The Hub

News, Notes, Talk

19 new books to get lost in this week.

Here are a few new books roaring in like a lion this week! With new books from NoViolet Bulawayo, Ladee Hubbard, Tara Isabella Burton, and more, there’s something for everyone in this bookstore bounty. * NoViolet Bulawayo, Glory (Viking) “If Read more >

By Katie Yee

Who should replace Pamela Paul at the NYT Books section?

The New York Times today announced that Pamela Paul, who has headed the paper’s Books section and hosted the Book Review podcast since 2013, will be moving to Times Opinion as part of the paper’s expansion of its columnist ranks. Read more >

By Dan Sheehan

Here are the finalists for this year’s $50,000 Joyce Carol Oates Prize.

The New Literary Project has announced the shortlist of five finalists for its 2022 Joyce Carol Oates Prize, which awards a mid-career author of fiction “who has earned an extraordinarily distinguished reputation and garnered the widespread appeal of readers.” Prize Read more >

By Walker Caplan

Exclusive cover reveal: Suad Amiry’s Mother of Strangers.

Lit Hub is pleased to reveal the cover for Suad Amiry’s new novel, Mother of Strangers, which will be published by Penguin Random House this August. Mother of Strangers, based on a true story, follows the lives of 15-year-old mechanic Read more >

By Literary Hub

Reading Rainbow is coming—this time, without LeVar Burton.

Generations of young readers—and their parents—fondly recall Reading Rainbow, the LeVar Burton-hosted show developed as a response to the “summer [literacy] loss phenomenon.” From 1983 to 2006, when it initially ran on PBS, it racked up 26 Emmys, and now, Read more >

By Walker Caplan

Kyiv academic uses books to barricade his apartment window against Russian attacks.

Books may or may not foster empathy (if you feel like fighting on Twitter, just claim they do, you monster) but when used in significant numbers they can insulate you from many things: cold, wind, stupidity, and… incoming shrapnel. According Read more >

By Jonny Diamond

Hear from Ukrainian author Serhiy Zhadan and others at a reading this Friday.

As war in Ukraine continues, it’s crucial to keep reading, publishing, and listening to the country’s authors. This Friday, March 4, PEN America is hosting a reading on Zoom that will bring together American and Ukrainian authors in solidarity. Paul Read more >

By Corinne Segal

A Ukrainian translator of Noam Chomsky responds to his recent comments on the Russian invasion.

Writer and translator Artem Chapeye sent the following earlier this week in response to recently resurfaced comments by Noam Chomsky about the Russian invasion of Ukraine. While Chomsky has been a clear and much-needed critic of American imperialism over the Read more >

By Jonny Diamond

These new Dr. Seuss books will destroy us all.

In a move that seems certain to piss everyone off, Dr. Seuss Enterprises yesterday announced that a series of unpublished sketches by the late Cat in the Hat author will serve as inspiration for a new line of children’s books Read more >

By Dan Sheehan

Has the real-life inspiration for Miss Havisham been uncovered?

You might remember Miss Havisham, the withered, angry villain of Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations. (Incredibly, in the book, she is “scarcely forty” . . . which was never that old!) Miss Havisham, made monstrous by her spinsterhood, is almost caricaturish Read more >

By Walker Caplan

Take a look at the beautiful cover—and partial contributor list—for Astra Magazine’s first issue.

Last February, Astra Publishing House announced their new literary magazine, Astra Magazine, billed as “the international magazine of literature.” Helmed by Nadja Spiegelman, former online editor of The Paris Review and author of I’m Supposed to Protect You from All Read more >

By Walker Caplan

Exclusive cover reveal: Laura Warrell’s Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm.

Lit Hub is pleased to reveal the cover for Laura Warrell’s debut novel Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm, which will be published by Pantheon in fall 2022. Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm follows Circus Palmer, a forty-year-old Boston-based trumpet player and old-school Read more >

By Literary Hub

Good news alert: Amazon is closing its physical bookstores.

Ding dong! The wicked witch is dead! Or at least, it will no longer linger on our streets. Amazon dot com has just announced that it plans to close all 68 of its brick-and-mortar bookstores in the US and the Read more >

By Katie Yee

A The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas sequel will be published this year. It’s controversial.

John Boyne, writer of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, is releasing a sequel to the novel on September 15, 2022. All The Broken Places will be published by Doubleday and Penguin Random House in the U.S., Transworld in the Read more >

By Walker Caplan

Area 7-year-old embarks on noble quest to read all 3,000 picture books in the library.

Every now and then, when the world is too much with us, I am able to find some small comfort in a very local, very sweet news story. So it is that I enjoyed today’s report of 7-year-old Inara Petroulis, Read more >

By Jonny Diamond

Would you like to try a tool that shows you only the questions in a piece of writing?

In an age when the phrase “just asking questions” can serve as a helpful shorthand for “being a total dick on the internet,” I couldn’t help but wonder: is the question… up to the mark? Terrible Sex and the City jokes aside, Read more >

By Jessie Gaynor