The Hub

News, Notes, Talk

The NBCC is launching a new prize for translated literature.

The National Book Critics Circle today announced a new addition to its annual awards ceremony: the Gregg Barrios Book in Translation Prize. The new prize, which will honor the best book of any genre translated into English and published in the United Read more >

By Dan Sheehan

A group of teachers in the Philippines has launched an internet archive of "subversive" books.

In the Philippines, educators and researchers are responding to a military crackdown on “subversive” books and documents by launching an internet archive of endangered books and materials frowned upon by the government. As reported by the Center for Media Freedom Read more >

By Walker Caplan

Paul Newman's memoir—which he started writing in the 80s—will finally be released next fall.

If you’re like me and have a deep appreciation and love of classic Hollywood, then you’ll be delighted to hear that Knopf plans to publish Paul Newman’s memoir in the fall of 2022. The actor, who died in 2008 at Read more >

By Vanessa Willoughby

We finally have a release date (and new teaser) for Hiro Murai's Station Eleven.

In case you’ve been jonesing for a hopeful pandemic prestige series (apropos of absolutely nothing…), EW just dropped first looks, an appropriately moody teaser, and a long-awaited release date for the adaptation of Emily St. John Mandel’s 2014 bestseller, Station Read more >

By Eliza Smith

Dear parents of young kids: do you live-edit bad children’s books as you’re reading them?

I’m not sure if non-writer/editor parents do this, but back when I used to read to my kid, at least half the time I’d live-edit the text as I went, hacking out redundant clauses, tweaking awkward rhymes, and very occasionally Read more >

By Jonny Diamond

One of the decade’s most censored books has been renamed to support its trans heroine.

Alex Gino’s children’s novel George, about a transgender girl who wants to play Charlotte in her fourth grade production of Charlotte’s Web, has won a Stonewall Book Award, a Children’s Choice book award, and a Lambda Literary Award, and is Read more >

By Walker Caplan

Did you know that Edgar Allan Poe might have died because of voter fraud?

The place was Baltimore. The date was October 3, 1849—or, Election Day. The poet Edgar Allan Poe was found in a sordid state, lying in a gutter. He hadn’t been heard from in a week. His semi-lucid body was stumbled Read more >

By Katie Yee

Justice Department declares that authors are important, monopolies are bad.

In welcome news for fans of both books and strong antitrust regulation, the US Department of Justice filed a civil lawsuit today to block Penguin Random House’s acquisition of Simon & Schuster. The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court Read more >

By Jessie Gaynor

Here are the bookies’ odds for the 2021 Booker Prize.

Tomorrow, the 2021 winner of the Booker Prize, the biggest literary prize in the UK, will be announced in a ceremony hosted by Samira Ahmed and broadcast live by the BBC starting at 3:15 EST. As you probably know, six Read more >

By Emily Temple

The Guggenheim is launching a new, year-long poet-in-residence position in 2022.

Literary Hub is pleased to announce that the Guggenheim Museum, in collaboration with the Academy of American Poets, has established a year-long poet-in-residence program, beginning in January 2022. The hybrid position focuses on public engagement; the poet-in-residence “will collaborate with Read more >

By Literary Hub

20 new books to cozy up to this week.

We’re just accepting the fact that the TBR pile is an ever-growing beast, and that we’re never going to catch up, right? This week brings us new titles from Gary Shteyngart, Ai Weiwei, Mario Vargas Llosa, and more. * Kyle Read more >

By Katie Yee

An index of over 107 million research papers has been released online for free.

Exciting news for scientists—and for the future of shared information: Nature has reported that technologist Carl Malamud has released a huge index of words and short phrases contained in over 107 million journal articles, including many paywalled papers, online for Read more >

By Walker Caplan

Meet the writers on OUT’s list of the most influential LGBTQ+ people of 2021.

Today OUT began the rollout of their annual OUT 100 list, a list of LGBTQ+ leaders and changemakers who “made us proud . . . in their local communities or on the world stage.” So far, their cover stars include Read more >

By Walker Caplan

“Bad Art Friend” has resulted in a slew of staff changes and internal review at GrubStreet.

We’ve talked a lot about “Who Is The Bad Art Friend,” the saga of Dawn Dorland vs. Sonya Larson. Dorland posted extensively on Facebook about donating her kidney; Larson lifted the post and put it in a short story; the Read more >

By Walker Caplan

Sorry, "jab"—"vax" is the Oxford English Dictionary's word of the year.

Well, Hot Vax Summer may not have materialized, but as a consolation prize, how about… Cool Vax Dictionary? A year after announcing that 2020 was a year “that could not be neatly accommodated by one word,” Oxford Languages, the publisher Read more >

By Jessie Gaynor

For $26K a month you can rent the hideously remodeled London house where Herman Melville once lived!

If you like wall-to-wall beige carpeting, recessed lighting, and sprawling, beautiful, half-mad epics of the human soul, do we have the real estate listing for you! Apparently Herman Melville stayed for a for weeks in 1849 at 25 Craven Street, Read more >

By Jonny Diamond

"This confusion is both tragic and unfair." Donna Tartt thinks you're reading too much into it.

Today, The New Yorker published a profile of the late Bennington College classics professor Claude Fredericks, who you may know primarily as the inspiration for enigmatic Hampden College classics professor Julian Morrow in Donna Tartt’s The Secret History—especially if you’ve been listening to Read more >

By Emily Temple

Goosebumps titles for today’s biggest books.

It’s Halloween weekend—time for two powerful concepts: outfits and mischief. The outgoing among us might go out and play some tricks; the more introverted might stay inside and read the unofficial book series of Halloween, Goosebumps. But if you don’t Read more >

By Walker Caplan

5 mystical transformations in literature.

Hallow’s Eve is nearly upon us. The leaves have died off. The pumpkins have been carved, the jack-o’-lanterns lit. The candy has been bought (and eaten, oops, and re-bought for distribution to the children). And hopefully you, dear reader, have Read more >

By Katie Yee

Neil Young has written a sci-fi novel—and he’s already told us the plot.

Come November, Neil Young will be 76—but he shows no signs of taking a well-deserved artistic break. Today, he and Crazy Horse released the second single from their upcoming album Barn, “Heading West,” and the full album will be released Read more >

By Walker Caplan