Lit Hub Daily rounds up the week’s best literary writing, and this edition leans heavily on history, politics, and poetry. Here’s what caught our eye.
Coben on Ideas and Lopate on Sleepy Hollow
Harlan Coben opens up about where he gets his ideas in a Craft piece. “Sometimes, it’s a simple ‘what-if,'” he says. The answer is simple, but the questions behind his novels aren’t.
Phillip Lopate takes a closer look at “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” in a Biography entry. The story has been told countless times, but Lopate finds fresh angles in the lore and legacy.
Reflections on 9/11 and Palestinian Kites
Steven W. Thrasher pairs two memoirs in a Criticism entry: No God But Us and The Sense of Brown. He reads them side by side while reflecting on the aftermath of 9/11.
The Politics section turns to a specific issue. The piece argues that hope is the real rebellion, even when the colonizer has claimed the future for itself. It’s a striking image of resistance.
Native American Enslavement and a Cundill Prize Shortlist
Linford D. Fisher traces the forgotten enslavement of Native Americans in the United States. His work comes from Stealing America, a book that made the Cundill Prize shortlist.
Poetry, Manga, and Medieval Medicine
The Poetry section includes a piece on Carolyn Forché and the future of poetry of witness. Federico Perelmuter writes about a world increasingly “razed into horror and multifarious catastrophe.”
Marcus Wicker’s “Late Summer in the Anthropocene” appears in the Lit Hub Poetry column. The poem opens with a line about hibiscus and bullshit, and it’s a striking start.
Henry Dykstal explores the art of adapting a comic as an opera in The Comics Journal. It’s a niche topic, but it speaks to how stories cross mediums.
Daniel Lukes writes about manga, misogyny, and the erotic grotesque via Shintaro Kago’s Brain Damage. The Los Angeles Review of Books piece delves into comics and their darker corners.
Books of the Week and a Medieval Ostrich Cure
Book Marks rounds up the best reviewed books of the week. Emma Cline’s Switzy, Francis Fukuyama’s In the Realm of the Last Man, and R.F. Kuang’s Taipei all make the list.
Tom Cole talks to utofiction, shame-based writing, and being an unreliable narrator in a Lit Hub In Conversation. The interview touches on a range of topics.
Aeon offers a medieval cure for overwhelm. The prescription includes ostrich liver and a walk in the garden. It’s a strange pairing, but it fits the medieval approach to mental health.
Children’s Literature in Translation and What Zelda Means to Queer Readers
Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp and Anam Zafar discuss children’s literature in translation in Asymptote. The conversation covers how stories move across languages and cultures.
The Fiction column includes a line from Amanda Peters’s new novel, The Birthing Tree. “An adult would never have been so bold, and this is one of the things I still admire in children, their unchecked curiosity.” It’s a lovely passage about innocence and wonder.
JSTOR Daily asks a question about The Legend of Zelda: is it queer-coded? The answer is a playful one: “It’s not not queer-coded.” The article makes the case for reading queer subtext into the series.
The week’s highlights cover a wide range of subjects. From Coben’s plotting to Fisher’s historical research, from Wicker’s poetry to Kago’s comics, there’s something for every reader.
Here’s a quick rundown of the week’s featured pieces:
| Section | Piece | Author |
|---|---|---|
| Craft | Where Does Harlan Coben Get Ideas? | Harlan Coben |
| Biography | The Legend of Sleepy Hollow | Phillip Lopate |
| Criticism | No God But Us and The Sense of Brown | Steven W. Thrasher |
| Politics | On the Demonization of Palestinian Kites | — |
| History | Native American Enslavement | Linford D. Fisher |
| Poetry | Late Summer in the Anthropocene | Marcus Wicker |
The comparison below shows how the week’s entries balance craft and criticism.
| Category | Example | Focus |
|---|---|---|
| Craft | Coben on Ideas | Plotting and inspiration |
| Criticism | Thrasher on Memoirs | Aftermath of 9/11 |
| History | Fisher on Slavery | Forgotten Native American enslavement |
| Politics | Palestinian Kites | Hope as rebellion |
This edition of Lit Hub Daily is a reminder that literary writing covers everything from detective fiction to medieval medicine. It’s a varied week, and there’s plenty to read.
Source: lithub.com