LitHub Daily: October 6, 2016

• On envy, the internet, and Diana Ross: Jami Attenberg and Maria Semple in conversation. | Literary Hub
• A first look at the cover for Mohsin Hamid’s Exit West, and his conversation with John Freeman about “the first post-Brexit novel.” | Literary Hub
• War in translation: Lina Mounzer on the urgency of giving voice to the women of Syria. | Literary Hub
• How bad writing destroyed the world: on the origin of Ayn Rand’s thinking, and a Manchurian economist named Greenspan. | Literary Hub
• In which the great Jan Morris plays old records for Paul Holdengraber and whistles along. | Literary Hub
• The 2016 National Book Award finalists have been announced, including Chris Bachelder, Karan Mahajan, and Jacqueline Woodson in fiction; Ibram X. Kendi, Viet Thanh Nguyen, and Heather Ann Thompson in nonfiction; and Rita Dove, Jay Hopler, and Solmas Sharif in poetry. | The New Yorker
• TNC & SJP: How two icons of their respective fields are forging new literary paths. | T Magazine
• When your loved one lives with someone who could kill her: Affinity Konar on grappling with her sister’s abusive relationship. | BuzzFeed Books
• “I didn’t write anything sexual until I started writing for publication, because you have to give the people what they want.” An interview with Nell Zink. | The Millions
• My First Real Affair: On Angela Carter’s time in Japan. | The Times Literary Supplement
• What we talk about when we talk about PTSD: Phil Klay on Donald Trump’s dismissal of veterans’ mental health. | Esquire
• Leigh Stein on workshopping, LiveJournal, and how her parents reacted to her memoir. | Vela Magazine
• They all knew he would leave her anyway: A short story by Fatima Bhutto. | Zyzzyva
• “In a twist of fate, it is the internet—the very thing that was supposed to wipe them out—that is helping these small stores.”  How a new online model is helping independent bookstores thrive. | The New York Times

Also on Literary Hub: Virtual reality is in desperate need of real storytellers · Teressa Raiford: My journey to activism and Black Lives Matter · We’re going to be fucking okay: From Deni Ellis Béchard’s Into the Sun