TODAY: In 1967, Norman Mailer is arrested along with 650 other for civil disobedience during the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam March on The Pentagon.
- For T Magazine’s 2017 Greats issue, Roxane Gay profiles Nicki Minaj, Alexander Chee profiles director Park Chan-wook, and Dave Eggers profiles Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. | T Magazine
- “I want to feel deeply, and I also feel no one understands me.” An interview with Amy Tan. | Shondaland
- “With his female androids, he is Pygmalion, bringing his Galatea to life. But with his own replica, he is Narcissus, staring into his reflection for hours.” Alex Mar profiles Hiroshi Ishiguro, director of the Intelligent Robotics Laboratory. | Wired
- “Whatever flush of pride or happiness I’d tended was immediately replaced, unwillingly, with sex.” Emma Cline on sexual harassment in the publishing world. | The Cut
- In addition to winning the Nobel Prize for Literature, Kazuo Ishiguro may have predicted the rise of the millennial foodie. | NPR
- How the Odyssey shapes our understanding of the word “mentor.” | The Atlantic
- Going beyond extermination and segregation: On nature writing after nature. | n+1
- Yrsa Daley-Ward, Danez Smith, and other contemporary black poets share some of their favorite poems. | NYLON
- “Officially, Bishop had the honor of representing poetry in America, but she was also in many ways a prisoner of her desires, keeping her head down and determined to avoid the next raid.” On the loneliness of Elizabeth Bishop. | The Nation
- With the e-book threat a thing of the past, publishing’s future looks a lot like its past: “Companies are reinvesting in printed books after years of cost-cutting.” | The Wall Street Journal
- “I morphed from the kind of woman you’d find in my own writing—idea-driven, with aspirations—into the kind delivered by conventional corporate Hollywood: body-conscious.” Monica Drake recalls her brush with fame. | Longreads
- “The Bennett sisters Google ‘George Wickham.’” 25 classic stories that would be ruined by modern technology. | The New Statesman
- From Angela Davis to Valerie Solanas, feminist speeches that have been sampled in songs. | Pitchfork
- In response to the saga of American Heart’s retracted Kirkus star–“the latest skirmish in the increasingly contentious battle over representation and diversity in the world of YA literature”–Kirkus has released a deeply unsatisfying explanation. | Slate, Vulture
- Books set in Maine: 20/38. Books starring women: 10/38. Books where aliens did it: 3/38. Stephen King’s body of work by the numbers. | Tor
The definitive way to organize your books: An illustrated guide · David Yaffe on his 12-hour lunch date with Joni Mitchell · Lidia Yuknavitch on fitting in with misfits, from Ken Kesey to Melissa Febos · I’m quite against a sentimental vision of childhood: An interview with Phillip Pullman · Scary literary fiction for people who hate horror, from Kindred to A Little Life · Moby-Dick and 4 other books that Ray Bradbury loved · The brutalities of the past are all around us: On the work of Octavia Butler · What does life teach you about becoming a writer? David Biespiel on love affairs, family memories, and the body · On the dangers of romanticizing gentrification in your novel · 14 classic works of literature hated by famous authors
This week on Book Marks:
42 on 18: Bill Clinton reviews Ron Chernow’s biography of Ulysses S. Grant · A precision which delights the reader: Sir Walter Scott’s 1815 review of Jane Austen’s Emma · Book critic Heller McAlpin on Lolita, Pushkin, and gut reactions vs. thoughtful analysis · In the wake of his Man Booker Prize win, we look back at a 1996 review of George Saunders’ debut collection · John Boyne calls Roddy Doyle’s Smile his darkest and finest work in 20 years · The first major novel of WWII: on Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls · Wartime code-breakers, teenage witches, and brain surgeons, and more: The best-reviewed books of the week
