Lit Hub Daily: July 1, 2019
TODAY: In 1804, French novelist Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin, best known by her nom de plume George Sand, is born.
“The inherent tension between believability and deception”: Gabriel Urza on what fiction writers can learn from magicians. | Lit Hub
The garbage collector who knows everything: Peter Hessler on the informal neighborhood reporter, thief-merchant, and lost-and-found in Cairo. | Lit Hub
“Although he could not save a wild place or wild people from destruction, Sasquatch might, through its spiritual power.” On Peter Matthiessen’s lifelong search for Bigfoot. | Lit Hub
We may not know if Mercury is in Retrograde (no—but maybe?), but we do know what you should read this month, based on your Zodiac sign. | Lit Hub
Read a poem by Ron Padgett from his collection Big Cabin. | Lit Hub
This week in Shhh …Secrets of the Librarians: Audrey Barbakoff on empowering patrons, tongue-in-cheek sci-fi, and Discworld’s orangutan librarian . | Book Marks
“I have come into contact with so many people who support their families, right next to people who are filled with hate and rage and don’t know why”: An interview with reporter and author Chike Frankie Edozien on writing about LGBTQ lives in sub-Saharan Africa. | The Nation
From Mori Ōgai to Masaoka Shiki: a brief history of Meiji era literature in Japan , which saw the rise of realist, colloquial styles in poetry and fiction. | Nippon
“The difference between sharing and watching might almost be a definition of the difference between good writing and bad. In the case of Yiyun Li, this principle appears to be not only reversed but also turned inside out.” Rachel Cusk on Yiyun Li . | The New York Review of Books
Fiction sales in the UK may be down, but non-fiction sales are up —and either way, booksellers are still pretty sure that the novel isn’t dead. | The Guardian
Meet Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, “ founding mother of Mexican literature .” | JSTOR Daily
“As I wrote I began to do what I asked my students to do, reimagine and reinvent myself, until by draft ten or so my facts could no longer be called ‘facts.’” Saïd Sayrafiezadeh on smoking cigarettes , smoking crack cocaine, and the stories we write (and do not write) about ourselves. | The Paris Review
“I am a serious reader. I read everything.” On the life-changing magic of giving up on literary snobbery . | Financial Times
Also on Lit Hub: Nadifa Mohamed and Aleksandar Hemon the refugee experience • How paintings can teach writers the importance of observation • Read from John Burnham Schwartz’s new novel The Red Daughter.
