TODAY: In 1922, Franz Kafka begins work on his novel The Castle at the mountain resort of Spindlermühle, ceasing mid-sentence around early September.
- “Just as part of Jack will always remain at the Overlook, my shadow is still part of me.” Maggie Su on writing and self-loathing in The Shining. | Lit Hub Film
- Fariha Róisín chronicles what happened when the Albany Book Festival vilified two pro-Palestinian writers. | Lit Hub Politics
- Joel Cuthbertson on why Severance’s success is tied to its realism: “…the best stories are obsessed with reality, with getting some part of our world into the work in a way that surprises, confronts, offends, or distills our understanding.” | Lit Hub TV
- “Marxism is an ideology for economists, but anarchism is for poets—a rhetoric that’s thundering and denunciatory, excoriating and profane.” Ed Simon considers the life Alexander Berkman, anarchist, would-be assassin, and 19th-century Luigi Mangione. | Lit Hub Politics
- Mary Childs recounts the experience of trying (and failing) to design her own book cover. | Lit Hub Design
- Jay Nicorvo on the roles of truth, perception, and narrative while writing a true crime memoir. | Lit Hub Craft
- “Then suddenly the air shows ceased, just like we were no longer allowed to call our teachers “Comrade!” Everything was repackaged.” Read from Maša Kolanovic’s novel Underground Barbie, translated by Ena Selimovic. | Lit Hub Fiction
- On Renee Gladman, Constance Debré, and more writers ushering in a new era of lesbian fiction. | The Walrus
- “My point here isn’t to rehash what happened on October 7. It is to demonstrate the lockstep rigidity of the mainstream US media when it comes to covering Palestine.” Saree Makdisi on the ceasefire in Gaza. | n+1
- Colm Tóibín considers the “rich, varied and adventurous” sex lives of John Broderick’s characters. | The Paris Review
- “Maybe it was a little unfair to choose my correspondent based on a drawing.” Francesca Mastruzzo on corresponding with political prisoners in Russia. | The Dial
- “In truth, despite seeming to celebrate the ’50s world of his childhood, Lynch offered a powerful critique of late modernity and postwar prosperity.” On David Lynch and the Atomic Age. | Jacobin
- Good news! An anonymous developer wrote a program to trap AI training bots. | 404 Media
