what it takes to thrive as a “woman artist.” | The New York Times
• “I love Mr. Spock because he reminds me of you, I said.” Michael Chabon on writing for Star Trek and his father’s death. | The New Yorker
• Phoebe Waller-Bridge answering questions from famous writers and performers is every bit as delightful as you would expect. | The Guardian
• “I sometimes fear that all of humankind may sooner or later come to my conclusion: that reading fiction is a waste of time.” Isaac Bashevitz Singer wonders: who needs literature? | LARB
• Amazon Crossing, the company’s literary translation imprint, is now the most prolific publisher of translated literature in the US. | Publishers Weekly
• “I went there neither to evade old memories nor to make new ones.” Yiyun Li travels to a Finnish Archipelago in the wake of profound loss. | T Magazine
• “The singularity arrived on the first day of November.” David Ulin on Blade Runner. | Alta
• “I imagine Luke Rhinehart as something like Carlos Castaneda, William Burroughs and Thomas Pynchon rolled into one: an icon of the most radical subversion, transformed into an invisible man. I decide that I must meet him.” Emmanuel Carrère on the man behind the 1971 counterculture classic The Dice Man. | The Guardian
• “We still don’t have enough stories out there. But the stories are coming, especially from black women.” Ibram Kendi recommends 21 recent books by, about, and for black women (and the rest of us). | The Atlantic
• Urban Dictionary isn’t just the best place to discover new, terrifying sex acts—it’s also a useful tool for linguists. | JSTOR
• Researchers have developed an “electronic nose” to help determine which old books are most in need of preservation. We always knew that old book smell was good for something. | Martha Stewart
• Two jurors on the Nobel committee relied on a discredited conspiracy theory about the Bosnia war to defend Peter Handke’s work. | The Intercept
• Yet another reason to love libraries: borrowing books is the greenest way to read. | Treehugger

Also on Lit Hub:

The 10 best translated novels of the decade • Meet the National Book Award finalists (who kindly agreed to answer some of our questions) • On the royal spectacle of The Crown, or: Why Claire Foy will always be the Queen in Will Self’s heart • “Literature should not disappear up its own asshole” and more essential advice from Kurt Vonnegut • Deirdre Bair recalls the difficulty of convincing Samuel Beckett of just about anything • The wondrous world of Russian toys: Nabokov on finding art in the commonplace • On the build-up to the legendary Baldwin-Buckley debates • Jeffrey Rosen speaks with Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the past, present, and future of abortion rights • Learning to unsay the R-word: Amy Silverman on changing the way a culture speaks • James Chesbro on the art of the running memoir, from marathoners to Murakami • John Richardson goes inside the artist studio of Georges Braque • Broken heart? Immanuel Kant is here to help! • When bad studies become pro-war political tools: on the lack of science linking testosterone to violence • Why resistance is foundational to Kurdish literature • An oral history of Guantánamo • Adam Platt on the time Mario Batali called him “a miserable fuck” (and other notable chef tantrums) • Philip Metres on Patrick Radden Keefe’s Say Anything, and the elusive lure of reconciliation in Northern Ireland • The secret society of women writers in Oxford in the 1920s • Remembering the moments before the Charlie Hebdo attack • John Freeman on the power of the whistleblower • On the unpublished ending of Picnic at Hanging Rock, and other mysteries • Sarah Wagner on the many lives of Lexington, Kentucky • On America, the French magazine attempting to explain the Trump Era • What do you so when your writers’ block is the result of a family curse? • What does it mean to be designated a City of Literature?

Best of Book Marks:

15 of the Best Queer Debuts of 2019: feating T Kira Madden, Tegan and Sara, Bryan Washington, and more • Parisian Lives author Deirdre Bair recommends five books that influenced her writing life, from Ulysses to A Room of One’s Own • Loving The House of Mirth, hating Rabbit, Run, and more rapid-fire book recs from Lydia Kiesling • Erin Morgenstern’s The Starless Sea: exquisitely formed or devoid of atmosphere? • Michael Crichton’s posthumous Andromeda sequel, Lydia Davis’ collected essays, and a biography of Carrie Fisher all feature among the Best Reviewed Books of the Week

New on CrimeReads:

5 international crime novels to read this November • Why should debuts get all the fun? Lisa Levy celebrates the sophomore efforts of 8 rising voices • Michael Gonzales on being shot on his Brooklyn doorstep, then learning that the bullets traced back to a legendary hip-hop feud • Molly Odintz catches up with Martha Grimes, acclaimed author of the Richard Jury series • Will Thomas takes us on a global tour of Victorian Era historical mysteries • Olivia Rutigliano on the long, complicated history of “Charlie’s Angels” • Nile Cappello on the real-life inspirations and unintended consequences of Heavenly Creatures • Michael Seidlinger looks at the most terrifying home invasions in fiction • Curtis Evans on the tragic tale of a Golden Age crime writer and his murdered publisher • A reading list you can’t refuse: Sean Rea on six mafia classics