In a grim reminder of the ever-tenuous position of truth-telling artists (the world over), Ugandan novelist Kakwenza Rukirabashaija appeared in court today—via video feed from prison—to answer charges that he “mocked the peace of President Yoweri Museveni.” How does one Read more >
Tonight, the National Book Critics Circle announced the latest finalists for its annual awards in six categories: autobiography, biography, criticism, fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. Finalists for the Leonard Prize for the best first book, as well as the winners of Read more >
Penguin Press announced today that it will publish Everything I Never Told You and Little Fires Everywhere author Celeste Ng’s new novel, Our Missing Hearts, on October 4th, 2022. The cover design has yet to be revealed. Our Missing Hearts Read more >
Adaptation news: Deadline has reported that Garrett Basch’s new company Dive (What We Do in the Shadows, Reservation Dogs) has won the television rights to Anthony Veasna So’s bestselling story collection Afterparties. Dive plans to turn the collection into a Read more >
If you’re anything like me, then you’ve probably been anxiously awaiting the third season of Derry Girls. The wit, the chaos, the green plaid skirts—it has been the best kind of levity to (somewhat) assuage these hellish days. Recently, I Read more >
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 >
