Lit Hub Daily: August 9, 2019

• “The phrase ‘common-or-garden dick’ in a medieval poem? Yes, please.” On the gleefully indecent verse of the Medieval Welsh feminist poet Gwerful Mechain. | Lit Hub
• For the anxious historical fiction writer, Caitlin Horrocks offers some permissions for writing into the past. | Lit Hub
• “Misanthropy always goes down better with a sense of humor.” Eleven famous writers on the genius and influence of Shirley Jackson. | Lit Hub
• “As a writer, some of the shittiest jobs I’d had turned out to be the greatest gifts.” Jason Allen on the virtues of putting your characters to work. | Lit Hub
• “Stories aren’t contained by pages.” A reading list of fictional characters coming to life. | Lit Hub
• Bhakti Shringarpure on the surreal, virtual worlds of Palestinian science fiction. | Lit Hub
• New titles from Jia Tolentino, Ruth Ware, Jess Row, and more all feature among the Best Reviewed Books of the Week. | Book Marks
• Dorothy B. Hughes, born 115 years ago tomorrow, has some thoughts for your Friday morning: “Liquor is such a nice substitute for facing adult life.” | CrimeReads
• Jordy Rosenberg writes a love letter to Samuel Delany, whose “prismatic output is among the most significant, immense and innovative in American letters.” | The New York Times
• “How does this story pull you in, engage, and give you pleasure?” Ira Glass on narrative storytelling and what he learned from Roland Barthes. | NYRB
• What sparks joy in Marie Kondo’s writing space? Crystals, a golf pencil, pictures of her kids. | Variety
• Happy Friday—here are some free books! Jenny Offil, Jasmine Guillory, and more recommend “surprisingly fresh” public domain books. | Lifehacker
• “I felt urged on by an absence. Trying to fill a void.” Kara Walker on her visual tribute to Toni Morrison. | The New Yorker
• “This book is still possibly the best place to encounter Gandhi. It contains, vividly, the record of a man working things out for himself”: A critical dive into the new translation of Gandhi’s Autobiography or the Story of My Experiments with Truth. | LARB
• On Bill Berkson’s A Frank O’Hara Notebook, which lifts the veil off the mythologized 1960s in Manhattan—and offers a stirring portrait of O’Hara himself. | SF Gate

Also on Lit Hub: “Boy Crazy,” a poem by Carmen Giménez Smith • How romanticizing Mount Everest misses the real story • Read from Sarah Strindsberg’s novel Valerie (tr. Deborah Bragan-Turner).