LitHub Daily: May 4, 2016

• Judy Blume changed my life: Lily King on the book that got her through her parents’ divorce. | Literary Hub
• On the quest to write in a third language: Amara Lakhous dreams of green cheese and being reborn into New York City. | Literary Hub
• Do you really want a free market? Robert B. Reich on power, big banks, and democracy. | Literary Hub
• Andrew Solomon continues his phone call with Paul Holdengraber wherein they talk about global terrorism, travel writing, and empathy. | Literary Hub
• John Ashbery answers some “human being” type questions about being an art critic, crushes on boys, and the presence of “it.” | The Brooklyn Rail
• “All along I’ve been trying to work toward a vision of where we are on this earth.” An interview with Annie Dillard. | WNYC
• “The question of what posture to take toward our own pain is unexpectedly complicated.” Parul Sehgal on the narratives of survivors of sexual abuse. | The New York Times
• The 2015 Shirley Jackson Awards nominees, including Ottessa Moshfegh, Kelly Link, and Amelia Gray, have been announced. | The Shirley Jackson Awards
• “There seems to be less and less underground. And what it’s replaced by is this very professional, shiny, happy plastic version of literature.” Jessa Crispin on the closing of Bookslut. | Vulture
• What killed Chris McCandless, and is he worthy of admiration? Jon Krakauer provides an update to Into the Wild. | Galleys
• “The very source of my inspiration was both an artifice and a site of prejudice landscaped in from the beginning.” Chantal Clarke reflects on growing up in Pelham, New York. | The Towner
• My brain has not returned to normal: Claire Kilroy on motherhood, writer’s block, and postpartum jealousy. | Winter Pages

Also on Literary Hub: Writers, the loneliest artists of all · Paul Vidich sends us a postcard from Cuba · Four new poems from Brenda Shaughnessy · Something was wrong: from Judy Blume’s In the Unlikely Event