Life’s got you down? At least there are always books! This week brings new gems from Elif Batuman, Nell Zink, Akwaeke Emezi, Elizabeth Hardwick, and more. * Elif Batuman, Either/Or (Penguin Press) “Batuman has a gift for making the universe Read more >
Well, it’s that time of year again. Time for TIME to dub 100 musicians, actors, artists, activists, politicians as The Most Important. (Actually, to put it in their terms: Artists, Innovators, Titans, Leaders, Icons, Pioneers.) It appears there is —yet again—only one Read more >
In very 1984 news, Belarus has banned the sale of 1984. Belarusian weekly newspaper, Nasha Niva, reported that security forces detained Andrei Yanushkevich, publisher and bookstore owner, and confiscated 200 books, with a focus on 1984. Nasha Niva also reported that they had Read more >
Phew. Thanks to the intrepid work of books valuer Jim Spencer (at an antiques show in the surely-it-must-be-charming Moreton-in-Marsh), we’ll finally have a chance to sit back at the beach and read Christiaan Huygens’ The Celestial World Discover’d: Or, Conjectures Read more >
You probably don’t need to be reminded that book-banning is alive and well in America. But take heart: there are some incredible people doing what they can to combat it. Skylark Bookshop in Columbia, Missouri, has launched a banned books Read more >
Recently, while editing Nicole Miller’s excellent essay on Joy Williams’ cosmic waiting rooms, I learned a bit of trivia: in 1999, Starbuck’s launched a quarterly literary magazine called Joe. Though the fact of the magazine’s existence (and roster of writers) Read more >
This is the eighth year that the Community of Literary Magazines and Presses is celebrating indie publishing with the Firecracker Awards—and the first year that it’s giving award recipients a cash prize! Each winner in the books category will receive Read more >
Heartwarming, hyper-local news reports about kids and books are definitely my beat—and reader, this is the one: KCCI Des Moines is reporting that an elementary school student in Johnston, Iowa—simply named “Eric”—was able to bring six of his favorite sheep Read more >
Lit Hub is pleased to reveal the cover for Ross Gay’s new essay collection Inciting Joy, which will be published by Algonquin Books in October. Algonquin describes the book as an “intimate and electrifying collection.” In these gorgeously written and Read more >
Here’s a cool one. The first trailer for Spiderhead, the hotly-anticipated (around the Lit Hub water cooler, at least) Netflix film based on George Saunders’ short story “Escape From Spiderhead,” has been released and it looks like a hoot (a Read more >
This seems like a cause worth supporting, if you’re able: Copper Canyon Press has launched a Kickstarter to help fund two projects featuring Red Pine, whose work translating Chinese poetry and Buddhist texts has reached audiences around the world. Here’s Read more >
In good news for—likely every reader on this website, a company called WordsRated is looking for “Bibliofile-at-large” (i.e. contractors) to… read books for them. For every book you read, they’ll pay you $200. WordsRated is a “non-commercial research organization” whose Read more >
Available at indies bookstores and local libraries everywhere! * Phil Klay, Uncertain Ground (Penguin Press) “An introspective collection of essays … Klay’s reassuring voice offers truth, hope, and ways forward during a challenging, polarized period in America.” –Booklist Maggie Shipstead, Read more >
Lit Hub is pleased to reveal the cover for the latest issue of Freeman’s, “Animals,” which will be published by Grove Press in October. The issue, which will feature new work from Mieko Kawakami, Martín Espada, Kali Fajardo-Anstine, Arthur Sze, Read more >
Following last week’s surprising news that The Black Mountain Institute at The University of Nevada, Las Vegas, had sold the magazine The Believer to a marketing company called Paradise Media, The Believer is now back with its former parent company, Read more >
I am, indeed, biased, but more book coverage by a prominent national magazine is a good thing for America. Sure, there are plenty of bad books (evil ones, even!), but as a medium, books continue to be the best way Read more >
Biographers International Organization (BIO)—an international non-profit founded to promote the art and craft of biography—today announced Burning Man (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), Frances Wilson’s magnificently-titled biography of D. H. Lawrence, as the winner of its 2022 Plutarch Award. Now in its tenth Read more >
You’ve Got Mail is a many splendored thing: a fascinating, variegated film that braids together themes of hope and despair, friendship and heartbreak, love and hatred, preservation and destruction, resistance and surrender, technology and analogs. It is a depressed capitalist Read more >
Literary Hub is pleased to reveal the cover for Erika T. Wurth’s literary horror novel White Horse, which will be published by Flatiron Books on November 1. In her big-publishing debut, Wurth, an urban Native writer of Apache/Chickasaw/Cherokee descent, offers Read more >
Swansea University’s Dylan Thomas Prize, awarded every year to a writer aged 39 or younger, is one of the most prestigious awards for young writers. This year, the honor (and £20,000 purse) goes to Patricia Lockwood for her debut novel, Read more >
