LitHub Daily: June 17, 2016

TODAY: In 1871, author James Weldon Johnson, the first African-American professor to be hired at New York University, is born. 

• It’s Father’s Day on Lit Hub: A father, a son, a squid in the bed: Chris Forhan on the genius of four-year-old poets • Christy Wampole on longing, addiction, and patrilineal transmission • Six tales about fathers and sons that do not feature fathers and sons • Steve Edward on fatherhood: ruining the writing career, saving the writing • Patrick Ryan on the last book his father read • Gretchen Marquette on her father’s unexpected poetic life • Allison Wright visits dive bars with her dad. | Literary Hub
• The Brooklyn Book Festival has announced the lineup for its 11th annual festival, which includes Margaret Atwood, Sherman Alexie, Salman Rushdie and Joyce Carol Oates. | The New York Times
• On the flirtation of science and poetry, a very deep romance. | Financial Review
• “Some things just don’t need to be done twice—especially since I feel like I did it right the first time.” An interview with Richard Ford. | Granta
• It’s been a good half-year for poetry: Bernadette Mayer, Sjohnna McCray, and other must-read poetry collections from 2016. | Flavorwire
• Anna Noyes on narrations serving as a kind of confessional, the rigid set of expectations hemming women and girls in, and instances of trespass. | Electric Literature
• “For an emerging writer of short stories set in the African continent, Nadine Gordimer was a model and a light.” A. Igoni Barrett on meeting (and being read by) a literary icon. | Catapult
• Dancer from the Dance, Stone Butch Blues, and other books that illustrate the immense importance of gay bars. | The Alignist
• “The One Where She Doesn’t Need Help Getting the Flowers,” “The One with the Phonies,” and other classic novels retitled like episodes of Friends. | The New Yorker

Also on Literary Hub: In Charleston, one year later: Shani Gilchrist on the continued complexities of her chosen city · American noir and the outlaw lit of James Sallis · The lost dog: From Pauls Toutonghi’s Dog Gone

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