The Hub

News, Notes, Talk

The book-banning lawsuit against Barnes & Noble is moving forward in Virginia.

Two Virginia lawsuits that are seeking to restrict young people’s access to books with sexual content will move forward with a hearing this Tuesday, August 30, raising the possibility that Barnes and Noble could require parental consent to sell such Read more >

By Corinne Segal

A comedy duo is replacing the covers of Jared Kushner's book with a new and improved version.

When the Lit Hub staff worked out of an office, some among us were very fond of harmless workplace pranks. (Some day we’ll publish the oral history of the time we replaced the first page of Fleur Jaeggy’s Sweet Days Read more >

By Jessie Gaynor

A Texas woman went to the cops about an actual library book.

Jesus. A Texas woman actually went into her local police station—in a town called Katy, just west of Houston—to file a complaint about a book in the Jordan High School library. According to the Houston Chronicle: A Katy ISD police Read more >

By Jonny Diamond

A teacher was removed after sharing this QR code for students to get banned books.

As mass hysteria continues to target American students’ access to information in books, there’s some particularly disheartening news coming out of Oklahoma this week. Wendy Suares, an anchor at KOKH FOX 25, reported on Twitter that a teacher at Norman Read more >

By Corinne Segal

If you're obsessed with Bama Rush Tok, read Eating the Cheshire Cat.

For the second year, the nation (of TikTok users and the middle-aged journalists who write about them) has been gripped by the phenomenon that is sorority rush week at the University of Alabama. As a middle-aged person who is not Read more >

By Jessie Gaynor

A new book will collect Jack Kerouac's writings from when he worked as a fire lookout.

Jack Kerouac’s time working as a fire lookout for the U.S. Forest Service on Desolation Peak—a two-month period in 1956—has been much-mythologized at this point, especially by Kerouac himself, as a focus of his book The Dharma Bums along with Read more >

By Corinne Segal

Kate Chopin threw her most famous character under the bus in this ironic rebuttal to critics.

Before there was Twitter, there was the slow burn of print-based literary fighting. Let’s take a moment now to commend a subtle master of the form, writer Kate Chopin, who died this week in 1904. Upon its publication in 1899, Read more >

By Corinne Segal

Look at these beautiful book sculptures adorned in fungi and coral.

Australian artist Stéphanie Kilgast is trying to make a point about the millions upon millions of books that end up in landfills each year. A sculptor who works primarily in discarded materials, Kilgast’s latest series focuses on old books, reimagining Read more >

By Jonny Diamond

20 new books to bite into this week.

New books! The financial bane and emotional buoy of our existence! * Abdulrazak Gurnah, Afterlives (Riverhead) “Riveting and heartbreaking … A compelling novel, one that gathers close all those who were meant to be forgotten, and refuses their erasure.” –The Read more >

By Katie Yee

Sneak a peek at the FBI file for a “very nervous” Dorothy Parker.

What could one say about Dorothy Parker that hasn’t already been said, especially here at Literary Hub dot com? She was a revered critic and essayist, known for her witty one-liners. She inspired Nora Ephron. She worked on the script Read more >

By Katie Yee

Timothée Chalamet and Luca Guadagnino snub Armie Hammer for their new film about cannibalism.

Chew on this, Armie Hammer. After the success of 2017’s Call Me By Your Name, Luca Guadagnino and Timothée Chalamet have reunited for a new literary adaptation—this time without Hammer, despite the fact that the project is a coming-of-age story Read more >

By Emily Temple

Abusive soccer star Ryan Giggs is also responsible for the worst “love” poem ever written.

Former Manchester United soccer star Ryan Giggs’s trial for alleged domestic abuse has revealed many things—mainly that he was an awful, abusive, and toxic boyfriend to Kate Greville. But he may* also be responsible for the worst love poem ever Read more >

By Jonny Diamond

Cover reveal: See the cover for Joy Castro's One Brilliant Flame.

Literary Hub is pleased to reveal the cover for Joy Castro’s new novel One Brilliant Flame, which will be published by Lake Union in January. Here’s how the publisher describes the book: Key West, 1886. The booming cigar industry makes Read more >

By Emily Temple

Shakespeare plays as Daily Mail headlines.

If you’re unfamiliar with the style of Daily Mail headlines, you’re living a more honorable life than I, and I applaud you. For those who recognize the truly bananas way that the paper of ill-record titles its celebrity stories, I Read more >

By Jessie Gaynor

Watch the trailer for Tegan and Sara's High School and fuel your inner indie teenage angst.

TEGAN AND SARA TRAILER DROP, TEGAN AND SARA TRAILER DROP—this is not a drill! If you clicked on this, you’re probably well aware that the beloved sister indie pop duo published a memoir in 2019 called High School. Amazon Freevee (boo) Read more >

By Katie Yee

A young Russian soldier has written a scathing account of Putin’s inept war.

A 34-year-old Russian paratrooper named Pavel Filatyev has written a brutally critical account of his time in the Russian army leading up to and during the invasion of Ukraine. The 141-page account can be read here in Russian and, based Read more >

By Jonny Diamond