The Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize shortlist has been announced. The nominees include Anuk Arudpragasam, Brandon Taylor, Patricia Lockwood, and more. You can hear Arudpragasam discuss the nominated book, A Passage North, with Megha Majumdar as part of Bookforum’s “No Wrong Answers” video series.
The New York Review of Books has just published its spring books issue, with Merve Emre on Elizabeth Hardwick, Nicole Rudick on Sarah Manguso, Jackson Lears on Samuel Moyn, and more.
In the New York Times, Alex Vadukul profiles Matthew Gasda, the playwright behind the underground hit Dimes Square, and the forthcoming Minotaur.
In The Baffler, Andrew Schenker writes about David Shields, whose new book, The Very Last Interview, compiles interview questions that Shields has been asked over the years. Schenker observes, “The project is in many ways a satisfying career retrospective, but what’s most notable about the book is just how relentlessly hostile the interviewers are to their subject.”
On Twitter, FT takes a deep dive into the New Yorker’s profile of Duke University Press editor Ken Wissoker, in a thread that covers the history of the Duke English department, the financial imperatives behind the academic star system, and how theory crosses over into wider culture. FT also recently translated Sigmund Freud’s 1932 letter to Albert Einstein, Why War?, which you can get at Datura Press.
LitHub rounds up five must-read book reviews this week, including Megan Milks on Melissa Febos, Sophie Haigney on Jennifer Egan, and more.