Some things that caught our attention this week.

• Over at LitHub there’s a great roundtable with authors Rachel Howzell Hall, Bill Loehfelm, and Henry Chang on “What It’s Like to Write Crime Fiction in the Era of Black Lives Matter.” Bill Loehfelm: “I think that’s the place where artists come in—we need to keep putting the complications back into the argument.”

• Kirsten Dunst will direct a film adaptation of Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar, starring Dakota Fanning as Esther Greenwood.

• Donald Trump demands money from his former ghostwriter, Tony Schwartz. As we reported earlier in the week, the former ghostwriter for The Art of the Deal criticized Trump in The New Yorker.  Trump then sent his lawyer to demand Schwartz’s half of the book’s advance and all his royalties. Schwartz’s lawyer responded: “[Schwartz] will not be returning any of the advance or royalties from the book, and he has no intention of retracting any of his opinions about the character of the Republican nominee for the presidency, nor does he have any obligation or intention to remain silent about the issue going forward. … [Trump’s cease-and-desist letter is] nothing more than a transparent attempt to stifle legitimate criticism.” (The full text of both letters is available on The New Yorker website.)