“We were both crying when I left”

Recommended reading: Lydia Perović talks with Margaret Drabble for The Believer about feminist fiction, the Aeneid, Iris Murdoch and writing female characters.

The Guardian‘s Max Liu highlights several rising star Asian American authors, including Year in Reading 2017 participant Jenny Zhang. “After years on the peripheries of US fiction and poetry, Asian American authors have stepped into the spotlight during 2017. Books by writers of east and south-east Asian heritage are one of the hottest trends this year. […] Transcultural writers, born to immigrant parents in the US or immigrants themselves as children, they are channelling their experiences into writing that, with perfect historical timing, challenges readers to resist attacks on immigrants’ rights and to see refugees as individuals with unique stories.”

At the Awkward Family Photos blog, an interspecies take on the Nativity.