TODAY: In 1838, naturalist, author, environmental philosopher John Muir is born.
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“Perhaps my sisters would say that my sojourn in Kansas and Missouri, and then all the way to Massachusetts to visit my dead husband’s family, chastened me.” Read from Jane Smiley’s new novel, Lidie. | Lit Hub Fiction
DARKLY FUNNY AND PROFOUNDLY MOVING
Patrick Cottrell’s long-awaited second novel—an existential noir, an absurd comedy, a complex character study, and a heartbreaking inquiry into the paradox of identity, memory, and the very enterprise of writing fiction.
A dual-timeline debut set in an English country manor. An ambitious professor discovers the long-lost manuscript of a Reformation-era prophetess. Crackling with the voices of the past and propelled by a suspenseful mystery.
Several of John Keats’s love letters to Fanny Brawne have been returned four decadesafter they were stolen. | The Guardian
“As with any community, isolated to pursue their own purposes, there is trouble related to that isolation.”On Carlos Reygadas, Miriam Toews,and Mennonites in Mexico. | Dirt
The Carol Shields Prize for Fiction celebrates outstanding fiction by women and non-binary writers. Congratulations to the five shortlisted writers: Julia Elliott,