Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

ankur thakkar @ankurthakkar.com · 16d

sheila heti definitely knows what plot is

ankur thakkar @ankurthakkar.com · Jul 1

happy pub day to @maris.bsky.social electricliterature.com/maris-kreizm...

Maris Kreizman Finds Hope in Radicalization - Electric Literature

The author of "I Want to Burn This Place Down" on how it's community—not government—that will save us

electricliterature.com

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ankur thakkar @ankurthakkar.com · Jun 18

the harshest words in any review

ankur thakkar @ankurthakkar.com · Jun 17

hazlitt.net/feature/freq... @melissafebos.bsky.social

Frequency Illusion | Hazlitt

Love was not a drink, and my pursuit of it did not fit perfectly into the rubric of addiction, but it had taken me.

hazlitt.net

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ankur thakkar @ankurthakkar.com · Jun 5

there is no one more uninteresting than james frey

ankur thakkar @ankurthakkar.com · May 22

Why the world still hasn't caught up to Edward Said. lithub.com/hari-kunzru-... @harikunzru.bsky.social @literaryhub.bsky.social

Hari Kunzru Reflects on Edward Said’s Culture and Imperialism Thirty Years After Publication

When Edward Said’s book, Orientalism, was published in 1978, it became an instant landmark of scholarship about the European imagination of “the East.” The construction of an alternate world of pas…

lithub.com

ankur thakkar @ankurthakkar.com · May 21

I love the real world

Rebecca Makkai @rebeccamakkai.bsky.social · May 21

I made you a REAL summer reading list of fifteen REAL books by REAL authors— books that might not be on your radar. Some old, some newer. Here it is.
rebeccamakkai.substack.com/p/fifteen-re...

ankur thakkar @ankurthakkar.com · May 21

a beautiful meditation on the screensaver www.theparisreview.org/blog/2025/05... @parisreview.bsky.social

Recurring Screens by Nora Claire Miller

May 20, 2025 – On retro screen savers, Bianca Rae Messinger’s pleasureis amiracle, and Grandma’s iMac.

www.theparisreview.org

ankur thakkar @ankurthakkar.com · May 13

excited for @maris.bsky.social's book launch! www.eventbrite.com/e/offsite-ma...

Offsite: Maris Kreizman: I Want to Burn This Place Down w/ Emma Straub

“A voice both familiar and full of verve.” —Patricia Lockwood, author of No One is Talking About This

www.eventbrite.com

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ankur thakkar @ankurthakkar.com · May 7

the NEA literary arts staff's letter in full: www.nplusonemag.com/online-only/...

A Message from the NEA’s Literary Arts Staff | The Editors

Thank you to the poets, the story writers, the novelists, the essayists, the memoirists for your words that have lifted us toward the light. You remind us to slow down and be awed, to feel that unique...

www.nplusonemag.com

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ankur thakkar @ankurthakkar.com · May 7

a cuck who will never know love

ankur thakkar @ankurthakkar.com · Apr 30

"I order a vanilla almond latte at a coffee cart in Brooklyn and look up at the red foliage of autumn trees. My tax dollars pay for the bombs that rain down on the other side of the world." @ariamisha.bsky.social www.publicbooks.org/aria-abers-d...

Aria Aber’s Defiant Love Letter to Berlin - Public Books

“The experiences of coming of age and coming into art—of finding your own voice and a vision for your craft—are spiritual and psychological journeys, and, for lack of a better word, universal.”

www.publicbooks.org

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ankur thakkar @ankurthakkar.com · Apr 29

I can’t wait

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ankur thakkar @ankurthakkar.com · Apr 9

Proud to call myself a qz alum

Zach Seward @zachseward.com · Apr 7

Quartz, the business news startup I worked on for a dozen years, through the height of digital media and the sector's crash, has fired all its writers and been sold to its fifth owner. So it felt like time to reflect. www.zachseward.com/what-was-qua...

What was Quartz?

2012–2025

www.zachseward.com

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Reposted by ankur thakkar

Olivia Hill @machineiv.bsky.social · Apr 3

The US economy's pronouns are was/were.

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ankur thakkar @ankurthakkar.com · Apr 3

Schumer: awful
Schumer's review: transcendent
thebaffler.com/latest/schum...

Schumer’s Warning | David Klion

What Chuck Schumer has to say about antisemitism is predictable and redundant.

thebaffler.com

ankur thakkar @ankurthakkar.com · Feb 26

next read: @alexhigley.bsky.social's anti-optimization manifesto www.zyzzyva.org/2025/02/25/o...

Optimizing Doesn't Equal Thriving: Q&A with Alex Higley – ZYZZYVA

It can be disorienting to read a novel as good as True Failure (Coffee House Press; 280 pages) is when its bold title archly gestures toward the opposite

www.zyzzyva.org

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ankur thakkar @ankurthakkar.com · Feb 24

the rise and fall of the klan a century ago is a beautiful lesson for us now dansinker.com/posts/2025-0...

What Felt Impossible Became Possible | dansinker.com

dansinker.com

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Reposted by ankur thakkar

Gorey Cask of Amontilladoing @coreybrickley.bsky.social · Feb 13

Stuck on a project? Imagine you are an insane willem dafoe character lost in the reverie of endless toil. Make impulsive and reckless decisions! Hum/sing/mumble incoherently to yourself! Find delight in the minute chaos of repetitive actions! Choose to kill a man for speaking in an ambiguous tone

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ankur thakkar @ankurthakkar.com · Feb 14

the short story that became Normal People www.thewhitereview.org/fiction/at-t...

At the Clinic - The White Review

At the Clinic by Sally Rooney, published in The White Review No. 18. The fictional debut of Marianne and Connell, before they appeared in Normal People.

www.thewhitereview.org

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ankur thakkar @ankurthakkar.com · Feb 8

the alt lit syllabus thepointmag.com/criticism/al...

Alt Lit | The Point Magazine

The thing that actually matters about a scene is the work it produces. So I decided to read the work.

thepointmag.com

Reposted by ankur thakkar

Hari Kunzru @harikunzru.bsky.social · Dec 31

A short thread on what I've done this year. In May my novel Blue Ruin was published. A kind of Covid pastoral, populated by art monsters ...

bookshop.org/p/books/blue...

Cover of Blue Ruin, black sans serif font, reflected in a kind of silvery mirror. A novel by Hari Kunzru, designed by John Gall, with a face emerging from clouds by Chad Wys.

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ankur thakkar @ankurthakkar.com · Feb 3

gordon lish's ideal state for imaginative writing

ankur thakkar @ankurthakkar.com · Jan 30

LOL

ankur thakkar @ankurthakkar.com · Jan 27

"[one] wishes more of our generation would simply just shut up and start literal cults, instead of unimaginatively shoehorning every impulse into a high-growth-potential brand." @deliacai.bsky.social www.deezlinks.com/p/holding-hu...

Holding human connection hostage

Unless you upgrade for a premium Friendship subscription!!

www.deezlinks.com

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