The Hub

News, Notes, Talk

Olga Tokarczuk has responded to the controversy over her reputed use of AI.

After Nobel Prize-winner Olga Tokarczuk’s recent remarks implying she had used AI to write her recent novel made the rounds on social media, the novelist shared a statement with Lit Hub via her publisher, addressing the controversy: Like any other Read more >

By Literary Hub

Sally Rooney will publish a Hebrew translation of Intermezzo with a BDS-friendly publisher.

At long last, the beloved Irish writer Sally Rooney will publish a Hebrew translation of her latest novel, Intermezzo. Rooney, a vocal supporter of the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement, hasn’t published a book in Israel since 2021. But thanks Read more >

By Brittany Allen

Nobel laureate Olga Tokarczuk apparently used AI to write her latest novel.

Update: On Tuesday afternoon, Tokarczuk sent a statement to Lit Hub via her publisher, Riverhead, denying she used AI in her writing for anything other than research. Read it here. We also updated the text below to more accurately reflect Read more >

By Emily Temple

A prize-winning story published in Granta was (very likely) written by AI.

It’s another grim day at the human factory. There is strong evidence to suggest that a prize-winning short story published this week in celebrated literary magazine Granta was entirely generated by AI. Jamir Nazir’s “The Serpent in the Grove,” was Read more >

By Brittany Allen

Paige Lewis, Ali Smith, Jesmyn Ward, and more: 21 new books out today!

With full force, a new season has arrived. Spring, elusive as ever, has molted completely into a preview of the summer that awaits, and all that it will hold: soft serve ice creams, quests to enter any pool on offer, Read more >

By Julia Hass

Wallace Shawn’s latest play is a literary triumph—even if you never see it.

You may know him as Vizzini, the self-identified brains behind Princess Buttercup’s thwarted kidnapping. Or as Mr. Hall, the sexually frustrated Debate teacher who brings out the best in another blonde 90s icon. Younger fans may see him as Blair Read more >

By Brittany Allen

Here are the finalists for this year’s $20,000 DAG Prize for Literature.

Today, the DAG Foundation announced the seven finalists for the DAG Prize for Literature, which grants $20,000 to “an early-career prose writer whose work expands the possibilities for American writing.” The prize, now in its second year, is given by Read more >

By Literary Hub

American poet Sasha Debevec-McKenney has won the 2026 Dylan Thomas Prize.

Today in a ceremony at Swansea, Decatur-based American poet Sasha Debevec-McKenney was announced as the winner of this year’s £20,000 Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize, which celebrates literary talent in writers under 40, for her debut collection Joy is My Read more >

By Literary Hub

Florence Pugh stars in the first trailer for Zoe Kazan’s new East of Eden mini-series.

Happy upfront week, to all who celebrate. And it’s an especially happy one for Steinbeck fans. Yesterday, the trailer for Netflix’s East of Eden mini-series landed, and judging from the looks served, there is much to celebrate and discuss. Following Read more >

By Brittany Allen

Tove Ditlevsen, Vanessa Hua, Barry Walters, and more: 20 new books out today!

Last week was fiction heavy, and today we have a slew of the other side of the coin: many nonfiction riches await. Isaac Fitzerald’s study of Johnny Appleseed is available, as well as Barry Walter’s comprehensive survey of LGBTQ music Read more >

By Julia Hass

What’s with all the nostalgia for Obama-era New York?

On a recent episode of Anne-Helen Peterson’s Culture Study podcast, the author Xochitl Gonzalez waxed nostalgic for the end of the Bush years. Working in New York at the time, the author of Last Night in Brooklyn recalled edgy fun in Read more >

By Brittany Allen

Marianne Boruch has won the $100,000 Jackson Poetry Prize.

This week, Poets & Writers awarded their annual Jackson Poetry Prize, which “recognizes an American poet of exceptional talent,” and comes with a purse of $100,000, to Chicago-born poet Marianne Boruch. This year’s judges were Major Jackson, Cole Swensen, and Afaa Michael Read more >

By Literary Hub

“Yah, boo, sucks.” On the time Angela Carter absolutely flamed Joan Didion in an interview.

Here’s a fun fact to celebrate Angela Carter’s birthday: the beloved feminist icon did not care for literary tote saint Joan Didion. Need some proof? In 1986, Angela Carter sat down for a phone interview with Rosemary Carroll for BOMB. Read more >

By Emily Temple

Unions are having a moment in publishing. Here’s why.

Yesterday, workers at the University of Chicago Press announced a plan to unionize. As Publishers Weekly reported, the UCP Workers Guild would be the first union in the nonprofit publisher’s 130-year history. But they wouldn’t be lonely, in this timeline. Read more >

By Brittany Allen

Is Peter Thiel a “bad fan” of LOTR?

Who is Peter Thiel, really? Maverick, or monster? Little is known about the eccentric billionaire manipulating our world from assorted bunkers, but what we can say for sure is that the man was once a boy. And as some of Read more >

By Brittany Allen

Douglas Stuart, Elizabeth Strout, Kathryn Stockett, and more: 24 new books out today!

As a rule, the first Tuesday of the month will usually bring great tidings of books: this sunny day in May is no different. We have many bright, sparkling new works of fiction today: Booker Prize-winner Douglas Stuart’s new novel, Read more >

By Julia Hass