LitHub Daily: March 16, 2016

TODAY: In 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is published. 

• Danielle Dutton questions some terrible writing advice from famous writers. | Literary Hub
• They just dig: Elissa Washuta on memoir, coal mining, and the hard art of excavation. | Literary Hub
• How social networks play favorites: the hidden forces behind going viral. | Literary Hub
• Paul Holdengraber continues his phone call with Adam Phillips: on Walt Whitman, self-discovery, and American rock n’ roll. | Literary Hub
• “I sat at my desk and contemplated all that I had accomplished this year.” James Tate’s final poem, as it was found in his typewriter. | The Paris Review
• Dana Spiotta on putting away ordinary life and submitting, the constraints of the novel, and catfishing. | BookPage
• “When I hear my father has died, I get a tremendous craving for mushrooms.” An essay by Kaitlyn Greenidge. | BuzzFeed Books
• Writing about the Internet now is supposed to be this Wild West of a fictional setting: An interview with Tony Tulathimutte. | Full Stop
• Sarah Howe on the freedom poetry allows, the legacy of Ezra Pound, and what she would bring to the moon. | NeueJournal
• Becoming armed to read and delight in an essay: On John D’Agata’s The Making of the American Essay. | Signature Reads
• Everyone in publishing’s favorite interests, combined (graphs about e-books). | The New York Times
• Michael Cunningham, Zadie Smith, and Tom Hanks have been united at last (on The New Yorker‘s new literary podcast). | The New Yorker

Also on Literary Hub: Otto Penzler, founder of The Mystery Press, on what mystery books to read · Librarian Confidential: Stephanie Chase on the joy of giving a child their first library card · A poem by Karen Weiser · Novels of the ancient world: From Richard Jenkyns’s Classical Literature

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