Literary Hub - Lit Hub Daily: March 15, 2021

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Lit Hub Daily
March 15, 2021

TODAY: In 1959, Nigerian writer Ben Okri is born.

“That authors like Norman Mailer have contributed more than their share of neologisms to the world’s word pool gets at the very nature of authorship.” Ralph Keyes on the surprising contributions writers have made to language. | Lit Hub

If we can’t live in the utopia of a world without emails, Cal Newport suggests that we at least take a page from academia. | Lit Hub Tech

Elon Green looks back to the NYC-based 1980s Anti-Violence Project, “at heart, a reaction to systemic apathy to queer life.” | Lit Hub History

When Don Lee needed to write (good) song lyrics for his character, he did what any of us would do: cold-emailed Centro-matic lead singer Will Johnson to ask for help. | Lit Hub Music

Sula, The English Patient, The Portrait of a Lady, and more rapid-fire book recs from Miranda Popkey. | Book Marks

The National Endowment for the Humanities will receive $135 million in supplemental funding as part of the American Rescue Plan. | Publishers Weekly

“He told us that he was going to leave everything, good and bad, behind—to begin a new chapter in his life.” The story of Antonio Sajvín Cúmes, who wanted to write a memoir about the American Dream. | Guernica

“Breadcrumbs were there, small hints at the story that would be waiting when I was ready to find it.” Eiren Caffall uncovers a hidden family history. | LARB

“I know that the words were proof of an unchronicled legacy.” Fatima Shaik finds a hidden history of Black brotherhood, in New Orleans’ Economie journals. | Lit Hub History

“A transracial home does not need to be a synonym for trauma if it is a place of openness and honest dialogue.” Georgina Lawton on racial identity and discovering the truth about her heritage. | The Guardian 

“I read things like on average, it takes at least seven years for a blended family to feel like a family, if ever.” How dipping a toe into the waters of stepmotherhood inspired Emma Duffy-Comparone’s new book. | Lit Hub Memoir

Reading this year’s NBCC Award finalists: Carlin Romano on Martin Amis’s Inside Story. | Lit Hub

Casey Cep details the Raven bookstore’s ongoing fight with Amazon. | The New Yorker

“By the time I was thirteen, I’d divorced my body. Not before or since have I felt such animosity toward another being.” Melissa Febos on finding the sublime in a body. | The Yale Review

“There is at least one truth in the fiction. A bank teller was on the other end of that gun.” Matt Gallagher on Nico Walker’s Cherry, and the messy line between fact and fiction. | The Intercept

“We downplay issues with food as just par for the course, the cost of doing business in girlhood.” Emily Layden on eating disorders and the secret lives of teenage girls. | Lit Hub Health

“Even as a child, I was working out some idea of suburban literature.” On TikTok, suburban gothic aesthetics, and being the main character in the movie of your life. | Dirt

NEW ON LIT HUB RADIO

Alan Lightman talks about our obligation to record the majesty of
the cosmos, on First Draft. 
*
Emma Brown discusses the urgency to model emotional intimacy for boys, on Keen On. 
*
Jacke Wilson considers the life and work of Gabriel García Márquez,
on The History of Literature. 
*
In a narrated essay for Emergence Magazine, Anna Badkhen reflects on
impermanence and eternity during a weeklong walk in the Sahara.

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