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News, Notes, Talk

A24 is adapting Octavia Butler's SF classic Parable of the Sower.

Deadline reported yesterday that A24 has won the rights to Octavia E. Butler’s beloved cult classic Parable of the Sower, which finally made the New York Times bestseller list last fall. Critically acclaimed documentary director Garrett Bradley (Time) is set Read more >

By Walker Caplan

Here's the 2021 Booker Prize longlist.

It seems like we just got done celebrating the 2020 Booker Prize winner, but it’s already that time again: the “Booker Dozen” has been announced. The 13 books longlisted for this year’s Booker, the UK’s most prestigious prize for a Read more >

By Emily Temple

20 new books to get you through the week.

How are you doing, friend? Need a hug? Need a distraction? Need to learn something new? Need an escape from your everyday life? Look no further. New books are here for you. * Matthew Specktor, Always Crashing in the Same Read more >

By Katie Yee

Joe Jonas is Haruki Murakami’s newest celebrity fan.

Haruki Murakami’s writing has inspired many creatives’ own practices, from visual artists to video game designers to filmmakers to other writers. And hopefully we’ll be seeing yet another artist-turned-Murakami-enthusiast: Joe Jonas has revealed he’s been reading Murakami as he works Read more >

By Walker Caplan

Here are the six winners of this year’s Helen Merrill Award for Playwriting.

This past week, the New York Community Trust announced the 2021 winners of its Helen Merrill Award for Playwriting, chosen by a committee of theater professionals. The award, one of the nation’s most significant prizes for playwrights, is named after Read more >

By Walker Caplan

Son carries on family tradition of looking kind of like Ernest Hemingway.

A century from now, when the Autonomous Underwater City State of Key West has defeated the last of its subaqueous rivals for control of What Was Once Florida (WWOF) you can be sure they will celebrate with yet another Ernest Read more >

By Jonny Diamond

Garth Greenwell’s What Belongs to You is becoming an opera.

Garth Greenwell has (wisely, well-adjustedly) left Twitter, but last night he logged back on to share the “mindblowing & moving & surreal” experience of hearing his novel What Belongs to You, the monologue of an American teacher abroad entering a Read more >

By Walker Caplan

Stephen King is about to take over podcasts.

Just when you thought that Stephen King had conquered every literary medium known to man, he’s exploring new territory. This latest venture? Podcasts. Audio Up Media, iHeartMedia, and Emmy-winning producer, writer, and director Lee Metzger are teaming up to adapt Read more >

By Vanessa Willoughby

Octavia Butler's 1979 bio is an object lesson in writing author bios.

Over the weekend, the Los Angeles Review of Books published a fairly wild essay by Miguel Esteban who, at the tender age of 14, commissioned a now-famous essay on race in science fiction from Octavia Butler. The whole piece is Read more >

By Emily Temple

Here are the best reviewed books of the week.

Katie Kitamura’s Intimacies, Omar El Akkad’s What Strange Paradise, Hermione Hoby’s Virtue, and Rachel Yoder’s Nightbitch all feature among the Best Reviewed Books of the Week. Brought to you by Book Marks, Lit Hub’s “Rotten Tomatoes for books.”   Fiction 1. Read more >

By Book Marks

A new Little Free Library program will bring thousands of diverse books to Detroit neighborhoods.

Under its new “Read in Color” initiative, the Little Free Library is partnering with Brilliant Detroit—an organization which provides children educational programming and support in high-need Detroit neighborhoods—to bring thousands of diverse books to Detroit neighborhoods through Little Free Library Read more >

By Walker Caplan

Elvis’s annotated copy of The Prophet, gifted to his bodyguard and close friend, is on sale now.

Good news for fans of Elvis, or Kahlil Gibran, or annotation: Elvis Presley’s annotated copy of Kahlil Gibran’s prose poem collection The Prophet is on sale now from Peter Harrington for £19,500. Presley loved The Prophet, reading it so often Read more >

By Walker Caplan

The Belarus government has moved to liquidate PEN Belarus.

Yesterday, the Belarusian Justice Ministry moved to shut down PEN Belarus, sister organization of PEN America currently run by Nobel winner Svetlana Alexievich. This news comes amid widespread crackdowns on civil society activists and independent media by the Belarusian government Read more >

By Walker Caplan

Revisiting Raymond Chandler’s most iconic lines.

“I was as hollow and empty as the spaces between stars.” Today marks the 133rd anniversary of the birth of Raymond Chandler, patron saint of Los Angeles noir and perhaps the most famous crime fiction writer of all time. Each Read more >

By Dan Sheehan

Cover reveal: Erika Robuck's new novel, Sisters of Night and Fog.

In March 2022, Erika Robuck, bestselling historical fiction author, will publish Sisters of Night and Fog, a novel based on the true story of an American socialite and a British secret. The publisher, Berkley, describes it like this: Set across Read more >

By Literary Hub

Do yourself a favor and listen to Robin Sloan read Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.

Robin Sloan, author of the delightful novels Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore and Sourdough has made something of a tradition out of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, that 14th century chivalric banger that’s been popping up in your feed because of Read more >

By Emily Temple

Gaze upon this image of Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand in The Tragedy of Macbeth.

Ring the alarum-bell! It’s your first look at Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand as literature’s favorite murderous power couple, the Macbeths. (Unrelated: should someone should write a contemporary adaptation in which Lady Macbeth is a #GirlBoss and Macduff is a Read more >

By Jessie Gaynor

The adaptation of Haruki Murakami's "Drive My Car" just won best screenplay at Cannes.

Exciting news for Haruki Murakami fans, as always: this past week, director Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s feature adaptation of Murakami’s short story “Drive My Car” won Best Screenplay at Cannes. The screenplay was written by Hamaguchi and Takamasa Oe; this marks the Read more >

By Walker Caplan

The new Dune trailer features more Zendaya, terrifying CGI, and of course, lots of sand.

After COVID-related delays, Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation of Frank Herbert’s sweeping (and difficult to adapt) science fiction epic Dune is finally set to debut both on HBO Max and in theaters on October 1st. As the release date quickly approaches, Warner Read more >

By Walker Caplan

Bruce Springsteen and Barack Obama are teaming up on a book.

Rock legend Bruce Springsteen and former President Barack Obama have written a book based on their podcast conversations, to be published globally by Penguin Random House in partnership with Higher Ground. The book chronicles, as Obama said in the book’s Read more >

By Walker Caplan