LitHub Daily: September 19, 2016

TODAY: In 1985, writer Italo Calvino dies. 

• What do we mean when we say women’s fiction? Liz Kay on broadening the scope of stories by and for women. | Literary Hub
• Our doppelgängers, ourselves: why the uncanny valley continues to fascinate us. | Literary Hub
• The reading series that wants writers to feel like rock stars. | Literary Hub
• Playwright Edward Albee died on Friday at age 88. | The New York Times
• “I had this epiphany when I was five, sitting on the carpet in kindergarten listening to Mrs Balfour trying to teach us how to read the clock. It dawned on me that time was passing and we were all going to be dead—what’s the point?” An interview with Ottessa Moshfegh. | The Guardian
• Publishing is always moving on: Merritt Tierce on the reality of making money as a writer. | Marie Claire
• “Instead of speaking, I leaned over, put my lips on my father’s shaved skull, and kissed him.” Marisa Silver on why we kiss the dead. | The New Yorker
• Mat Johnson on belonging to tribes, bear attacks, and humor as a universal language. | NPR
• Alexandra Kleeman reviews Leopoldine Core’s story collection When Watched, which “captures a precious slice of what it is to be human.” | The New York Times Sunday Book Review
• Colin Barrett on the “subliminally repugnant” language used to describe murder-suicides and the marginalizing narratives that result. | Granta
• “To achieve genuine diversity, the powerful need to share power (and profits) with people who are not like them.” Viet Thanh Nguyen on publishing’s diversity problem. | Library Journal

Also on Literary Hub: Interview with a bookstore: Tin Can Mailman, from the South Seas to northern California · Ten giant translated novels that make a mockery of “subway reading” · Guess we’re really at Harvard: From Teddy Wayne’s Loner

---