• How J.R.R. Tolkien’s Catholicism impacted his writing: “Tolkien, it is fair to say, saw God everywhere…above all, in his art.” | Lit HubBiography
  • Ed Simon explores the symbol of Guy Fawkes andV for Vendetta‘s anti-authoritarian afterlives. | Lit HubCriticism
  • Step inside Eudora Welty’s Jackson, Mississippi home. | Lit HubBiography
  • Mary Beth Keane, author of Whale Harbor, on grief, craft, andwriting a novel of Irish diaspora. | Lit HubIn Conversation
  • Meet Malfoid, the (ironically gender-swapped)Harry Pottermemeof far-right incel origin. | Wired
  • Grace Byron talks to Alexandra Schwartz aboutexorcism, Goodreads warriors, and other more little frights. | Broadcast
  • “She saw up close the fine line between the confessional and the salacious, the difficulties of being an admired public figure and an object of prurience.”Meghan Racklin on Tove Ditlevsen’s life and work(and the spaces between). | The New Republic
  • The fanfiction site AO3 is down for up to four weeks, but fear not: Intrepid users are creating “survival guides” to help bereft readers cope. | Wired
  • Joshua Bennett makes the case for Great Books programming in the age of AI. | The Atlantic
  • Pankaj Mishra on the price ofliterary prestige at the end of an empire. | Equator
  • “To identify something as rewarding of literary attention is necessarily a judgment of literary value.”Hannah Katznelson makes the case for judging. | The Hedgehog Review
  • Chris Saltmarsh reports on the UK’s alarming censorship of pro-Palestinian thinkers, from Andreas Malm to Sally Rooney. | Jacobin
  • On the emotional and political rootsof cringe. | JSTOR Daily
  • American voters aresaying no (!!!!!) to data centers. | 404 Media
  • Bernardo Jurema and Elias Königtalk to Timothy Mitchell about the future, escalating state violence, and his book, The Alibi of Capital.| Protean
  • Jerome Stueart examinesreligious gatekeeping around The Chronicles of Narnia. | Reactor
  • Philippe Jaenada, the winner of this year’s Prix Goncourt, admitted to using ChatGPT “three times” while writing his novel. | The Guardian
  • Casey McQuiston, author of popular romance novel Red, White, and Royal Blue(which includes a plot about flipping Texas), on the real-life flipping of Texas.| Slate
  • On Kyoko Okazaki’sHelter Skelter, The Substance, and women in body horror.| The Comics Journal

A Working Mother, Agnes Owens’s novel of the Scottish working class• Great children’s bookscoming in November • This month’sbest new poetry collections• Spirits and ghostsin African literary traditions • The best new nonfictionout this November • November’s upcomingsci-fi and fantasy books• This week in literary history, Sinclair Lewis becomes the first American writer to winthe Nobel Prize • NAZAand the balance ofjournalistic duty and ethical responsibility in documentary filmmaking• Writing a Haitian reimaginingofThe Odyssey• Why fly fishing and writingare similar • Read “Mirror,”a poem by Jana Prikryl • The aromatic historyof book collecting• “Analog minds” andthe reading life of John Elder• Olivia Manning’sthe lightly fictionalized novels• Ry Herman searches historyfor queer fairy tales• Ilan Stavans pensa letter to emerging translators• Meet Erika Mann, the pioneering journalistwho covered the Nuremberg Trials • How to manage self-doubt and self-worthas a writer • Hanif Abdurraqib reflectson lessons learned from June Jordan• Am I the assholeif I want to leave my book club? • Studying misogynistic menin art history • This week’s Independent Press Top 40 Bestsellers forfictionandnonfiction•5 book reviewsyou need to read this week • Sergey Davydov andstories of ordinary life• Whysci-fi needs more sex• Priyanka Kumar onillustrating her own nature writing• The best reviewed booksof the week • How neurosciencecan give paralyzed people a voice• Read “Arabic Music,”a poem by Mahmoud Darwish