Lit Hub Daily: June 20, 2019

• “I do not know why or how, but I need your love, in the truth of it, the gentleness of it, the Godliness of it.” On Anne Sexton’s epistolary love affair with a monk. | Lit Hub
• Boring. Immoral. Too many quips. On the anniversary of its publication, 50 one-star Amazon reviews of The Picture of Dorian Gray. | Lit Hub
• Why does losing a pet hurt so much? Jacky Colliss Harvey on our very human grieving of animal companions. | Lit Hub
• In case you didn’t have enough hypothetical apocalypses to fear: here’s how humanity would fare in the event of an asteroid collision. | Lit Hub
• “Envy is just a human thang, not a sin or a sickness.” On envy, jealousy, and what they add to our lives. | Lit Hub
• Tinder meets Greek tragedy in Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s debut novel, Neil Gaiman’s tribute to Gene Wolfe, and more of the Book Reviews You Need to Read This Week. | Book Marks
• Sally Rooney’s Normal People: hyper flat and emotionally distant OR page-turning and perfectly true? | Book Marks
• Ryan Jacobs investigates the shady underworld of truffle dealing. | CrimeReads
• With her appointment as the 23rd Poet Laureate of the United States, Joy Harjo has become the first Native American (and first Oklahoman) to hold the position. | Tulsa World
• Leila Slimani’s The Perfect Nanny, the novel that made her the first Moroccan woman to win the Goncourt Prize in France, is set to be adapted for film. | Morocco World News
• “I recommend observing the occasion at home, or on vacation.” Some suggestions for celebrating Walt Whitman’s 200th birthday. | The New Yorker
• The massive collection of Paul Destribats, “one of the greatest book collectors of his generation,” which focuses on the surrealist and the avant-garde, is going up for auction. | Christie’s
• “I viewed it more as a tragedy, as we see in literature. There were certain forces acting on these characters, who found themselves in this unlikely, heartbreaking story.” Rebecca Godfrey on writing Under The Bridge. | The Believer
• “We’ve only just begun to recognize Lorraine Hansberry . . . as a queer, boundary-pushing experimentalist.” Why we’re still looking for Lorraine Hansberry. | The Point
• Read Ta-Nehisi Coates’ rebuke of Mitch McConnell and case for reparations, from his testimony at Wednesday’s Congressional hearing. | Slate

Also on Lit Hub: “I wanted the reader to undertake a descent into the darkness.” Robert Macfarlane talks to Paul Holdengraber on A Phone Call From Paul • On The Maris Review, Mona Awad on horryfying cuteness and MFA groupthink • Highlights from the LGBTQ+ books and art sale at Swann Galleries • A poem by Tina Chang from the collection The Kiss: Intimacies from Writers • Read an excerpt from Jean-Philippe Blondel’s new novel Exposed.