The Hub

News, Notes, Talk

Ukrainian libraries, serving as bomb shelters, continue to prove that libraries are our best hope.

In March 2020, I happened to be working at a library for the first time (shoutout to my friends at BPL), and got to witness up-close how quickly the staff pivoted their services to respond to the pandemic: shifting programming Read more >

By Eliza Smith

Here it is, the only good book trailer ever made.

Look at these lads go! (They are holding a copy of Don Winslow’s forthcoming novel, City on Fire, which comes out in April.) A 47 second break from the world to make you smile!pic.twitter.com/O48b1Kq8zm — Don Winslow (@donwinslow) March 9, Read more >

By Jonny Diamond

Beto O’Rourke’s book on civil rights leader Lawrence Aaron Nixon will be published this August.

Last week, Beto O’Rourke easily won the Democratic primary for Texas governor—the same week Flatiron Books took the North American rights to O’Rourke’s nonfiction book We’ve Got To Try. We’ve Got To Try follows the life and work of Dr. Read more >

By Walker Caplan

A new book on songwriting is coming from Bob Dylan.

The times they are a-changin’: Bob Dylan’s first book in eighteen years is coming out this November via Simon & Schuster. It will be Dylan’s first published book since winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016. According to Simon Read more >

By Walker Caplan

Get ready: Colson Whitehead's new novel is coming next summer.

Colson Whitehead announced via Twitter that his new novel, Crook Manifesto, will be published in Summer 2023. Summer 2023 pic.twitter.com/Q10AhjZxex — colson whitehead (@colsonwhitehead) March 8, 2022 “The novel follows Ray Carney in New York City in the 1970s. Pepper Read more >

By Emily Firetog

A new map of the London Underground highlights the women who shaped the city.

New map just dropped: check out a new and improved view of the London Underground, courtesy of authors Reni Eddo-Lodge and Rebecca Solnit, who worked with Emma Watson to create a visual homage to the women who shaped British history Read more >

By Corinne Segal

Beloved lit mag Conjunctions in jeopardy as mega-rich Bard College withdraws funding.

Details (screenshot below) of an announcement slated for today were revealed on Twitter last night, and were confirmed by Conjunctions founder and editor Bradford Morrow: Bard College is going to cease funding the legendary literary journal at the end of Read more >

By Jonny Diamond

Cormac McCarthy is publishing two new novels this fall.

Sixteen years after he devastated absolutely everyone with The Road, Cormac McCarthy is publishing two linked novels this fall: The Passenger on October 25 and Stella Maris on November 22. (Or you can wait until December 6 to get your boxed set.) Together, the Read more >

By Jessie Gaynor

Ben Affleck just looks confused in the trailer of Deep Water.

Somebody get Michael Douglas out of Cryosleep and hose him down with CK Obsession because the erotic thriller is back, baby. Yes, it gives me no small amount of pleasure to report that 81-year-old ET Hall of Famer Adrian Lyne—the Read more >

By Dan Sheehan

Here’s Fire Island, the star-studded, gay adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.

Janeites rejoice: Vanity Fair has released snapshots from Searchlight Pictures’s Fire Island, the new, queer adaptation of Pride and Prejudice written by comedian Joel Kim Booster. Booster stars as Noah, a modern spin on Elizabeth Bennet; Margaret Cho and Bowen Read more >

By Walker Caplan

A conservative lawmaker raised fears about Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. Fans weren't happy.

Dolly Parton fans—and Stella Parton, Dolly’s sister—have issued stern rejoinders to a conservative lawmaker who claimed Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, which sends over one million free books to month to children ages 0-5, could be sending children age-inappropriate content. At Read more >

By Walker Caplan

It turns out Drake has very good taste in books.

Kiki, are you reading? Drake seems to be! Approximately ten hours ago, Drake (@champagnepapi) posted a photo to his Instagram story of what appears to be his TBR pile. What a time to be alive. It’s brought on a lot Read more >

By Katie Yee

Did you know Bram Stoker wrote Walt Whitman a very intense, 2,000-word fan letter?

On this day in 1890, perhaps after a nightmare caused by “a too-generous helping of dressed crab at supper,” Bram Stoker began work on Dracula, a novel that would take him seven years to complete. But years before that fateful Read more >

By Jessie Gaynor

Can ecological extinction models help us understand the literature we’ve lost?

This is really cool. Researchers and literary historians have realized that the same mathematical models used by ecologists to account for lost or missing species from any given ecosystem can be applied to lost or missing literature. In this case, Read more >

By Jonny Diamond

19 new books to get lost in this week.

Here are a few new books roaring in like a lion this week! With new books from NoViolet Bulawayo, Ladee Hubbard, Tara Isabella Burton, and more, there’s something for everyone in this bookstore bounty. * NoViolet Bulawayo, Glory (Viking) “If Read more >

By Katie Yee

Who should replace Pamela Paul at the NYT Books section?

The New York Times today announced that Pamela Paul, who has headed the paper’s Books section and hosted the Book Review podcast since 2013, will be moving to Times Opinion as part of the paper’s expansion of its columnist ranks. Read more >

By Dan Sheehan

Here are the finalists for this year’s $50,000 Joyce Carol Oates Prize.

The New Literary Project has announced the shortlist of five finalists for its 2022 Joyce Carol Oates Prize, which awards a mid-career author of fiction “who has earned an extraordinarily distinguished reputation and garnered the widespread appeal of readers.” Prize Read more >

By Walker Caplan

Exclusive cover reveal: Suad Amiry’s Mother of Strangers.

Lit Hub is pleased to reveal the cover for Suad Amiry’s new novel, Mother of Strangers, which will be published by Penguin Random House this August. Mother of Strangers, based on a true story, follows the lives of 15-year-old mechanic Read more >

By Literary Hub

Reading Rainbow is coming—this time, without LeVar Burton.

Generations of young readers—and their parents—fondly recall Reading Rainbow, the LeVar Burton-hosted show developed as a response to the “summer [literacy] loss phenomenon.” From 1983 to 2006, when it initially ran on PBS, it racked up 26 Emmys, and now, Read more >

By Walker Caplan

Kyiv academic uses books to barricade his apartment window against Russian attacks.

Books may or may not foster empathy (if you feel like fighting on Twitter, just claim they do, you monster) but when used in significant numbers they can insulate you from many things: cold, wind, stupidity, and… incoming shrapnel. According Read more >

By Jonny Diamond