July 16, 2025
Today, we’re going surfing, celebrating the art of not knowing, looking into the history of DMT, and more!
- “But the hastily scribbled note in the corner of the photograph recalls an exchange I had forgotten, marks the moment, and situates me and Austin in the time and space of that first encounter.” Darcy Ballantyne on the process of finally meeting her father, the novelist Austin Clarke. | Lit Hub Memoir
- Mickie Meinhardt hits the waves with Bonnie Tsui to talk about muscle. | Lit Hub In Conversation
- Issa Quincy explains the delightful tension of writing a novel without planning (or even knowing anything). | Lit Hub Craft
- “If all life living now has a common ancestor, if her body has DNA in common with seahorses, lemurs, honeybees, those bodies aren’t just other ‘animals.’ They’re her siblings.” What the material world can teach about the false binary between humans and our surroundings. | Lit Hub Nature
- Andrew R. Gallimore traces the surprising history of DMT, nature’s most alien psychedelic. | Lit Hub Science
- Why Belle Époque Paris drew artists and travelers from every corner of world: “So seductive were these visions of cultural excellence that, to an aesthete, Paris was unbeatable…” | Lit Hub History
- “Ahh, the eighties! The rich who had retreated to the suburbs were coming back to town and were willing to pay for it.” Read from Mark Kurlansky’s new novel, Cheesecake. | Lit Hub Fiction
From around the internet:
- From groceries to travel destinations, Mira Ptacin examines the poetry of found lists. | Longreads
- Tim Bousquet traces how a tech startup takeover ended a beloved alt weekly’s golden age. | The Walrus
- Eric Benson explains why UFOs are all the rage: “My first reaction was that this all seemed quite bonkers. I was close to walking out of the room.” | The Baffler
- Andréa Becker on her new book and why the fights for reproductive rights and gender-affirming care are inextricable. | The Nation
- “The exceptional clarity of this lived paradox is what we begin reaching for. So much for conjoinment.” Michelle Chan Schmidt explores the politics of togetherness and separation in Hon Lai Chu’s novel, Mending Bodies. | Public Books
- Andrea Gibson has died at 49. | The Guardian