TODAY: In 1932, Sylvia Plath is born. On her birthday, 30 years later, she writes the poem “Ariel.”
- Celebrate 20 years of The Silver Spoon with a Pizza Margherita recipe fit for a queen. | Lit Hub Food
- You probably remember FarmVille, but do you remember the wannabe pop star whose FarmVille-inspired Ponzi scheme managed to pocket $250 million? | Lit Hub Biography
- Nikki Van De Car considers the kobold, an unclassifiable household creature of fantasy: “They don’t like whistling and will throw handfuls of small rocks at you if you do so absentmindedly.” | Lit Hub History
- “But now, instead, there would be tea for the people streaming in to pay their respects.” Ann Tashi Slater on the rituals of her grandmother‘s Tibetan Buddhist funeral. | Lit Hub Memoir
- Cundill Prize finalist Sophia Rosenfeld recommends essential books for understanding choice by Lorraine Daston, Alain Corbin, Sarah Igo and more. | Lit Hub Reading Lists
- On Richard Carrington, the 19th century scientist who made the connection between solar storms and life on Earth. | Lit Hub Science
- “I’m back at it—on my phone in the night, scrolling through our local Buy Nothing group, where many “gifts” are on offer…” Read from Catherine Newman’s new novel, Wreck. | Lit Hub Fiction
- Thanks to a novelist, a playwright, and some resourcefulness, the mystery of Jim Sanborn’s sculpture Kryptos has (accidentally) been solved. | Wired
- “The scenario was incoherent. Yet it could not have happened differently on this earth. If it could have it would have.” Joy Williams on the last days of Gene Hackman. | Harper’s
- What can be done about the literacy crisis? Johanna Winant and Dan Sinykin weigh in: “Give them Hamlet. Give them My Antonía. Give them Sense and Sensibility. Give them Song of Solomon. Give them these books—unabridged!—time to read them, and space to confront difficulties.” | Slate
- Surekha Davies examines the history of positioning humans as monsters. | Aeon
- How Jan Kerouac’s Baby Driver details “the kind of hardscrabble life her father contrived for literary reasons.” | The Paris Review
