Lit Hub Weekly: September 25-29, 2023

TODAY: In 1928, Elie Wiesel is born.   

• “I’m only myself in front of my typewriter.” How Joan Didion became Joan Didion. | Lit Hub Biography

• “I can’t watch the news anymore without thinking, ‘Is there an Austen angle to this story? How do these billionaire-hungry orcas relate to Jane Austen?’” Diving into the world of Jane Austen TikTok. | Lit Hub

• “Without the First Folio we would have lost a world of words.” On the two heroic friends of Shakespeare, who saved the Bard’s plays from burning up in the Globe Theatre. | Lit Hub History

• “Over the last hundred years, diabetes should have lost much of its bite.” Stuart Bradwel breaks down the insulin crisis of the 21st century and the tragic consequences of unethical profiteering. | Lit Hub Health

• Zadie Smith’s The Fraud, Lauren Groff’s The Vaster Wilds, Jonathan Raban’s Father and Son, and Naomi Klein’s Doppelganger all feature among September’s best reviewed books. | Book Marks

• After nearly five months, the WGA and AMPTP have reached a tentative agreement to end the writers strike. | Deadline

• “In every context and at every level, Ballard’s gaze is fixed, fixated, on the man behind the curtain.” Tom McCarthy on J.G. Ballard. | The Paris Review

• The Brooklyn Public Library is launching a seven-episode limited series this Friday called Borrowed & Banned, featuring librarians, writers, students, and others on book bans. | Brooklyn Public Library

• “The turtle reminds me that I owe my small human life to the generosity of the more-than-human beings with whom we share this precious homeland.” Robin Wall Kimmerer on the animal refugees of the climate crisis. | New York Times

• Alexandra Wolfe considers the many literary feuds of her father, Tom. | Air Mail 

• Alex Reisner explores Book3, the database Meta uses to train generative-AI, and finds Shakespeare, Bukowski, and How to Housebreak Your Dog in 7 Days (among others). | The Atlantic

• The board of the White Review has announced that the magazine will cease publication “for an indefinite period.” | The Guardian

• “When writers fell ill at Bread Loaf they were on their own.” Alison Stine on the lessons of a COVID outbreak at a writing conference. | Nonprofit Quarterly

• The Iliad is back, baby. | Slate

• “I had no idea how wrong my deadname had felt until it was no longer mine.” Isle McElroy on changing their name after publishing their debut. | The Cut

• Today in justifications for bookish vanity: A study has found that having books in your Zoom background makes you appear more trustworthy. | New Scientist

• Tobias Carroll recommends some exciting recent books in translation. | Words Without Borders

• The case for a goblincore lifestyle. | Better Homes & Gardens

• Lily Meyer talks to Lydia Davis about Davis’s new collection Our Strangers, and the author’s stand against Amazon. | The Nation

• Tour Jennifer Egan’s home library. | The Washington Post

Also on Lit Hub:

Ken Follett on finding inspiration in Ian Fleming • Alexander Chee welcomes back Lan Samantha Chang’s Hunger • Madeline Miller, author of Circe, and Emily Wilson, translator of The Iliad, discuss breathing new life into ancient classics • How Bayard Rustin inspired Martin Luther King Jr.’s nonviolent activism • Jen Silverman on imagining dystopias and utopias • Molly Lynch on chaos, childcare, and civilizational collapse • Which big fall book should you read? • Hermione Lee on Mavis Gallant, “a writer for whom nothing is alien” • Ryan Britt on the first iteration of Frank Herbert’s Dune • How a single image sparked a whole novel • Douglas J. Weatherford considers Juan Rulfo’s 1955 novel, Pedro Páramo • How Nora Fussner turned a reality TV job into a novel • September’s 17 best book covers • Kim DeRose on telling and retelling stories of sexual assault • Brian Teare on turning toward Agnes Martin • What great apes tell us about being human • How Iowa City became a landmark for cinephiles • Isle McElroy on the art of the sex scene • The Literary Film & TV You Need to Stream in October • How the Cultural Revolution played society against itself • How genre can illuminate theme • Why do we love meet cutes so much?

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