The Center for Fiction has just announced its shortlist for the 2021 First Novel Prize. The seven titles were selected from a longlist of twenty-seven debut novels, all published in the US between January 1 to December 21. The prize, Read more >
Recently, while wasting time on the literary internet, I stumbled upon something very good: the Instagram account @monobrow_ny, where multi-disciplinary designer Christine Rhee shares creative redesigns for contemporary classics. Recently, she’s been doing a series of “Fake Books for Men,” Read more >
The MacArthur Foundation has announced its annual list of fellowship recipients: 25 individuals working in a variety of disciplines “who show exceptional creativity in their work and the prospect for still more in the future.” Each MacArthur fellow will receive Read more >
Shah Muhammad Rais, who was made famous in The Bookseller of Kabul, has vowed to keep his bookshop open, despite having had only two customers since the Taliban retook the country in the middle of August. Founded in 1974 Rais’s Read more >
Today in Good Things The Internet Told Me: Kelly Link’s debut novel at last has a pub date! That’s right—the MacArthur Fellow and Pulitzer Prize finalist, who we’ve heard has been working on a novel, has, in fact, been working Read more >
If the The Paris Review is known for one thing, it’s CIA activity great writing. But if The Paris Review is known for two things, it’s great writing and losing to Lit Hub at softball cool glasses, in both Black and “Brioche Tortoise.” That’s right: it’s Read more >
You may have heard about the supply-chain issues currently affecting multiple industries in the United States, and unfortunately, that also includes the book industry. While issues in the book supply chain are causing substantial delays in both printing and delivery of Read more >
This weekend, at Fantasy Con, the UK’s oldest convention for fantasy, horror, and science fiction, the British Fantasy Society announced the 2021 British Fantasy Award Winners. The jury also recognized Katherine Fowler with the Legends Award, and Alasdair Stuart with Read more >
If you live in New York City, you may have noticed the hubbub around the General Assembly of the United Nations, which began last week and runs through tomorrow. Considering that it was also UN Climate Week, you may also Read more >
We love indie bookstores. Even people who don’t read books love them. Insofar as movies and TV are a technicolor mirror of public perception, indie bookstores are wonderful and pure, quaint and charming—no one who works at (or owns!) an Read more >
Back in 2019, when we walked maskless, Netflix and Warner Bros. Television first announced they were adapting Sandman, Neil Gaiman’s sprawling comic book series about Morpheus, Lord of Dreams, and the powerful group of siblings known as the Endless, into Read more >
The dog days of summer are over and fall is officially here. Get out your circle scarves, riding boots, and chunky sweaters—goodbye Hot Girl Summer and hello Christian Girl Autumn! Now, I may not be a pumpkin spice latte fan, Read more >
When Trout Fishing in America author Richard Brautigan insulted his friend, the novelist Thomas McGuane, at a party, McGuane responded: “You’re nothing but a pet rock . . . a hula hoop.” This type of accusation plagued Brautigan’s life; his Read more >
48 years ago this week Pablo Neruda—the Nobel Prize-winning writer-diplomat whom Gabriel García Márquez once called “the greatest poet of the 20th century in any language”—died at the age of 69. A former senator for the Chilean Communist Party and close Read more >
Today marks the 126th birthday of F. Scott Fitzgerald—and now you can celebrate (sedately) by reading the autograph manuscript of The Great Gatsby, or the 2-page Ur-Gatsby, which Fitzgerald abandoned shortly after writing, or corrected galleys of Trimalchio, which was Read more >
Writer RZ Baschir’s short story “The Chicken” has won the 2021 White Review Short Story Prize, an annual prize for emerging writers without a publishing deal. Baschir will receive £2,500, editorial feedback, and publication of her story in The White Read more >
In July, the National Book Foundation announced that the 2021 National Book Awards Ceremony would be held in person, with proof of vaccination required for guests. Now, due to ongoing uncertainty related to the coronavirus, the ceremony has been moved Read more >
This is a Shel Silverstein appreciation post. He has given us so much over the years! Most famously, we have The Giving Tree, a twisted children’s book about a benevolent tree that gives up its whole self for an unappreciative little Read more >
Yes! I do. You probably do, too. Well, starting today, as part of the International Literature Festival Utrecht, you can indeed stream video of the utterly delightful Olivia Colman reading a brand new lecture by Elena Ferrante (as translated by Read more >
Today McGill University announced the shortlist for the 2021 Cundill History Prize, prestigious nonfiction award that goes to a book that, alongside historical scholarship, “offers originality, literary quality, and a broad appeal.” The jury—chaired this year by Michael Ignatieff—will reward Read more >
