LitHub Daily: October 19, 2016

TODAY: In 1950, Edna St. Vincent Millay dies. 

• Benjamin Percy on finding that sweet spot where genre meets literary. | Literary Hub
• Tessa Hadley, C. E. Morgan, and Jerry Pinto on the future of libraries. | Literary Hub
• Jonathan Lethem on gambling, the American left, and formative grief. | Literary Hub
• Whose death gets to count for what? On racism, gun violence, and the failures of the official narrative. | Literary Hub
• In defense of literature’s bad best friends. | Literary Hub
• The radical bookseller: Why Donald Trump really needs to meet Pussy Riot. | Literary Hub
• “Realism is a genre–a very rich one, that gave us and continues to give us lots of great fiction… But by making that one genre the standard of quality, by limiting literature to it, we were leaving too much serious writing out of serious consideration.” Ursula K. Le Guin on writing various types of fiction. | The Guardian
• Although nothing seems arbitrary, the books are surprise after surprise: Deborah Eisenberg on the fiction of Henry Green. | NYRB
• Ann Snitow on the incandescence of the New York Radical Feminists’ founding meeting, the individualization of the movement, and the utility of “both/and.” | The Nation
• “I built these structures because that’s the only way I know how to write. I never learned how to write fiction.” An interview with Dennis Cooper. | The Creative Independent
• Emily Witt on the space between mythology and apocalyptic nihilism, writing through self-consciousness, and her continued interest in subcultures. | BLARB
• The rights to Jeff VanderMeer’s soon-to-be-published post-apocalyptic novel Bourne have been purchased. | Variety
• Delving into the Three Marinas (“the warrior one,” “the spiritual one,” and “the bullshit one”) in Marina Abramović’s new memoir. | The New Republic
• “In a language where ‘love’ is for taking a bullet and also a particularly good piece of pizza, the best you can do is take aim and wish.” An excerpt from Plastic Vodka Bottle Sleepover by Mila Jaroniec. | Joyland
• Representing the manifold experiences of life in America: On Edward Weston’s photographs to accompany a 1940s edition of Leaves of Grass. | Hyperallergic

Also on Literary Hub: Radical and dripping in controversy: from The Jesus and Mary Chain’s Psychocandy by Paula Mejia · Eleven legendary literary hoaxes, from fake Irish poets to the genius of JT Leroy · A place called Tír na nÓg: from Regina McBride’s Ghost Songs

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