TODAY: In 1898, Brazilian poet, novelist, and short story writer Rui Ribeiro Couto is born. 

• Karen Russell on “what truths come to light, what injustices and possibilities are laid bare” in the wake of a natural disaster. | Lit Hub In Conversation
• “Brevity is the soul of politeness. In an industry that traffics in words, it can feel like rudeness.” Sloane Crosley on the art of saying “no.” | Lit Hub Humor
• How to incorporate time travel into a writing process (or rewriting a novel after a decade of distance). | Lit Hub Craft
• Helen Nde recommends books for understanding African folklore by Isidore Okpewho, Ruth Finnegan, Ibrahim Al-Koni, and more. | Lit Hub Reading Lists
• “To be a hypochondriac is to assign the most important place in one’s life to something that no one else believes is real.” Will Rees on Franz Kafka’s health anxiety and a writer’s calling.  | Lit Hub Biography
• “The pretty stuff you’re made of / Will crack and crease and dry.” Read two (very mean!) poems by Dorothy Parker. | Lit Hub Poetry
• Christopher Summerfield on the practical and ethical ramifications of AI weapons. | Lit Hub Technology
• “The next curve is a tricky one. Too much pressure on the gas and the van could tip.” Read from Jared Lemus’ story collection, Guatemalan Rhapsody. | Lit Hub Fiction
• Delia Cai talks to Japanese Breakfast frontwoman and Crying in H Mart author Michelle Zauner about success, pressure, and trying not to read YouTube comments. | Vulture
• “Like many people, I imagined that smugglers were rich, were bad, that everybody hates them: all these really simplistic kinds of things.” Jason De León on telling the stories of human smugglers. | Public Books
• Robert Pollins examines Noam Chomsky’s contributions to climate justice. | Jacobin
• “Universities must recognize how anti-Palestinian racism threatens all of us.” Dima Khalidi considers the far-reaching implications of Mahmoun Khalil’s abduction. | The Nation
• Isabella Hammad on reading Etel Adnan amid a genocide. | The Yale Review
• Kelly Marie Coyne revisits Toni Morrison’s Sula and considers autonomy, female friendship, and “outlaw women.” | Los Angeles Review of Books

Article continues after advertisement