“Dickinson wasn’t a madwoman, but she was maddened with rage—against a culture that had no place for a woman with her own fiercely independent mind and will.” On Emily Dickinson’s self-creation at Lit Hub. Pair with a piece on Paul Legault’s English-to-English translations of Dickinson’s poems.
Dickinson’s Self-Creation
From Chernobyl
Recommended Reading: An excerpt from Nobel Prize winner Svetlana Alexievich’s Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster at n+1. Read more about Alexievich at The Millions.
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Don’t Shy Away
Bad news for writers: shyness can’t be cured. Good news for writers: shyness makes us more creative.
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The Brothers Carrotmazov Was Taken
I’m not sure if you guys heard, but Elif Batuman joined Twitter a few days ago, and promptly seized the sweetest user alias on the site.
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Old Jews Telling Jokes Are Back!
The hysterical website Old Jews Telling Jokes has been revived from its year-long hibernation, and two of its newest gems are worth viewing: “A Stutter” and “Three German Shepherds.” Meanwhile, the show’s Off-Broadway adaptation is scheduled to open May 20th, and its producer has a great write-up about how the show’s evolved.
Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai on Writing with Empathy
Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai discusses her debut novel, The Mountains Sing, which follows four generations of a Vietnamese family.
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Portrait Book Documentary
Years ago, we wrote about La Porte, Indiana, a nifty book with a connection to Found Magazine chronicling a cache of found photographs from a small town. Now the book is being made into a documentary.
Apocalypse Patriots
In The New Statesman, Ben Marcus wonders why American writers are so obsessed with the apocalypse. (A sentiment a few others have wondered of late, too.)