LitHub Daily: December 23, 2015

• Cristin O’Keefe-Aptowicz on the deep obsessions of non-fiction writers. | Literary Hub
• On the 200th anniversary of the publication of Jane Austen’s Emma, a look at the rise of the “rich bitch” heroine. | Literary Hub
• The countdown continues, numbers 35 to 26 of the biggest literary stories of the year. | Literary Hub
• “Big publishing has tried to monetise creativity, kneeling at the altar of the pie chart and Venn diagram.” Are independent presses doing the work for mainstream publishing? | The Guardian
• A spectrum of writers ranging from Lena Dunham to Elena Ferrante select their favorite poems. | The New York Times
• A list of 143 award-winning African American poets spanning the last 40 years. | Cultural Front
• Parties over prayer: How Charles Dickens secularized Christmas. | Electric Literature
• “We’re taking the data we have, and we’re creating physical places with it,” is the most Amazon way possible to describe building a bookstore. | The New Yorker
• PEN has called on John Kerry to offer visas to Bangladeshi writers “at imminent risk of attack.” | PEN America
• A spooky Christmas (this is absolutely a genre) short story by Alice Sola Kim. | Lenny Letter
• How Eula Biss, Claudia Rankine, Maggie Nelson, and other writers give shape to their essays. | Ploughshares

Also on Literary Hub: The list you didn’t even know you wanted: publishing’s biggest cuties · Which Jane Eyre should you watch over the holidays? An illustrated guide · Celebrating the best books of 2015: From 5 Under 35 honoree Colin Barrett’s Young Skins, “The Clancy Kid“