Lit Hub Weekly: Emily Dickinson's Hair, a Queer Reading of Thoreau, and the Gift of Quarantine

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Lit Hub Weekly

“Our immediate thought was, Jesus, look at it. This is from Emily Dickinson’s head!” Jen DeGregorio investigates the curious case of Emily Dickinson’s locks of hair (maybe), which have been quietly traded among a group of literary men for years (that part for sure). | Lit Hub

George Makari considers the phobic world of Richard Wright’s Native Son, which “asks the reader to identify either with a brutal killer or with an evil social order.” | Lit Hub Criticism

“Feeling afraid to obey the demands of your own heart? Is there anything more human?” Jennifer Finney Boylan considers Henry David Thoreau and the risks we take to live our full truth. | Lit Hub Memoir

On the medieval brilliance (and blind luck) that gifted us with the concept of the quarantine. | Lit Hub History

Colson Whitehead’s Harlem Shuffle, Joy Williams’ Harrow, and Mary Roach’s Fuzz feature among the Best Reviewed Books of the Week. | Book Marks

“People aren’t standardized... That’s what I liked about Leonard.” Joe R. Lansdale remembers the genesis for Hap & Leonard and pays tribute to Michael K. Williams. | CrimeReads

Ottessa Moshfegh recounts a chance encounter with an unforgettable artist on the eve of 9/11. | GQ

In praise of using a physical dictionary, which “feels like prying open an oyster rather than falling down a rabbit hole.” | New York Times Magazine

Elizabeth Warren and Adam Schiff are asking Amazon to prevent its algorithms from promoting books that misinform the public on COVID-19. | The Guardian

A reading list in honor of National Hispanic Heritage Month. | CLMP

“I have a sense of normal being, you know, vast—vast and all inclusive.” Helen Shaw profiles Ruth Ozeki. | Vulture

Ryan M. Moser, a poet incarcerated in Florida, addresses depression in correctional facilities, “a real but unspoken problem.” | Mental Hellth

Chelsea T. Hicks pays tribute to N. Scott Momaday, who “offers readers a beguiling mixture of sacredness and irreverence.” | The Paris Review

Take a look inside the headquarters of America’s largest publisher of community cookbooks (including one by a San Francisco gay clown collective). | Atlas Obscura

Hate ebooks? You’re not alone. | The Atlantic

“I think restraint is an undervalued form of freedom.” Maggie Nelson discusses the different forms of freedom, her new book, and advice for writers. | The Creative Independent

Who needs a union? Eve Livingston makes the case for collectives. | Vice 

Are we experiencing “the golden age of trans literature,” or are we simply “applauding politely at its existence”? | Xtra Magazine

Anatomy of a Christian publishing scandal: On the uproar over the God Bless the USA Bible. | Slate

Supply chains are a major problem for publishers right now, and they’re likely to continue for the rest of the year. | Quartz

“The Summer Woman,” a newly discovered story by Tennessee Williams, has been published for the first time. | The Guardian 

In celebration of Laurie Colwin’s lost Manhattan • Emily Itami reflects on how music prepared her for the writing life • Horace’s advice for a more tranquil mind • In which Joy Williams responds to our questions via typewriter • Colson Whitehead talks heist novels and midcentury furniture • Is the original Pinocchio actually about lying? • Why an early feminist advocated for the right to divorce • Stephen Marche on Sally Rooney and the literature of the pose • T.C. Boyle on how to work through writer’s block • Rebecca Mead on Saint Theresa and Middlemarch • Why we should all be gossips • On the importance of radical ekphrasis • Cai Emmons on writing as a reflection of health • 50 great literary cameos in (terrible) early 2000s movies • Katie Yee on millennial voice and the literary internet • Questioning traditional rituals at a boarding school in Kenya • On Suat Derviş and how a writer gets erased from literary history • Eric Pallant on the first great sourdough boom • Who was Herman Mankiewicz before Hollywood? • Why everyone should read the great Karen Tei Yamashita • How Chaucer’s tales gave readers “a new notion of human existence” • Eric Foner on the ongoingness of Reconstruction-era questions and consequences in America • Linda Rui Feng on going from exobiology and geology to… writing fiction • On the Confucian view of the Yellow River and the unification of China

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