TODAY: In 1902, thousands attend the funeral of French novelist Émile Zola at the Cimetiere de Montmartre in Paris. 

• “It’s no surprise that contemporary Russian poems are rife with subtle allusions to other literature.” Forrest Gander on how two innovative Moscow poets, Nina Iskrenko and Alexander Yeremenko, mined the past to reveal the present. | Lit Hub Criticism
• “As Haitians fled for their lives during the 1991 coup they were intercepted by the US Coast Guard and sent to Guantanamo, where they could be held indefinitely under US control.” Steven W. Thrasher on American xenophobia and imperialism. | Lit Hub Politics
• On finding purpose and joy in raising sheep: “My existence had an aim and my incompleteness was ended. I let go of my sadness. It was a new-found freedom.” | Lit Hub Nature
• “I aligned with stories that were messy and vulnerable. Writers who were messy and vulnerable.” Betsy Lerner remembers working with writers who had demons to wrestle with. | Lit Hub Memoir
• Clayton Purdum explores the subgenre of “weird nonfiction,” or, nonfiction designed “with the intention of upsetting, disturbing, or confusing the audience.” | Los Angeles Review of Books
• “I wonder sometimes if I should go back to Florida at all, which may feel like betrayal but also a relief.” Jeff VanderMeer on the torturous decisions forced by hurricanes. | The New York Times
• Katie Knibbs considers the future of recording the web and the Internet Archive’s fight to save itself after publishing lawsuits. | Wired
• Boo! Is Marxism (un)dead? On the immortal ghost of Karl Marx. | Jacobin
• Kate Dwyer looks into the crisis of arts funding in the U.S., and the people trying to build a new creative economy. | Esquire
• Author and historian Rachel Louise Moran on an American history of postpartum depression. | The Baffler
• “I’m going to assume people have a lot of things pulling on their attention — how can I tell a story that they’ll stay with?” Camille Dungy talks to Christopher Outcalt about listening, revision, and building community. | Colorado State University
• Elisa Gonzales considers the freedoms and limits of autodidacticism. | The Point
• Read the October 2024 issue of Poetry, featuring Pegasus Award recipient Li-Young Lee and other poets you should know. | Poetry
• Susie Mesure on the Appalachian literature that’s truer than Hillbilly Elegy. | Prospect
• “Desert looking disconnects us from temporal expectations we’ve developed in an age of spectacle.” Forrest Gander considers the desert. | Orion
• “To me, Coates’s calm in the face of the anchor’s aggression and willful misinterpretation of his work reminded me of the Passover parable of the four sons.” Meredith Shiner on why attacks on Ta-Nehisi Coates demonstrate the failures of media. | The New Republic
• Garrett Bradley interviews an anonymous adherent of Parable of the Sower’s fictional faith, Earthseed. | Artforum
• Mary Turfah examines Israeli officials’ weaponization of language. | Los Angeles Review of Books
• How good of a writer is ChatGPT? It might depend on how it’s being used to write. | The New Yorker

Also on Lit Hub:

How pilsners and lagers became American staples • Some naughty British words that have entered the American lexicon • Read the winners of American Short Fiction’s 2024 Insider Prize • Lizza Aiken remembers Joan Aiken, her mother • How safety can hide wonder from us • Collective memory of authoritarian rule in Brazil • Pascha Sotolongo on loneliness, Latin American lit, and the fantastic • Remembering Turkish-American human rights activist Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi • Dionne Brand on appearance, coloniality and the creation of the self • 10 new children’s books that span the globe • Cornelia Powers grapples with the pressure of gamified reading • October’s new sci-fi and fantasy reads • How dreams about your teeth falling out connect humanity • Aaron Robertson recommends books that imagine Black utopias • New poetry collections by Jennifer Chang, Janice N. Harrington, and more • So, you want to read some horror? • On the power of graffiti in protest. • Are you the asshole if you think someone in your book club is an asshole? • What the Supreme Court could learn from Italian city-state Siena • 5 book reviews you need to read this week • On living between three languages • Why Austin, Texas is no longer weird • How chowder builds warm, cozy, delicious communities • Henry V and the battle for England’s throne • The (seemingly) sudden preponderance of romance bookstores • Kali Gross on slave owners’ sadism • What does “show, don’t tell” mean when you’re drawing a memoir? • The weaponization of antisemitism in the suppression of student protests • Ilyon Woo and Rachel Kousser on the power of a writing partnership • The best reviewed books of the week • Why activist video games tend to fall short •  Why British suffragettes went vegetarian for feminist resistance • A tarot deck can offer magical tips for stuck memoirists and essayists • The best audiobooks for October