At LitHub, Eddie S. Glaude Jr. writes about James Baldwin’s Nothing Personal, in an afterword to a new stand-alone edition of the 1964 Baldwin essay: “The reader gets a sense of the depth of his despair and his desperate hold on to the power of love in what is, by any measure, a loveless world—especially in a country so obsessed with money.” For more Glaude on Baldwin, read this interview with the author in the Fall 2020 issue of Bookforum.
In an open letter sent to The Bookseller, a group of publishing-industry professionals in the UK condemn transphobia in the literary world: “Here we stand together, a group of writers, illustrators, booksellers and publishers, to make a start and say what others dare not say or can’t quite articulate. At this moment what needs to be expressed most urgently is the distinction between a petty anxiety and the horror that rises when you become aware that you are witnessing a persecution.”
Cathy Park Hong’s Minor Feelings is being adapted into a series by Greta Lee, who will write, star in, and executive produce the show.
In Harper’s Bazaar, a feature on the home of poet Lucille Clifton. The Clifton family lost the house to foreclosure in 1980, but, in 2019, Sidney Clifton, the poet’s eldest daughter, bought it back and has turned it into a writers’ retreat.
Electric Literature is looking for an editor in chief.
In the new issue of The Baffler, Sarah Jaffe writes about the work of caring, and the ways in which the pandemic has made old disparities ever-more clear. Offering a vision for the future, Jaffe writes: “We need to refuse the privatization of grief and stress and pain and loneliness and, most of all, the privatization of care. Respect for our fellow workers, like schoolteachers, who have shouldered the burdens of care, and a wage of a sort for all childcare, are baby steps toward something better.”