The Hub

News, Notes, Talk

“You must change your life.” The Sealey Challenge can help.

The quote in the above headline is part of the last line of Rainer Maria Rilke’s famous sonnet, “Archaic Torso of Apollo,” as translated by Stephen Mitchell. It’s a haunting line, among the most recognizable second person directives in all Read more >

By Tyler Meier

Exclusive: See the cover for Uche Okonkwo's A Kind of Madness.

Literary Hub is pleased to reveal the cover for Uche Okonkwo’s debut short story collection A Kind of Madness, which Tin House will publish in April 2024. Here’s a bit more about the book from the publisher: Set in contemporary Read more >

By Literary Hub

Read the first reviews of every James Baldwin novel.

James Baldwin is widely considered to be one of the finest writers and public intellectuals this country has ever produced. A brilliant novelist, essayist, and social critic, his explorations of homosexuality, racism, and class struggle in America have had a Read more >

By Dan Sheehan

A book for every Barbie in Barbie.

Hi Barbie! Are you looking for a good book to read? Maybe to take to the Beach? And/or to bring with you when you go to the movies this weekend? I promise, it’s going to be right up your alley. Read more >

By Emily Temple

Dashing! You can now get Jane Austen's wallpaper in book and wallpaper form.

Maybe you can’t marry someone with 5,000 a year and his own castle, but you can own a new edition of Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, or Emma with a cover designed for the original wallpaper in Jane Austen’s Read more >

By Janet Manley

Exclusive: See the cover for Téa Obreht's next novel, The Morningside.

Literary Hub is pleased to reveal the cover for The Morningside, the third novel by bestselling, award-winning writer Téa Obreht, which will be published by Random House in March. Here’s a little bit more about the book from the publisher: Read more >

By Literary Hub

Here is the 2023 Booker Prize longlist!

The freshly announced “Booker’s dozen” of titles longlisted for the 2023 Booker Prize is making its way around the literary internet, so let’s see what the morning tides have brought in. There are four debut novelists on the list, and Read more >

By Janet Manley

Guadalupe Nettel has won the El Grand Balam award for 2024-2026.

Mexican author Guadalupe Nettel has been named as the latest recipient of the prestigious El Grand Balam award, a $150,000 prize awarded in three annual tranches and intended to support mid-career writers. The award, sometimes referred to as the “Borchard Read more >

By Janet Manley

27 new books out today!

It’s officially August, and, because it’s also officially Tuesday, that means that there’s a myriad of intriguing new books out today. As many of us continue to face sweltering heat, I hope you’ll be able to curl up somewhere shaded Read more >

By Gabrielle Bellot

A new poll has found that we read to ~escape~ ... to World War II.

There’s no escape hatch from the current climate-deranged heat dome we live in quite like a goooooood fantasy novel or historical romp through the killing fields, a new ThriftBooks and OnePoll survey of 2,000 Americans has found. ThriftBooks asked respondents Read more >

By Janet Manley

Exclusive: See the cover for Rachel Khong's new novel, Real Americans.

Literary Hub is pleased to reveal the cover for Rachel Khong’s Real Americans, “an exhilarating novel of American identity that spans three generations in one family,” which will be published by Knopf on April 30, 2024. Here’s a bit more Read more >

By Nicole Kugel

A brief cultural history of crying while reading.

In the olden days, the popular crowd were devouring Pamela, and watching Marianne Dashwood getting teary over a sonnet (sense before sensibility)—the beginning of what became known as the “sentimental” novel, especially popular for and by among females in the Read more >

By Janet Manley

Watch the trailer for the new Joyce Carol Oates documentary.

Greenwich Entertainment has just released the first trailer for Swedish director Stig Björkman’s Joyce Carol Oates documentary, Joyce Carol Oates: A Body in the Service of Mind, which premiered at the Telluride Film Festival all the way back in 2021. Narrated by Read more >

By Dan Sheehan

23 books out in paperback this August!

It’s just about the end of July, and that means many things: that you still have time for those vaunted summer fun or vacation plans, if you haven’t done them yet; that the cooler (and perhaps welcome after all these Read more >

By Gabrielle Bellot

Alas, poor Yorick, I didn't know her: xoxopublishinggg is going on hiatus for 'the indefinite future.'

Today, the anonymous Instagram account xoxopublishinggg, which shared memes and anonymous tips about books and the publishing industry, announced via their stories that they “will be going on hiatus with stories,” apparently effective immediately. “It is our two year anniversary Read more >

By Emily Temple

Weird, funny, dark children's books that I can recommend (as an adult, however).

No children responded to my essay on the “adult problem” with kids books, somewhat proving the point. Adults aplenty chimed in, many of them people who work in children’s lit and who had good and interesting things to say that Read more >

By Janet Manley