THE BEST OF THE LITERARY INTERNET

TODAY: In 1896, Chekhov’s The Seagull premiers in St. Petersburg and flops, prompting him to declare, “Not if I live to be seven hundred will I write another play.”

• Is it or isn’t it? James Folta considers how generative AI is poisoning the literary well for everyone. | Lit Hub Technology
• “The embodied realm is eager for inquiry, if one is willing and interested.” Emily Hyland praises the poetics of physicality. | Lit Hub Craft
• You’ve heard of cottagecore, but what about bogcore? Anna North introduces you to the genre via work by Annie Proulx, Kay Chronister, Seamus Heaney and more. | Lit Hub Criticism
• Bringing the New York School to middle school: Why Frank O’Hara is the perfect way to introduce poetry to tweens. | Lit Hub Poetry
• “It may be easier to reduce a nonfiction book to its takeaways than it is for a novel. But to treat the genre in this way diminishes both its literariness and its political efficacy.” Tajja Isen on the publishing industry’s nonfiction blunders. | The Walrus
• Yiyun Li praises the “infinite genius” of Anne Carson. | The Guardian
• Publishing workers discuss the spread of AI use within the industry. | Wired
• “I have waited for much of my adult life for (straight) men to start a liberation movement akin to feminism, one that would publicly reject the conformity, repression, and aggression that define [this] kind of masculinity.” Rebecca Solnit enters the Manosphere. | The Nation
• Most readers can’t reliably spot AI writing, and, Colin Horgan argues, their attempts to do so are “turning writer and reader into adversaries.” | The Walrus
• Snigdha Poonam investigates the wild (and profitable) world of literary AI scams. | The Dial
• Emma Copley Eisenberg on the art of the sex scene in the age of Ozempic. | Harper’s Bazaar
• On the forgotten gay advice columnist Jeanne C. Barney. | Los Angeles Review of Books
• “I think that is my aspiration—not to write historical novels or autobiographical novels but to write to carry the past, and to bring its figures as close to the present as possible.” Yiyun Li on encountering the past in writing Music Against the Night. | The New Yorker
• How in the 1830s, a 13-year-old Edward Everett Hale and his brother dreamed up the GPS. | The MIT Press Reader
• Why can’t Sally Rooney’s books be sold in the U.K.? Imogen West-Knights breaks it down. | Slate
• Brooke Palmieri explores the history of queer arcana through art. | Los Angeles Review of Books

Also on Lit Hub:

Adam Johnson talks to Amitav Ghosh about The Wayfinder • How the genocide in Gaza has changed the Middle East • Authors take the Lit Hub Questionnaire • These seven literary ghosts could be haunting you • Josefine Kals remembers Stephen Dixon • Bonnie Garmus, author of Peck & Peck, talks to Jane Ciabattari • How newspapers helped democratize knowledge  • Oksana Lutsyshyna recommends essential Ukrainian literature • On forming a relationship with a rescue racoon • Why is rent so high? Algorithms • On medieval European witch hunts • Al Sharpton remembers his mentor, Jesse Jackson • The case against painting your walls white • Why are publishers suing big tech but embracing AI? • On gun violence and how we learn to protect ourselves • What’s on David Naimon’s TBR? • 5 book reviews you need to read this week • This week’s Independent Press Top 40 Bestsellers for fiction and nonfiction • A novel birthed among the superyachts in Monaco • Jonathan Cheng recommends books on North Korea’s cult of personality • Meet Biddy Mason, the Black  woman who helped build Los Angeles • Read “Cruise Control,” a new poem by Eric Amling • What do three new movies reveal about how we view poets? • What cooking and care meant to Melissa King • Fucking up a notebook to write a novel • The best reviewed books of the week • How Jean-Pierre and Eliane Laffont documented American counterculture • Five essential books to understand the Venetian ghetto and Jewish history • Peter Brown on what makes a great read-aloud book • How “The Rev” Al Sharpton shaped a justice narrative • Why writing helped E. L. Shen understand her assassinated ancestor • Why we need to preserve boglands and peatlands • Despite the stereotypes, rural life means something different for everyone