TODAY: In 1895, Oscar Wilde’s final play, The Importance of Being Earnest, opens at the St. James Theatre in London.
- Angelica Mazza considers the romance novel’s mainstream moment: “Romance can do all those things, too, but its primary goal is pleasure and satisfaction and enjoyment. I think we struggle, as a culture, to see that as a valuable way to spend your time.” | Lit Hub Criticism
- “It seemed like a type of loyalty to my protagonist. Refusal to give up.” Roisín O’Donnell on developing a short story into a novel. | Lit Hub Craft
- Anne Tyler’s Three Days in June, Lyndal Roper’s Summer of Fire and Blood, and Charlotte Wood’s Stone Yard Devotional all feature among the best reviewed books of the week. | Book Marks
- “Only that which does not teach, which does not cry out, which does not condescend, which does not explain, is irresistible.” Eric Olson talks to Charlotte Wood. | Lit Hub In Conversation
- Sam Mills makes the case for visual artistic experimentation in literature. | Lit Hub Craft
- “White supremacy doesn’t just want Black people to suffer, it wants us to suffer alone.” Chad Sanders on learning to process the societal and psychological effects of anti-Blackness. | Lit Hub Memoir
- David Hajdu chronicles how the synth conquered American music. | Lit Hub Music
- Read “Joined To All The Living There Is Hope,” a poem by Jonathan Fink from the collection Don’t Do It, We Love You, My Heart. | Lit Hub Poetry
- Take a peak at the colorful, illustrated envelopes Edward Gorey sent to his friend Tom Fitzharris. | Lit Hub Art
- “Once he knew she’d do it, he put his foot down and drove his father’s car through narrow roads, fielded on each side.” Read from Bridget O’Connor’s story collection, After A Dance. | Lit Hub Fiction
- “Its criminal testimony is indisputable:” Michael Barron on Oromay, the novel that cost Ethiopian author Baalu Girma his life. | The Baffler
- Vrinda Jagota revisits Rupi Kaur’s milk and honey, ten years on. | Los Angeles Review of Books
- “The suffering was boundless. Questions raised threateningly at existence itself could not be answered; bitter resentments spurted out and piled up.” Poet Muhammad al-Zaqzouq recounts the first weeks of the war in Gaza. | New York Review of Books
- Matthew Porges asks: what is an authentic spy novel? | n+1
- “Like it or not, it has become easier than ever for all of us to be recognized.” Benjamin Ehrlich on love and recognition. | The Paris Review
- Jessica Winter examines what attacks on public education mean for children with disabilities. | The New Yorker
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