THE BEST OF THE LITERARY INTERNET

• The seven finalists for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize answer our questions about reading, writing, and more! | Lit Hub In Conversation
• “She was like an exclamation point in Garamond type…” Cynthia Zarin remembers her late friend, writer Alison Rose. | Lit Hub Biography
• Gabriel Urza on shifting from criminal justice to creative writing and how processing trauma helped push his novel forward. | Lit Hub Memoir
• Gish Jen’s Bad Bad Girl, Virginia Giuffre’s Nobody’s Girl, and Claire-Louise Bennett’s Big Kiss, Bye-Bye all feature among the best reviewed books of the week. | Book Marks
• “Nonfiction is, at its core, about how one chooses to live and observe life.” Julian Brave NoiseCat explores the relationship between documentary filmmaking and memoir. | Lit Hub Craft
• Why do humans fixate on flying? Edward McPherson traces the origins of our obsession with the skies. | Lit Hub History
• Grant Chemidlin recalls how shame drove him away from writing, and how coming out drew him back in. | Lit Hub Craft
• “Even at the highest levels of policymaking, food is a powerful communication tool.” Sam Kass looks at the impact of climate change on global food production. | Lit Hub Climate Change
• “At the moment, I can’t offer a thorough introduction.” Read from Lynne Sharon Schwartz’s new novel, A Stranger Comes to Town. | Lit Hub Fiction
• “My brain is not immune to the realities of history. The heart, though, is a machine that can be more easily fueled by mythology, by invention.” Hanif Abdurraqib on the possibilities of the song “Groove Theory.” | Longreads
• Zadie Smith makes the case for (serious) glamour. | Vogue
• Stefania Heim and Ara H. Merjian explore the often overlooked writing of Giorgio de Chirico. | Public Books
• And now for some good news: A federal judge has ruled that the state of Texas cannot require booksellers to rate the content of books. | Publishers Weekly
• Dan Kois on naming his daughter after Philip Pullman’s Lyra Belacqua. | New York Times
• Listen to László Krasznahorkai’s Nobel Prize interview: “I wish for everybody to get back the ability to use their fantasy, because without fantasy it’s an absolute different life. To read books and to enjoy and to be rich, because the reading gives us more power to survive this very, very difficult time on Earth.” | The Nobel Prize

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