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News, Notes, Talk

The best book lovers on TV, ranked.

So it’s National Book Lovers Day. What? You forgot? You didn’t prepare?! You mean you didn’t get your favorite book lover a gift?!? Well, at least we know what it should be. (A book. In case that wasn’t clear.) To Read more >

By Katie Yee

Everything you need to know about the RWA's ongoing racism controversy.

After intense and sustained criticism, Romance Writers of America, the largest organization of writers in the country, has chosen to rescind their highest award—the Vivian—which was recently given to a book accused of glamorizing genocide. Some useful context: the RWA Read more >

By Walker Caplan

Denne Michele Norris has been named Electric Literature’s new editor-in-chief.

Electric Literature has announced their new editor-in-chief: Denne Michele Norris, formerly a Senior Fiction Editor at The Rumpus and Fiction Editor at Apogee Journal, and cohost of the popular, NYT-lauded podcast Food 4 Thot. According to a press release, in Read more >

By Walker Caplan

Take a look at a young Flannery O’Connor’s satirical cartoons.

Multihyphenates can get a bad rap, accused of not committing to one thing: operating in the gig economy, creators can feel pressure to specialize. But just because many artists are canonized in one discipline doesn’t mean they didn’t work in Read more >

By Walker Caplan

Here are the best reviewed books of the week.

Stephen King’s Billy Summers, Anthony Veasna So’s Afterparties, Alexandra Kleeman’s Something New Under the Sun, and Megan Abbott’s The Turnout all feature among the best reviewed books of the week. Brought to you by Book Marks, Lit Hub’s “Rotten Tomatoes Read more >

By Book Marks

Stephen King might be writing a novel about the coronavirus.

The new wave of COVID-related novels has already infected Gary Shteyngart, Margaret Atwood, John Grisham, and Dave Eggers—and the latest writer to succumb might be Stephen King. In an appearance on The View to promote his new crime novel Billy Read more >

By Walker Caplan

A new documentary about Truman Capote's final novel promises unseen interviews and lots of tea.

Truman Capote never finished his last novel. He signed a contract for the book, which he described as a “dark comedy of the very rich” and compared to In Search of Lost Time, in 1966 (and renegotiated it twice, somehow Read more >

By Emily Temple

After Lord Byron: poetic advice for the modern poet (in couplets).

The very bingeable Lord Byron is having a moment. In 2019, the first two cantos of his great verse epic Don Juan enjoyed their 200th anniversary. This coming Sunday, August 8, 2021, cantos III, IV, and V will turn 200, Read more >

By Jason Guriel

Post45 will publish a cluster of writing on David Berman in early 2022.

In early 2022, the scholar collective Post45 will release a cluster of writing, helmed by guest editors Sarah Osment and David Hering, on David Berman. As Post45’s cluster structure dictates, many different thinkers’ short essays on the work of the Read more >

By Walker Caplan

Laurence Fishburne is bringing Colson Whitehead's Sag Harbor to TV.

That’s right, prestige TV-lovin’ Whitehead-heads; hot on the heels of Barry Jenkins’ stunning series adaptation of The Underground Railroad, HBO Max has wisely decided to go all-in on Colson. Deadline announced earlier today that the streaming service—in conjunction with Boat Read more >

By Dan Sheehan

Get away from it all in this Brazilian outdoor “book house."

I think it was me just now that originated the sentence, “To sit in the shade on a fine day and look upon verdure is the most perfect refreshment.” Brazil-based studio Siqueira + Azul Aquitetura understands this, and has created Read more >

By Walker Caplan

Check out the cover for Hanya Yanagihara's next novel.

Today on Instagram, Hanya Yanagihara shared the cover of her next novel, To Paradise, which will be published by Doubleday on January 11, 2022. Yanagihara, who is not only a novelist but the editor in chief of T: The New Read more >

By Emily Temple

Perfume Genius is writing stories about sensual experiences with the cast of Supernatural.

To explain this, I’ll just present the facts: Mike Hadreas, who makes music as Perfume Genius, is releasing a series of short stories on his Substack, each about an erotic encounter with a different member of the cast of the Read more >

By Walker Caplan

A close reading of a great American poem: Robert Hayden’s “Those Winter Sundays.”

Every now and then literary Twitter remembers just how much of a genius Robert Hayden was and pauses in awe of his poem “Those Winter Sundays.” Hayden, who was born this day, August 4th, in 1913, had a marvelous body Read more >

By Jonny Diamond

(Ursula K. Le Guin's) blogs are back, baby!

What a week it’s been for blogs! First the re(re)turn of Gawker, and now the restoration of Ursula K. Le Guin’s full blog archive! Le Guin, who died in 2018 at 88, started her blog at age 81, writing in Read more >

By Jessie Gaynor

At 95 years young, Mel Brooks has finally written his memoir.

Deadline reported today that Mel Brooks has written a memoir, to be published November 30th by Random House imprint Ballantine Books. All About Me! My Remarkable Life in Show Business will also be released as an audiobook, narrated by Brooks Read more >

By Walker Caplan

Is Flannery O'Connor's Complete Stories still the best ever National Book Award winner?

Today is the 57th death day of Flannery O’Connor, sardonic queen of the Southern Gothic sub-genre (whose long-overlooked racist tendencies have been more widely discussed of late), devout Catholic, and lifelong ornithologist. O’Connor’s The Complete Stories won the 1972 U.S. National Read more >

By Dan Sheehan

Here’s why Terry Pratchett’s daughter and Neil Gaiman are fighting with transphobes on Twitter.

All of a sudden, scores of people on Twitter are speculating about the late Terry Pratchett’s feelings on gender. This discourse hasn’t arisen spontaneously—it’s because Neil Gaiman weighed in on a transphobic Facebook post and angered anti-trans activists. Since then, Read more >

By Walker Caplan

Awkwafina is your host for the 2021 PEN America Literary Gala.

This year’s PEN America Literary Gala has an unexpected yet exciting guest: Golden Globe-winning actor, writer, producer, rapper, and comedian Awkwafina. The gala, scheduled for October 5th, will take place in person at the American Museum of Natural History in Read more >

By Vanessa Willoughby

We’re getting a new Nell Zink novel featuring bikers, princes, and money laundering.

Some Tuesday book news: Publishers Marketplace reported today that Nell Zink has sold a new novel to Knopf—following editor Daniel Halpern to Knopf from Ecco Press, which published her novels Mislaid, Nicotine, Private Novelist, and Doxology. According to the blurb, Read more >

By Walker Caplan