Lit Hub Daily: September 22, 2021

TODAY: In 1922, Bengali writer Kazi Nazrul Islam publishes the poem “Anandamoyeer Agamane” (“The Advent of the Delightful Mother”), in support of the Indian independence movement; he is arrested by the police of the Bengal Presidency and imprisoned on a charge of sedition for much of the following year, undertaking a hunger strike and composing many poems while in prison.     

• “She was a woman—and a Jewish woman at that—in an art world ruled by men.” Meet Berthe Weill, the groundbreaking art dealer who made a name for Picasso. | Lit Hub Art

• Lists on lists on lists: the biggest fall books, according to math. | Lit Hub

• When Vincent Van Gogh “landed in Paris like a meteor,” and how the quintessential modern city shaped his art. | Lit Hub Art

• Bill Schutt investigates Takotsubo syndrome, which indicates that emotions like grief can physically change the heart. | Lit Hub Science

• Lauren Groff talks to Jane Ciabattari about writing historical fiction, Marie de France, and the power of an abbess in medieval times. | Lit Hub

• “As a mother in my forties, this is the thing I have had to struggle with most—my grief over how this all took so much time.” Laura Davis balances regret, joy, and sleep deprivation. | Lit Hub Memoir

• The difference between a specter and a poster boy: Savannah Marciezyk compares the textual interpretations of The Midnight Library and The Bell Jar. | Lit Hub Criticism

• Ten books by women you might have missed in August. | Lit Hub Reading Lists

• “Noir provides the critique, and science fiction the possibility of change.” Lincoln Michel explains why noir pairs so well with sci-fi. | CrimeReads

• The politics of pleasure: on three recent books that “ imagine an erotic culture in which far more than consent is required.” | Boston Review

• Alexander Chee considers the legacy of E.M. Forster and his novel Maurice. | The New Republic

• “His emotional authority often gets left out of the nutshell version of his legacy.” Elaine Blair on Hemingway as a writer’s writer. | NYRB

• Phoebe Robinson writes about the journey to launching her own imprint and the ever-changing publishing landscape. | EW

• Lincoln Michel reconsiders the weirdness of David Lynch’s Dune. | Tor

• Melissa Lozada-Oliva talks about the importance of poetry, “one of the last things that reminds us that we are alive.” | The Creative Independent

• The Pew Research Center dives into the demographics of people who say they don’t read books. | Pew Research Center

Also on Lit Hub: Keith Boykin on the lessons of history and the challenges ahead • A poem by Tongo Eisen-Martin • Read from Sofi Oksanen’s newly translated novel, Dog Park (tr. Owen Frederick Witesman)

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