News from Around the Web
- The Immigrant Photographers Who Shaped a Nation’s Imageby H.M.A. Leow on April 17, 2026 at 1:32 pm
In early twentieth-century Indonesia, Chinese-run studios brought modernity into focus. The post The Immigrant Photographers Who Shaped a Nation’s Image appeared first on JSTOR Daily.
- One great poem to read today: Robert Hayden’s “Those Winter Sundays”by Jonny Diamond on April 17, 2026 at 1:18 pm
This April marks the 30th iteration of National Poetry Month, which was launched by the Academy of American Poets in April 1996. To celebrate, the Literary Hub staff will be recommending one great poem to read every (work) day of
- What is the Best Literary Film Adaptation of the Last 50 Years? Day Fiveby Literary Hub on April 17, 2026 at 12:26 pm
Sixty down, and four remain after yesterday’s voting, and it seems like Lit Hub’s bracket voters have a taste for epics. Each of the final movies are big and high stakes: set in far-off lands, war zones, and the violent
- Lit Hub Daily: April 17, 2026by Lit Hub Daily on April 17, 2026 at 10:30 am
Four films remain in our Best Literary Adaptations bracket! Want to push your favorites to the finals? Get voting. | Lit Hub Was Rasputin a fraud? A mystic? A womanizer? A prophet. Whatever he was, he changed history. | Lit
- The Influencers Normalizing Not Having Sexby Skye Battles on April 17, 2026 at 10:30 am
From a celibate porn star to an asexual ex-Mormon, the internet is full of people who are abstaining from sex—and it’s not just incels.
- What Should You Read Next? Here Are the Best Reviewed Books of the Weekby Book Marks on April 17, 2026 at 10:20 am
Maria Semple’s Go Gentle, Gwendoline Riley’s The Palm House, Antony Beevor’s Rasputin, and Lena Dunham’s Famesick all feature among the best reviewed books of the week. Brought to you by Book Marks, Lit Hub’s home for book reviews. * Fiction 1.
- Ramona Ausubel’s Favorite Exercise for Getting Unstuckby Ramona Ausubel on April 17, 2026 at 8:59 am
This first appeared in Lit Hub’s Craft of Writing newsletter—sign up here. When I read a finished book or story, I have the pleasure of seeing the writer’s logic, the way the puzzle pieces all fit together. To write a story or
- Rasputin: Fraud, Mystic, Womanizer, Prophet… Or All of the Above?by Antony Beevor on April 17, 2026 at 8:59 am
“This man was unique,” a famous Russian writer observed of Rasputin. “One of a kind, like a character out of a novel, he lived in legend, he died in legend, and his memory is cloaked in legend.” Nadezhda Lokhbiskaya, known
- On the Dark Arts of Writing Dangerously (and Marriage, and Life in L.A.)by Luke Goebel on April 17, 2026 at 8:59 am
L.A. gets rain. People don’t think of the rain in L.A. if they don’t live there. We get a lot in the winter, and the rain in Pasadena near the mountains comes down hard on our little paper-roof stone home
- What’s In a Name? Leise Hook on What Her American and Chinese Names Reveal About Herselfby Leise Hook on April 17, 2026 at 8:58 am
The following is from Names and Faces: A Graphic Memoir by Leise Hook. __________________________________ From Names and Faces: A Graphic Memoir by Leise Hook. Copyright © 2026. Available
- God Bless the Pill: Meet the Devout Catholic Who Invented Oral Contraceptionby Samira K. Mehta on April 17, 2026 at 8:58 am
Amidst the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the first oral contraceptive in 1960, an ongoing—if surprising—conversation emerged within the Catholic Church about the morality of birth control. Granted, the institutional Church did not endorse contraception; and American Catholic leadership
- The Annotated Nightstand: What Rachel Khong is Reading Now, And Nextby Diana Arterian on April 17, 2026 at 8:57 am
Just as an acclaimed prose writer/musician/actor isn’t necessarily a strong poet, the leap between novel and short story can be quantum. While both are creative gestures of fiction, the size invariably defines its shape (I say this as a deep
- William Hodges and the Art of Empireby Jonathan Aprea on April 16, 2026 at 1:22 pm
How a traveling landscape painter helped create a homogeneous vision of the British Empire. The post William Hodges and the Art of Empire appeared first on JSTOR Daily.
- MAGA Indians Went All In on Trump. Many Right-Wingers Can’t Stand Themby Ashwin Rodrigues on April 16, 2026 at 10:00 am
South Asians are a powerful, visible minority in the Trump administration. They’re also facing a racist backlash, fueled in part by the white nationalist Groyper movement.
- ‘Avatar: Aang, The Last Airbender’ Leaked Online. Some Fans Say Paramount Deserves the Falloutby Miles Klee on April 15, 2026 at 10:53 pm
After the full movie leaked, animators mourned the chance to release their work as intended. Others feel the leak is justified in light of Paramount’s marketing blunders and association with Trump.
- The Golden Age of the American Soapboxby Jonathan Aprea on April 15, 2026 at 1:33 pm
Across the country, impromptu speakers drew crowds and arrests alike, turning public oratory into a defining feature of civic life. The post The Golden Age of the American Soapbox appeared first on JSTOR Daily.
- X’s Big Bot Purge Wiped Out a Lot of People’s Secret Porn Feedsby Jason Parham on April 15, 2026 at 10:30 am
The platform’s large-scale crackdown on automated accounts is also impacting people who’ve spent years curating niche porn on secret X accounts.
- The 10 Best TV Shows to Stream This Month (April 2026)by Jennifer M. Wood on April 14, 2026 at 8:59 pm
The Boys, The Testaments, and Stranger Things: Tales From ’85 are just a few of the TV shows we’re bingeing this month.
- I Watched 18 Hours of Coachella’s Vertical Livestream and All I Got Was This Lousy FOMOby Boone Ashworth on April 14, 2026 at 5:52 pm
Coachella—and everyone else—is making a big vertical video play. So I watched an entire weekend’s worth of sets only on my phone.
- 13 Things I Found on the Internet (Vol. 770)by MessyNessy on April 14, 2026 at 3:50 pm
1. Crazy about these Mixed Media Collages Find the designer Anton Elfilter here. Found via Moss & Fog. 2.



















