TODAY: In 1819, “orcaholic” Herman Melville is born.
- Nine classics of literary war porn: Roy Scranton on artfulness and the horrors of war. | Literary Hub
- Obama, America, and the legacy of James Alan McPherson: Whitney Terrell remembers his friend and mentor. | Literary Hub
- How a vegetarian Canadian inhabited the voice of legendary American frontiersman Daniel Boone. | Literary Hub
- An antidote to clickbait: Why the essay, which foregrounds “questioning rather than certainty, experiment and mistake rather than polish and self-satisfaction,” is today’s ideal literary form. | Los Angeles Times
- In which Jonathan Franzen, again, weighs in on controversial topics, reminds us that he is, “you know, a person of many parts.” | Slate
- “For the most part, motherhood is simply missing from our literary and philosophical tradition, passed over quickly as if it were an embarrassment when it even appears at all.” On the lack of literature about pregnancy and childbirth. | Los Angeles Review of Books
- “It’s a triumph for good books, published with passion.” Speaking with independent publishers whose books have been nominated for the Man Booker Prize. | The Guardian
- “Now… Rousseau’s obsession with the psychic consequences of inequality seems even more prophetic and disturbing.” Jean-Jacques Rousseau has been added to the ever-growing list of writers who predicted Donald Trump. | The New Yorker
- Cicero, Malala, and more: What colleges are assigning for their freshman reading assignments. | NPR
- On Queens’ “vaguely Marquezian” Spanish-language bookstore, Librería Barco de Papel. | The New York Times
- Reclaiming the poetry that lies at the root of all performing arts: A report from Yoshimasu Gozo’s solo exhibition in Tokyo. | Hyperallergic
Also on Literary Hub: Interview with a Bookstore: The Wild Detectives, where books and beer bring people together · A new translation of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s The Adolescent by Dora O’Brien · Leaving Omsk behind: from Compartment No. 6 by Rosa Likson, translated by Lola Rogers
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