Lit Hub Weekly: Rachel Cobb on Photographing New York City on the Morning of 9/11

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Lit Hub Weekly

“All the while I kept thinking, ‘This changes everything, the world will never be the same.’” Rachel Cobb on photographing New York City on the morning of 9/11. | Lit Hub Photography

Margaret Atwood recounts becoming a writer under the intimidating (and brilliant) shadow of Simone de Beauvoir. | Lit Hub

The late artist Winfred Rembert captures a peaceful civil rights demonstration in the Jim Crow South that ended in mayhem. | Lit Hub History

“God forgive me if this letter is ever opened by mistake.” An, ahem, steamy letter from Henry Miller to Anais Nin. | Lit Hub

Sally Rooney’s Beautiful World, Where Are You, Lauren Groff’s Matrix, and Maggie Nelson’s On Freedom all feature among the best reviewed books of the week. | Book Marks

63 crime novels to cozy up with this fall, recommended by the CrimeReads editors. | CrimeReads

Claudia Rankine explores Beyoncé’s radical reimagining of what it means to be a pop icon. | Harper’s Bazaar

Can Salman Rushdie’s forthcoming, Substack-published novella revive serialized fiction? | The New Republic

“In failing to look for the nation in these books, we fail to see Rooney’s stories in all their richness.” On the (often-overlooked) essentiality of Sally Rooney’s Irishness. | Gawker

Chris Lehmann on J.D. Vance’s “conversion to the MAGA cause.” | The Baffler

“Gender is an assignment that does not just happen once: it is ongoing.” Judith Butler on gender categories and queer politics. | The Guardian

Jon Wiener talks to Art Spiegelman about his latest project and comics-related controversies. | Los Angeles Review of Books

“It will hate bunk.” Read The New Yorker’s original prospectus. | Gothamist

Joy Harjo discusses her new memoir, Native history, and her childhood reading habits. | NPR

Why are news reporters so skilled at writing crime novels? | Inside Hook

Lauren Groff considers the books that have made an impact on her life. | Elle

“Spontaneity is learning.” Leanne Shapton on visual knowledge and the power of browsing. | Curbed

Samuel Moyn discusses post-9/11 hysteria, US imperialism, and the pretext of humanitarianism. | The Drift

Meet Ashley M. Jones, Alabama’s first Black poet laureate. | NPR

Kayleb Rae Candrilli breaks down the meaning of acts of creative recovery under capitalism. | Poetry Foundation

“Even though it’s a picture that Chicagoans might not find flattering, I think it’s an honest portrayal.” Sandra Cisneros on writing about her hometown. | Chicago Magazine

There are a million killer stories. But America’s #1 cop, Eve Dallas, makes sure no one gets forgotten. In the electrifying new audiobook in the bestselling series, Eve must sift through the wreckage of the past to find a killer. The audiobook is read by Susan Ericksen. Start listening now!

In the real land of fire and ice, in a village of only four hundred inhabitants, life and love become bigger. Unexpected, warm, and humorous, Stefánsson explores the dreams and desires of everyday people, and reveals the magic of life in all its ugliness and beauty. Start reading now.

Lauren Groff in conversation with Rebecca Makkai • How New Yorkers turned to poetry after 9/11 • On the race to a COVID-19 vaccine • How a hospice nurse helped change the course of the Miss America pageant • Hayley Mills on missing out on the part of Lolita • Remembering the humble origins of Saveur • Money, priorities, and the promise of an American childhood • On the “enchanting and terrifying” worlds of Ben Okri’s fiction • Dara Horn (reluctantly) revisits The Merchant of Venice • How to deliver a baby in the aftermath of a hurricane • Jill Louise Busby on the problem(s) of the writing residency industrial complex • Annabel Abbs considers the legacy of women hikers who blazed their own trails • On the young Indigenous basketball players who challenged colonial hegemony in Montana • How the mushroom we know from Disney movies earned its fame • An expedition across the “mysterious, inhospitable white void” of Antarctica • What we get wrong about borderline personality disorder • María Amparo Escandón on becoming a student of LA  • Sasha Sagan on the sea-change of our news cycle since 9/11 • On Tolstoy’s changing notions about brutality and war • Prisca Dorcas Mojica Rodríguez on white supremacy in higher education • Fictionalizing the Ritchie Boys, German-Jewish refugees who went undercover during WWII • Dawn Turner chronicles her sprawling family history in Chicago • Vanessa Bohns on our unbearable fear of social embarrassment • Joe Woolhead on documenting the chaos of the fallen Twin Towers

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