“If the material for Proust’s seven-volume novel were said to have sprung from savoring a single madeleine dipped in tea, perhaps aspic is memory held in abeyance, trapped in jelly.” Aditi Machado on what cooking can teach writers and translators. | Lit Hub Criticism
James Ivory looks back on a 1940s queer coming-of-age amid repression and longing in Palm Springs. | Lit Hub Memoir
Matthew Lockwood shares the stories of early travelers from across the globe (who should probably be more famous). | Lit Hub History
“Everything genuine reminds me of you, Heba.” Somaia Abu Nada remembers her sister, Palestinian poet and novelist Heba Abu Nada. | Lit Hub Memoir
Rob Goyanes talks to Christopher Forgues about the elements of his creative process: “One of the hardest things about comics is being beholden to the page. It all has to happen there.” | Lit Hub In Conversation
Cundill Prize finalist Dylan C. Penningroth recommends seven essential texts on Black legal history by Patricia J. Williams, Laura F. Edwards, Charles M. Payne, and more. | Lit Hub Reading Lists
Jody Eddy visits the 12th-century Cistercian Monastery of Poblet (and tries the paella). | Lit Hub Food
“do not go together, no. / We walk to the restaurant, then he slips his ring off to work with his hands— / mixing dampened flour he’ll later shape and leave to proof.” Read “Wedding Rings and Sourdough,” a poem by Emily Hyland. | Lit Hub Poetry
“The girl, over those days, ate without a fuss.” Read from Alia Trabucco Zerán’s novel Clean, translated by Sophie Hughes. | Lit Hub Fiction