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News, Notes, Talk

And the Oddest Book Title of the Year goes to . . .

Roy Schwartz’s Is Superman Circumcised?, a look at Superman’s Jewish influences, has won U.K.-based Bookseller/Diagram Prize for Oddest Title of the Year, beating out The Life Cycle of Russian Things: From Fish Guts to Fabergé for the honor. Is Superman Read more >

By Walker Caplan

A documentary about Anthony Broadwater’s exoneration, called Unlucky, is in the works.

Yesterday, a footnote to an op-ed in the LA Times revealed that Red Badge Films is now producing a documentary about Anthony Broadwater’s conviction and then exoneration of Alice Sebold’s rape, called Unlucky. Red Badge Films is helmed by Tim Read more >

By Walker Caplan

TikTok isn’t just for tearjerkers—it's also for obscure 1930s literary puzzles, apparently.

This year, writers and publishers learned about the power of #BookTok—a literature-loving corner of TikTok where readers post videos inspired by the books they love. Viral trends involving certain books launched backlist titles to the top of the fiction charts; Read more >

By Walker Caplan

Serena Williams has written a children's book.

Serena Williams—the 23-time Grand Slam champion, 4-time Olympic medalist, fashion designer, philanthropist, movie producer, activist, and Simpsons guest star—will soon be adding “children’s author” to her list of professional titles. Williams announced on Instagram yesterday that her first children’s book, The Read more >

By Dan Sheehan

Exclusive cover reveal: Sarah Thankam Mathews' All This Could Be Different.

Literary Hub is pleased to reveal the cover for Sarah Thankam Mathews’ debut novel All This Could Be Different, which will be published by Viking—who acquired it in an 8-way auction—in summer 2022. The publisher describes the book as “an Read more >

By Literary Hub

How HBO's Love Life addresses the whiteness of the publishing industry.

HBO’s Love Life returned for a second season in October, with the beloved William Jackson Harper taking center stage as Marcus Watkins—a book editor! This was thrilling to me because 1) I run the Book Marks Instagram, for which I spend Read more >

By Katie Yee

George Saunders is testing how big a writing class can get.

In January, George Saunders’s craft book, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, translated a class Saunders teaches in Syracuse University’s Creative Writing MFA program to the page; it aimed to demystify the mechanics of great writings to a Read more >

By Walker Caplan

You can now buy Mary Shelley’s old address—though you’ll have to bring your own goth.

News for Frankenstein fans, or just fans of the monster: according to Mansion Global, a two-bedroom Bloomsbury apartment at the address of Mary Shelley’s former home is on the market for $1.36 million. If you saved $1.17 million from not Read more >

By Walker Caplan

Bernardine Evaristo has been named president of the Royal Society of Literature.

Bernardine Evaristo, Booker-winning author of Girl, Woman, Other, has been named the next president of the Royal Society of Literature. Evaristo will take over from Marina Warner at the end of this year, becoming the second female president—and the first Read more >

By Walker Caplan

Alice Sebold has now apologized to Anthony Broadwater, and her publisher has pulled her memoir.

Alice Sebold has released an apology to Anthony Broadwater, who served 16 years in prison and spent 24 more years on the sex offender registry after being convicted of her rape in 1981. The conviction was based on Sebold identifying Read more >

By Walker Caplan

Famous novels, if they were Hallmark Christmas Movies.

It’s that time of year again! No, not Christmas time, but Hallmark Christmas movie time. There’s nothing like two hours of G-rated, ambiguously Christian entertainment to get you into the holiday spirit. Of course, if you prefer classic literature to Read more >

By Jessie Gaynor

The adaptation of Alice Sebold’s memoir has been canceled.

Following the overturning of the rape conviction at the center of The Lovely Bones author Alice Sebold’s memoir, Lucky, Variety reports that the adaptation of the memoir has been abandoned. According to a source close to the production, the movie Read more >

By Walker Caplan

This artist creates gorgeous paintings on the edges of hardcover books.

Here’s something pleasant for a cold autumn Tuesday: Maisie Matilda, a UK-based painter, has amassed a following for her fore-edge paintings, scenes painted on the side of hardcover books’ pages. Focusing mainly on Dune, Lord of the Rings, and Harry Read more >

By Walker Caplan

Red Alert: This library made a Taylor Swift display.

Librarians! Where would we be without them? They’re so well-Red! They take care of the books; they protect what is essentially Holy Ground. And they know All Too Well that, sometimes, to get readers to Stay Stay Stay, they need Read more >

By Katie Yee

A public library was denied funding over an LGBTQ+ support group—so patrons took action.

Here’s a story out of Fulton County, Pennsylvania; I’d call it “feel-good”, but really, it’s about the public picking up governmental officials’ slack. Two of three Fulton County commissioners refused to approve an additional $3,000 in funding for their public Read more >

By Walker Caplan

The delightful Marcus Rashford has written a delightful-sounding children's book.

Manchester United striker and Tory-shaming child food poverty campaigner Marcus Rashford—one of the few remaining good, pure humans in this godforsaken world—is releasing his first work of fiction for kids. Excited to announce the release of my first fiction book Read more >

By Dan Sheehan

Mark Twain disliked suspenders so much that he invented the bra clasp. (That's right.)

Here’s your fun fact for the day: Not only was Mark Twain (née Samuel Langhorne Clemens on this day in 1835) an inventor of good stories and witty rejoinders, he was a literal inventor—of both successful and not-so-successful items. Over Read more >

By Emily Temple

12 new books hitting shelves this week.

Consider this blog post your daily reminder to take a short break from work. Take your dog to the park! Go get a croissant! Walk on over to your local indie! Just in case… here are a dozen new books Read more >

By Katie Yee

Listen to Chadwick Boseman read Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass.

On this day, the magnetic, beloved actor Chadwick Boseman would have been 45 years old. I know that I speak for many people when I say that it was truly heartbreaking to learn that Boseman had been privately battling colon Read more >

By Vanessa Willoughby

COVER REVEAL: Northwestern University Press’s collection Growing Up Chicago.

Lit Hub is pleased to reveal the cover for the story collection Growing Up Chicago, edited by David Schaafsma, Roxanne Pilat, and Lauren DeJulio Bell with a foreword by Luis Alberto Urrea, which will be published by Northwestern University Press Read more >

By Literary Hub