THE BEST OF THE LITERARY INTERNET
- How J.R.R. Tolkien’s Catholicism impacted his writing: “Tolkien, it is fair to say, saw God everywhere…above all, in his art.” | Lit Hub Biography
- Ed Simon explores the symbol of Guy Fawkes and V for Vendetta‘s anti-authoritarian afterlives. | Lit Hub Criticism
- Step inside Eudora Welty’s Jackson, Mississippi home. | Lit Hub Biography
- Mary Beth Keane, author of Whale Harbor, on grief, craft, and writing a novel of Irish diaspora. | Lit Hub In Conversation
- Meet Malfoid, the (ironically gender-swapped) Harry Potter meme of far-right incel origin. | Wired
- Grace Byron talks to Alexandra Schwartz about exorcism, Goodreads warriors, and other more little frights. | Broadcast
- “She saw up close the fine line between the confessional and the salacious, the difficulties of being an admired public figure and an object of prurience.” Meghan Racklin on Tove Ditlevsen’s life and work (and the spaces between). | The New Republic
- The fanfiction site AO3 is down for up to four weeks, but fear not: Intrepid users are creating “survival guides” to help bereft readers cope. | Wired
- Joshua Bennett makes the case for Great Books programming in the age of AI. | The Atlantic
- Pankaj Mishra on the price of literary prestige at the end of an empire. | Equator
- “To identify something as rewarding of literary attention is necessarily a judgment of literary value.” Hannah Katznelson makes the case for judging. | The Hedgehog Review
- Chris Saltmarsh reports on the UK’s alarming censorship of pro-Palestinian thinkers, from Andreas Malm to Sally Rooney. | Jacobin
- On the emotional and political roots of cringe. | JSTOR Daily
- American voters are saying no (!!!!!) to data centers. | 404 Media
- Bernardo Jurema and Elias König talk to Timothy Mitchell about the future, escalating state violence, and his book, The Alibi of Capital. | Protean
- Jerome Stueart examines religious gatekeeping around The Chronicles of Narnia. | Reactor
- Philippe Jaenada, the winner of this year’s Prix Goncourt, admitted to using ChatGPT “three times” while writing his novel. | The Guardian
- Casey McQuiston, author of popular romance novel Red, White, and Royal Blue (which includes a plot about flipping Texas), on the real-life flipping of Texas. | Slate
- On Kyoko Okazaki’s Helter Skelter, The Substance, and women in body horror. | The Comics Journal
Also on Lit Hub:
A Working Mother, Agnes Owens’s novel of the Scottish working class • Great children’s books coming in November • This month’s best new poetry collections • Spirits and ghosts in African literary traditions • The best new nonfiction out this November • November’s upcoming sci-fi and fantasy books • This week in literary history, Sinclair Lewis becomes the first American writer to win the Nobel Prize • NAZA and the balance of journalistic duty and ethical responsibility in documentary filmmaking • Writing a Haitian reimagining of The Odyssey • Why fly fishing and writing are similar • Read “Mirror,” a poem by Jana Prikryl • The aromatic history of book collecting • “Analog minds” and the reading life of John Elder • Olivia Manning’s the lightly fictionalized novels • Ry Herman searches history for queer fairy tales • Ilan Stavans pens a letter to emerging translators • Meet Erika Mann, the pioneering journalist who covered the Nuremberg Trials • How to manage self-doubt and self-worth as a writer • Hanif Abdurraqib reflects on lessons learned from June Jordan • Am I the asshole if I want to leave my book club? • Studying misogynistic men in art history • This week’s Independent Press Top 40 Bestsellers for fiction and nonfiction • 5 book reviews you need to read this week • Sergey Davydov and stories of ordinary life • Why sci-fi needs more sex • Priyanka Kumar on illustrating her own nature writing • The best reviewed books of the week • How neuroscience can give paralyzed people a voice • Read “Arabic Music,” a poem by Mahmoud Darwish