Literary Link Love

I first read this post on readers’ reactions to rape victims in literature at The Rejectionist, but it made the rounds again a couple of weeks ago when it was republished at The Rumpus. Must read: Trigger Warning.

Chicago Reader has a great profile of Howard Goldblatt, translator of Nobel-winning Chinese literature.

The L.A. Times has a cool interactive literary map of Los Angeles. Click on a location, and the related book passage pops up.

The Atlantic recently published an article about the history of feminist utopian literature.

Literary Link Love

The Atlantic examines why there are almost no obituaries for Sylvia Plath, while The Guardian talks about how she didn’t want to mother to know about The Bell Jar. Meanwhile, Brainpicker shares what happened on this day in 1956: Plath and Ted Hughes meet in “one of literary history’s steamiest encounters.”

The New York Times profiles the “oracle” of the Strand Book Store, Ben McFall.

Beyonce hired a librarian to catalog over 50,000 hours of her personal videos.

Author Terry Deary talks smack about public libraries, saying that, “we’ve got this idea that we’ve got an entitlement to read books for free, at the expense of authors, publishers and council tax payers.” People weren’t happy.

With the rise of people reading stuff on tiny screens (like phones), short stories are seeing a renaissance.

Literary Link Love

As usual, I’m kicking this off with my Junot obsession:

Junot Díaz wrote a piece on why he loves Tokyo.

Junot talks love, life, and heartbreak in New York Magazine.

Perhaps my favorite Junot article to come of the This is How You Loser Her publicity blitz: his book recommendations!

Annie Leibovitz did a photo shoot for Vogue’s September issue based on Edith Wharton. It was shot at Wharton’s estate and features Jeffrey Eugenides, Junot Díaz , and Jonathan Safran Foer. Eugenides in particular is workin’ it.

Speaking of style and cool photos, one couple centered the theme of their wedding on Erin Mortgensen’s The Night Circus. I WANT.

The Obama campaign has enlisted some pretty big names to write essays for it’s 90 Days, 90 Reasons website, including works by authors like Jamaica Kincaid, Colin Meloy, Khaled Hosseini, Jonathan Franzen, and Sherman Alexie.

Literary Link Love

Using Emma Straub and Laura Lamont’s Life in Pictures as an example, Slate‘s Jason Silverman argues that the niceness of social media is killing literary criticism. Over at Salon, Roxanne Gay disagrees.

Jane at Dear Author has gone through the seven stages of grief over 50 Shades of Grey and has now reached acceptance. Awesome.

Fascinating: The New York Times gives us a glimpse at the life of rare books.

Here’s a great article on why black bookstores are so important and must be saved.

What do your favorite fictional characters read? Check out this list featuring everyone from Rory Gilmore to Don Draper.

Literary Link Love

Remembering Nora Ephron:

• Read the beautiful obituary at The New York Times.
• One of the best tributes I’ve read is Leah Dunham’s essay in The New Yorker.
• Speaking of The New Yorker, they’ve collected some of the essays Ephron wrote.
• Listen to a December 1972 panel discussion at the 92nd Street Y where Nora Ephron, Elizabeth Janeway, and Caroline Kizer discuss the topic “Women Writers: Has Anything Changed?“
• Read Ephron’s 1996 commencement address to Wellesley graduates.
• Tom Hanks wrote an essay remembering Ephron at TIME.

I know this Boston Review interview with Junot Diaz has made the rounds everywhere, but it’s Junot, and it’s awesome. He discusses the influence of women of color writers on his work, among other things.

More Junot: A New Yorker essay remembering Ray Bradbury.

And even more Junot (last one, I promise!): an interview discussing his short story, “Monstro.”

Literary Link Love

I am long, looooooooong overdue for a link roundup. So much good stuff:

Toni Morrison is going to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

In other Toni Morrison news, New York recently posted a fabulous profile on her.

There was a lot of buzz when HBO made a move to adapt Jonathan Franzen’s The Corrections into a series. Franzen wrote the screenplay and an all-star cast was selected. Well…HBO has now rejected the series.

Moment magazine asks: Is there such a thing as Jewish fiction?

Over at SF Signal, Paula Stiles talks about why multiculturalism will make you a better writer.

The Atlantic discusses the ongoing problem of race in young adult literature.

Over at LJNDawson: “If you want people to read more, teach more people to read.”

Maya at Feministing responds to Katie Roiphe’s Newsweek piece on 50 Shades of Grey, focusing on fantasies of sexual submission.

Speaking of 50 Shades of Grey, the Brevard County Public Libraries system in Florida has pulled the book from its shelves because they “don’t collect porn.”

Junot Diaz on how much Miramax paid him for the film rights to Oscar Wao: “You’ve gotta remember it’s about Dominicans in New Jersey so they paid like $500 for it…The shit wasn’t about werewolves, you know? Literally they paid, like, they paid me lunch money.”

What five books does Anna Quindlen consider the best? The Wall Street Journal has the scoop.

Not specifically related to literature, but to pop culture in general: Racialicious recently posted a historical guide to hipster racism.

Finally, this isn’t specifically related to literature either, but I’m including it because the same nonsense is often applied to academic explorations of literature (and other liberal arts subjects): The Chronicle of Higher Education recently embarrassed itself by allowing a conservative “journalist” to post a racist diatribe that called for the end of Black Studies programs. This “journalist” then stuck her foot further down her throat by posting a response to the furor that ensued following her initial post. The three doctoral candidates who were targeted in the first article have responded, but the Chronicle‘s (non-)response to the matter has been really disappointing. If nothing else, the whole thing has illustrated precisely why minority voices are so vital in academia.

Literary Link Love

Haven’t done one of these in a looooong time…

Over at Tiger Beatdown, the always fabulous s.e. smith dissects the “strong female character” archetype (hint: it almost never applies to women of color, trans women, and women with disabilities).

Guernica has a new Sherman Alexie poem up, The Lost Colony of Roanoke, 1587.

Girl with Pen advises readers on How to Read an Anthology.

As part of Viva La Feminista‘s “Summer of Feminista” series, Dior Vargas discusses the lack of people of color in publishing and calls for more Latina intellectuals in publishing.

Following the results of a survey that found that “nearly 80 percent of U.S. adults believe multicultural books are important for children, but one-third say they are hard to find,” Latina Lista encourages people to pick up more multicultural literature.

Justin Torres, author of the upcoming (and much-talked-about) We the Animals, has a short story up at The New Yorker.

And finally, Ms. Magazine saluted Harry Potter with a feminist sendoff:

• Hermione Granger and the Fight for Equal Rights
• 7 Feminist Take-Aways From the Final Harry Potter Movie
• Harry Potter’s Unsung Feminist Heroes

Edit – ACK! I left one out: As they’re so often prone to do, Huffington Post created a bad list of Great Gay Couples in Literature. In response, Cass schooled them and created her own list, 7 Great Queer Couples in Literature. Her list actually like…involves queer people. And modern literature. *serious eyeroll at HuffPo*

Literary Link Love

The Hairpin discusses why Villette is way better than Jane Eyre.

If you’re participating in the Year of Feminist Classics reading project you’ve probably already seen this. If you haven’t, Jillian wrote a great piece inspired by the first book of the project: Mary Wollstonecraft – a “Bitch”?

Tami is starting a Black feminist online book club, and “you needn’t be black or a woman or label yourself a feminist” to join.

Check out this student work from a book cover design course.

Avi Steinberg has a feature in The Boston Globe about the potential of prison libraries.

Bitch magazine discusses women and crime fiction.

Shelby Knox is starting a Radical Women’s History Project “explicitly centering women of color, indigenous, queer, trans, disabled, and non-Western women.” If you have book recommendations, send them her way!

NPR talks about the rise of “nostalgia books.”

New York Times critic Michiko Kakutani chimes in on the Huck Finn controversy, and Racialicious also has a good roundup.

Google charts the history of swear words in books.

Literary Link Love

I’m such a slacker! I have a billion links (okay, more like 16) because I haven’t done one of these in a while. Anyhoo, if you have a literature-related link you’d like to share, feel free to leave it in the comments!

Amazon finally pulled The Pedophile’s Guide to Love and Pleasure off its shelves. Interview with the book’s creepy author at the link.

Hoyden About Town discusses extreme breastfeeding in literature.

Abortion Gang examines abortion in literature.

Ms. Magazine picks the 10 best feminist teen books of all time.

Apparently, Edith Wharton wrote erotica.

io9 has a list of 15 classic sci-fi and fantasy novels that were originally rejected by publishers. Some of the books on that list are surprising!

The Today Show lists the 9 most subversive children’s books ever written.

The Millions talks about reading outside your culture.

Flavorwire has a brief visual history of riot grrrl zines.

The American Library Association has created an award for LGBT children’s and YA literature called the Stonewall Children’s and Young Adult Literature Award.