Bad news for all who believe books make us more empathetic: the young man who was sentenced to read more Jane Austen and Shakespeare after being charged with possessing a bomb-making manual, as well as hundreds of white supremacist, Neo-Nazi Read more >
The coin flips in Motherhood, the crowd-sourcing of Women in Clothes, the 2008 blog she ran about people’s Obama- and Clinton-related dreams: Sheila Heti is a master of the good conceit. Her latest: just preempting the release of her latest Read more >
The Mystery Writers of America has just announced the nominations for this year’s Edgar Allan Poe Award. Celebrating the 213th birthday of Edgar Allan Poe, the award recognizes the best titles in mystery fiction and non-fiction, as well as teleplays, Read more >
Legendary fashion icon and outsize personality André Leon Talley died this week at the age of 73. But Talley, of course, was not just a force in the fashion world, but also a a journalist, editor, and author in his Read more >
Rudyard Kipling’s Just So Stories, a collection of children’s tales that describe, in fantastical language and playful verse, how the features of various animals came to be (“How the Camel Got His Hump,” “How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin,” “How Read more >
This Tuesday would feel like a Monday—if not for all the good books coming our way! New titles from Bernardine Evaristo, Weike Wang, Brian Cox, and more await. * Bernardine Evaristo, Manifesto (Grove Press) “Part coming-of-age story and part how-to Read more >
Hope may have clouded observation in one of the biggest mistakes made this weekend: an anonymous NFT group purchased a rare copy of Alejandro Jodorowsky’s concept art book for his unproduced adaptation of Dune at auction. The group, which calls Read more >
Pretty depressing news: according to new research from Oxford University Press, children have chosen “anxiety” as their word of the year for 2021. OUP surveyed over eight thousand children from over 85 schools in the UK, from ages seven to Read more >
Over this past week, you might have seen a familiar message popping up on your friends’ Instagram stories: something to the effect of, “I’m looking for people to participate in a huge book exchange. You can be anywhere in the Read more >
Per a widely read thread on Twitter (see below), posted yesterday by scholar, journalist, and activist Nikole Hannah-Jones, Martin Luther King Jr. had an awful lot to say about the origins of systemic racism in America, much of which would Read more >
If the days can be short, so too can the fiction! I’m a sucker for a good short story—a little something to break up the monotony of the day—and this season is bringing us some gems. * Morgan Thomas, Manywhere (MCD, Read more >
It’s safe to say the biggest literary story of 2021 was the saga of the Bad Art Friend. Writer and GrubStreet writing instructor Sonya Larson lifted a Facebook post Dawn Dorland, a writing acquaintance and fellow GrubStreet instructor, posted about Read more >
I should preface this by saying that I’m a big fan of Steph Curry. He’s indisputably the greatest shooter of all time. He’s done more to revolutionize the game (for both good and ill I would argue, but that’s a Read more >
Today is the 59th anniversary of the first publication of Sylvia Plath’s semi-autobiographical novel The Bell Jar, which chronicles 19-year-old Esther Greenwood’s depressive spiral, suicide attempt, and institutionalization. “To the person in the bell jar,” Plath writes, “blank and stopped Read more >
Today marks the 81st anniversary of the death of James Joyce: novelist, poet, and kind and cutting critic. Joyce had a full-to-the-brim writing and publishing life—that started when he was only nine years old, when his father published and distributed Read more >
Lit Hub is pleased to reveal the cover for Kate Beaton’s graphic memoir Ducks, which will be published by Drawn & Quarterly this September. After university, Katie Beaton went out west to take advantage of Alberta’s oil rush, part of Read more >
Everyone knows that Jess Mariano was the most alluring boyfriend on Gilmore Girls, no questions asked. And everyone knows that if you were once a 15-year-old bookworm committed to watching Gilmore Girls almost daily, then you would have had a Read more >
The publishing industry is booming. According to Publishers Weekly, sales of print books rose 8.9% in 2021, selling 825.7 million units, up from 757.9 million in 2020. This is the second year in a row to see a similar sales Read more >
Big news for aspiring bloggers everywhere: yesterday, Roxane Gay announced that, in partnership with Substack, she is launching a new writing fellowship for three emerging writers to develop and publish a Substack newsletter this year. Fellows will receive a $25,000 Read more >
Long-awaited news: the U.S. Mint has announced they have officially begun shipping a new quarter honoring Maya Angelou. Angelou is seen on the tails side of the quarter; the image, designed by Emily Damstra and sculpted by Craig A. Campbell, Read more >
