September 16, 2025

Some stories we like from around the web:

“Conflict is essential to the history of feminism, to the history of the university, and to the history of democracy.” Annabel Barry, Caroline Goddard, and Anna Park on women’s studies as an archive of conflict. | Public Books
A balm, for once: Katie Walsh on a lovely recent moment from her work as a librarian. | Slate
Actually, we need another inspiring librarian story: April White on Augusta Baker, the legendary children’s librarian of Harlem. | JSTOR Daily
“He had a deep, theatrical frown to go along with his ‘deep, policeman-type voices.’ He was ‘zany,’ yes. And also uncommonly sincere.” Katie Engelhart profiles beloved children’s author Robert Munsch amid his struggle with dementia. | The New York Times Magazine
Judith Butler talks to Amy Goodman about being among the 160 UC Berkeley students, faculty, and staff whose names were handed over to the Trump administration. | Democracy Now!
“The matter of Baldwin’s contemplated book about the Bureau is being closely followed and you will be kept advised of pertinent developments.” Read some of the FBI’s files on James Baldwin. | Lapham’s Quarterly

August 8, 2025

Today, we talk to Brad Lander about sonnets, wonder what Jane Austen would consider an “accomplished woman” in the present day, ask if we’ve been calling by The Metamorphosis the wrong title this whole time, and more!

On Lit Hub dot com:

“Sexting a man that you just met in a park is nothing like Jane Austen’s day.” Grace Aldridge asks, how would Austen define an accomplished woman in the present? | Lit Hub Criticism
This week on The Lit Hub Podcast: Talking sonnets with Brad Lander • What happens when your small press wins the Booker Prize?! | Lit Hub Radio
Jessica Gross on the challenge and technique of writing a New York novel while no longer living in New York. | Lit Hub Craft
Should we call it The Metamorphosis or The Transformation? Mark Harman looks at the history and process of translating an uncanny classic. | Lit Hub On Translation
Jason Mott’s People Like Us, Åsne Seierstad’s The Afghans, and Elaine Castillo’s Moderation all feature among the best reviewed books of the week. | Book Marks
“Debbie used to love sunny days, but she dreaded them when she became unhoused.” The very real perils of living without shade. | Lit Hub Politics
On poet William W. Watt’s experience witnessing the aftermath of nuclear devastation in Nagasaki. | Lit Hub History
Álvaro Enrigue explores the history and fantasy of Manuel Mujica Lainez’s Bomarzo. | Lit Hub Criticism
What the decline in global population signals about the future of humanity: “Our times, when many people are alive, may prove to be unlike the entire rest of human history, past and future—if what is normal today persists.” | Lit Hub Science
“Despite being two hundred thousand square kilometers in size, the Thar Desert, also known as the Great Indian Desert, has only one river: the Luni.” Read from Shobha Rao’s new novel, Indian Country. | Lit Hub Fiction

From around the internet:

“Disabled activists and scholars have put forward a model of ‘interdependency’ that emphasizes the reality that disabled people can and do need care from others—and holds that this is not such a bad thing.” Emily Lim Rogers considers recent books about the concept of “care.” | Public Books
In an excerpt from her forthcoming memoir, Arundhati Roy recounts her early life. | Vogue
David W. Blight chronicles the far-right’s animosity towards historians and the role manipulating history plays in support of fascism. | The New Republic
On the connection between Gabriela Mistral’s queerness and writing (and Langston Hughes as a translator of her work). | Asymptote
Inside the US government’s pre-Trump 2.0 report on AI safety: “it was one of several AI documents from NIST that were not published for fear of clashing with the incoming administration.” | Wired

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The Schomburg Library is turning 100 this year—and throwing an epic rager.

On May 8, 1925—a hundred years ago tomorrow—one of the country’s largest collections of Black arts, literature, and history was born out of

Literary Hub

Get ready to party with the New York Public Library’s Schomburg Research Center, which hosts one of America’s largest collections of Black arts, literature, and history!

#schomburg research center #arturo schomburg #nypl #new york public library #new york #nyc #library #history #literary history #black history #black art #black literature

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“Alice Munro (right field): Effortless power, great arm: just when you think you have a stand-up double she guns you down at second; decades later, catching a reflection of your aging face in a train window, you ask yourself, How did she do that?” Today on the site, a *very* serious investigation: Who Would Win if Writers Played for the Pennant?

#lit #baseball #alice munro #new york #chicago #toronto #kansas city #sports!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!#literary hub