TODAY: In 1850, Kate Chopin is born. 

• “The Aubrey/Maturin series is not only a military-historical epic but also—I would even say primarily—a work of domestic fantasy.” Olivia Wolfgang-Smith explores Master and Commander’s queer subtext. | Lit Hub Criticism
• Josh Cook on preserving the independence of our bookstores and libraries: “A just world starves fascism of the nutrients it needs to thrive.” | Lit Hub Bookstores and Libraries
• The making of an anti-woke zealot: How (shadow president) Elon Musk was infected with the MAGA mind-virus. | Lit Hub Politics
• Grace Tiffany recommends literary works that radically reimagine Shakespeare, including books by David Wroblewski, Dorothy Dunnett, Richard Adams, and more. | Lit Hub Reading Lists
• Lucy Sante on the life and work of photographer Larry Fink. | New York Review of Books
• “That my book had ended up in the lap of the very thing I was investigating was stunning to me, but few others seemed surprised.” Justin Nobel on searching for Simon & Schuster’s radioactive oil waste. | Harper’s
• Faith Lawrence on Rilke and the art of listening: “The idea that listening might be a gateway to a kind of transcendence is echoed in a ‘sound’ reverie that Rilke presents alongside his school story.” | Aeon 
• “Sally Rooney seems to ignore three decades of queer theory and crip theory…” On the ableism that drives the plot of Intermezzo. | Disability Visibility Project
• “The Dispossessed is a running political conversation.” Jonathan Bolton reads Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Dispossessed at 50. | Los Angeles Review of Books
• Friends and colleagues remember Jules Feiffer. | The Comics Journal
• “People are not incorrect about Octavia Butler predicting the future, but they’re not always clear about what kind of future she was envisioning.” Hanif Abdurraqib on Octavia Butler, the L.A. fires, and the end of the world. | The New Yorker
• If your public library uses Hoopla to manage its digital collection, you (and your librarians) may need to be on the lookout for AI slush. | 404 Media
• André Nafis-Sahely considers new collections by Frank X. Walker and E. Hughes, and “the power of documentary poetry to place us inside the minds and hearts of real individuals long since anonymized by history.” | Poetry
• Grayson Scott talks to Bruce Robbins: “The recognition of atrocity is not just unambiguous moral improvement.” | The Baffler
• How Leslie Frances Silberberg (as Leslie F. Stone) became one of the first women to publish sci-fi pulp. | JSTOR Daily
• On the Broadway costume designer behind Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, and Cabaret. | The Guardian
• “What did he carry on that day that we could and could not see? How can there be an elegy without clearly discernible loss?” Kimberly Juanita Brown considers Marvin Gaye’s 1983 performance of the national anthem. | The MIT Press Reader
• “Above all I love her love of children’s language to the extent of dare—try if you can.” Jamieson Webster on Margaret Wise Brown and the noises of children’s books. | The Paris Review
• Three Columbia graduate students are suing the university for discriminatory treatment of Palestinian students and their allies. | The Nation

Also on Lit Hub:

Paul Schrader’s auteur-to-edge lord trajectory • Caroline Carlson recommends 10 new children’s books • Read “Postpositivity in Spring,” a poem by Oli Hazzard • Christopher Spaide recommends new poetry collections • Tom Lamont reflects on novels about unconventional families • Hibernate with new SFF this month • Allegra Goodman on the power of audiobooks • Sarah Chihaya on bibliophobia • Candy and instant gratification • Rahul Bery reflects on translating Michel Nieva’s Dengue Boy • How shared Southern roots brought Charles W. Chesnutt and Walter Hines Page together • Displacement and belonging in Claude McKay’s Home to Harlem • Jessica Soffer recommends essential love stories • Shigehiro Oishi on practices that lead to a meaningful life • How the destruction of Gaza and the destruction of the planet go hand in hand • Why we shouldn’t give up our humanity to AI • 5 book reviews you need to read this week • Are you the asshole if you’re not sure any of this even matters? •  Pádraig Ó Tuama on Patricia Smith • Tyson Yunkaporta on the value of building a communal life in an atomized world • What’s Sarah Chihaya reading? • How Fridtjof Nansen reached the North Pole • Paul Morton remembers master cartoonist Jules Feiffer • The rise of an iconic but short-lived literary journal: the transatlantic review • Translation, imperialism, and being caught between languages • The best reviewed books of the week • Josephine Baker recounts her first rainy days in Paris • What can chatbots teach us about ourselves? • Sarah Viren talks to Lauren Markham