GrubWrites

Best of the Web 07/10/17

Twice a month, we feature our favorite literary links. As ever, we promise: You’ll laugh. You'll ponder. You won’t get any writing done.

In the Huffington Post, Poet and teacher Tara Skurtu isn't sure creative writing can be taught. But she does think teachers can make a space for students to see "beyond their conscious and unconscious limits."

"On the Impossibility of Teaching Creative Writing."

On the Ploughshares blog, GrubStreet instructor and music journalist Candice McDuffie pushes back at Zadie Smith's Harper's essay on who gets to represent black pain.

"Where Zadie Smith’s 'Getting In and Out' Misses the Mark."

On PBS, poet Clint Smith (who we were lucky enough to interview last year) gives us a "Brief But Spectacular" take on the history of racial inequality in the U.S.

"Why We Shouldn't Forget that U.S. Presidents Owned Slaves."

In the Boston Review, Junot Díaz interviewed Margret Atwood. Repeat: JUNOT DÍAZ, CHATTING WITH MARGARET ATWOOD! They talk about dystopias, the current relevance of The Handmaid's Tale, and Drake. Needless to say, it's a must-read.

"Make Margaret Atwood Fiction Again."

In Granta, Toni Morrison on whiteness and the art of writing about sex.

"Toni Morrison in Conversation."

The Guardian covers new exhibition of the life and works of poet Phillip Larkin that "doesn't shy away from the complex, darker sides of Larkin's personality.

"Philip Larkin exhibition in Hull offers fresh insights into poet's life."