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Last week in Los Angeles, the author Roxane Gay gave the keynote address at the AWP Conference & Bookfair, the U.S.’s largest annual gathering of creative writers. Much of Gay’s speech focused on what she called “the abhorrent path that this country is on,” but the evening began with a tentative note of optimism: A board member for the Association of Writers & Writing Programs announced that the fair had registered 10,000 guests for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic began. As she exhorted the audience to celebrate, one woman behind me said, “Before they make it illegal.”
First, here are four new stories from The Atlantic’s books section:
The friendly heckler was not being entirely hyperbolic. This group of professors, students, and MFA-program directors have plenty of reason to worry: According to…