The Hub

News, Notes, Talk

19 new books to read in the safety of an air-conditioned room.

I’m looking at the weather for this upcoming week, and oh boy it’s going to be a scorcher! If you’re looking for me, you will find me in the cool embrace of the nearest air-conditioned library/bookstore, where these new books will Read more >

By Katie Yee

From Duluth to Decatur these bookstores are helping in the fight for reproductive justice.

As per usual, indie bookstores remain a beacon of hope in this country. After Friday’s devastating decision overturning Roe v. Wade, many feminist/social-justice-oriented bookshops became a sanctuary for those grieving across the country—particularly in states with trigger laws in place. Read more >

By Katie Yee

Ukrainian writer Serhiy Zhadan has won the German Peace Prize.

As the catastrophic Russian invasion of Ukraine drags on, we all continue to marvel at the resilience and courage of a Ukrainian people who, regardless of background or vocation, have united in resistance to imperial aggression. One such stalwart is Read more >

By Jonny Diamond

Long Island library board comes to its senses and reverses ban on children’s Pride displays.

Following the recent onslaught of attacks on LGBTQ+ rights across the nation, the Smithtown Library Board of Trustees passed a resolution on June 21st to remove all Pride month displays from their children’s sections across all four buildings in the Read more >

By Andrew Sciallo

First they came for queer story time… And what did you do?

Last week I posted about a bunch of loser Proud Boys who attacked a queer-friendly drag queen story time in San Diego. As ever with these sad-sack wannabe Brownshirts there’s a distinctly pathetic element to their bullying, derived as it Read more >

By Jonny Diamond

At least no one's buying all those stupid Trump aide tell-alls.

Remember that exhausting parade of Trump insiders and ex-staffers getting book deals for dishy tell-alls? Turns out no one’s really interested in reading them. Politico went digging around NPD Bookscan (which reflects about 70 percent of sales) to get the Read more >

By Emily Temple

6 literary films to stream on Frances McDormand's 65th birthday.

I was first introduced to the great Frances McDormand as a pig-tailed, knife-wielding women’s studies professor in the Nancy Meyers’ film Something’s Gotta Give, which might remain my favorite role of hers—you know, sentimentally—but there’s a lot more where that Read more >

By Eliza Smith

In the trailer for Lyle, Lyle Crocodile, Lyle is a victim of hustle culture.

A trailer for the musical adaptation of Bernard Waber’s beloved children’s book, Lyle, Lyle Crocodile has dropped, and it’s… well, here it is: Though this website previously and breathlessly reported that Javier Bardem would be playing Lyle himself in the Read more >

By Jessie Gaynor

Teach Julie Otsuka's books in schools, cowards!

Julie Otsuka is one of the greatest and most important writers of our time. I will die on this hill. Here at Literary Hub dot com, I have very adamantly and repeatedly made a case for The Buddha in the Attic Read more >

By Katie Yee

George Chauncey has won the Kluge Prize for his work in LGBTQ history.

George Chauncey just became the first scholar of LGBTQ history to win the John W. Kluge Prize for Achievement in the Study of Humanity, a $500,000 award for those whose work “advances understanding of the human experience.” Chauncey, the author Read more >

By Corinne Segal

Ugh. Skyhorse plans to publish a Trump conspiracy theorist’s take on the January 6th Insurrection.

You know you’re an extremist when you get yourself fired from the Trump Administration for your ideological dalliances with white nationalist fascism. But don’t worry, Darren Beattie, you’ll always have a home at Skyhorse Publishing! The independent publisher, which has Read more >

By Jonny Diamond

How Jean-Paul Sartre's relentless pranking forced his teacher to resign.

In Jean-Paul Sartre’s novella The Childhood of a Leader, he wrote that there is “more destructive power” in pranks “than in all the works of Lenin.” Well, maybe if you are a headmaster who finds yourself unable to control a pack Read more >

By Emily Temple

Russian journalist sells Nobel medal in heroic f*ck you to the Putin Regime.

It was always pretty apparent that Russian journalist Dmitri A. Muratov is not particularly concerned with state authority, and is willing to put his life in harm’s way in defense of the truth. A stalwart of Russia’s perpetually embattled independent Read more >

By Jonny Diamond

13 new books to get you through this work week.

Ah, the work week again? At least there are only four days in this one, and at least it kicks off with the day new books are being released. * Ottessa Moshfegh, Lapvona (Penguin Press) “Moshfegh’s work resists being read Read more >

By Katie Yee

What you (an adult) should read next, based on your favorite children's book.

Honestly, I cannot believe I have not done this list yet because I (an adult) think about children’s books a lot, despite not having kids or really knowing any. (The pandemic hit before the majority of my colleagues procreated, so Read more >

By Katie Yee

This right wing religious website is telling readers to ruin LGBQT+ library displays.

A website called CatholicVote is telling its readers to hide books in library displays that have anything to do with the lives of queer people or people of color. This month, of course, the focus of their fragile and bigoted Read more >

By Jonny Diamond

John Steinbeck's lovely letter to his lovesick teenage son is perfect Father's Day reading.

This weekend is Father’s Day, and while I could recommend some World War II books you could buy last-minute, instead I’m going to recommend that you read one of the few examples we have of actually good fathering among the Read more >

By Jessie Gaynor

Come play EmilyBlaster, a '90s-style game based on the poems of Emily Dickinson.

To celebrate the release of Gabrielle Zevin’s Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, Knopf built a real-life version of one of the games in the book. It is . . . weirdly addicting, and also weirdly fun. Especially if you grew Read more >

By Literary Hub

Kalani Pickhart has won the NYPL’s Young Lions Fiction Award.

Kalani Pickhart’s novel I Will Die in a Foreign Land is the winner of this year’s Young Lions Fiction Award, given by the New York Public Library every year to a writer under 35 for a novel or short story Read more >

By Corinne Segal

In response to people noticing his very obvious plagiarism, John Hughes says actually, no.

Australian novelist John Hughes—who, as The Guardian reported earlier this week, plagiarized sections of his novel The Dogs from the extremely obscure novels All Quiet on the Western Front, Anna Karenina, and The Great Gatsby—has offered a rebuttal to claim(/fact) that he is Read more >

By Jessie Gaynor