The Hub

News, Notes, Talk

A public library was denied funding over an LGBTQ+ support group—so patrons took action.

Here’s a story out of Fulton County, Pennsylvania; I’d call it “feel-good”, but really, it’s about the public picking up governmental officials’ slack. Two of three Fulton County commissioners refused to approve an additional $3,000 in funding for their public Read more >

By Walker Caplan

The delightful Marcus Rashford has written a delightful-sounding children's book.

Manchester United striker and Tory-shaming child food poverty campaigner Marcus Rashford—one of the few remaining good, pure humans in this godforsaken world—is releasing his first work of fiction for kids. Excited to announce the release of my first fiction book Read more >

By Dan Sheehan

Mark Twain disliked suspenders so much that he invented the bra clasp. (That's right.)

Here’s your fun fact for the day: Not only was Mark Twain (née Samuel Langhorne Clemens on this day in 1835) an inventor of good stories and witty rejoinders, he was a literal inventor—of both successful and not-so-successful items. Over Read more >

By Emily Temple

12 new books hitting shelves this week.

Consider this blog post your daily reminder to take a short break from work. Take your dog to the park! Go get a croissant! Walk on over to your local indie! Just in case… here are a dozen new books Read more >

By Katie Yee

Listen to Chadwick Boseman read Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass.

On this day, the magnetic, beloved actor Chadwick Boseman would have been 45 years old. I know that I speak for many people when I say that it was truly heartbreaking to learn that Boseman had been privately battling colon Read more >

By Vanessa Willoughby

COVER REVEAL: Northwestern University Press’s collection Growing Up Chicago.

Lit Hub is pleased to reveal the cover for the story collection Growing Up Chicago, edited by David Schaafsma, Roxanne Pilat, and Lauren DeJulio Bell with a foreword by Luis Alberto Urrea, which will be published by Northwestern University Press Read more >

By Literary Hub

Treat yourself: 5 fictional shopping sprees to fuel your Black Friday.

Because capitalism is alive and well, ahead of Black Friday (which seems to be encroaching earlier and earlier), I’ve been thinking about a few fictional shopping sprees. While shopping can be gluttonous and indulgent, wasteful and vapid, in literature it also Read more >

By Katie Yee

After 40 years, the man wrongfully convicted of Alice Sebold's rape has been exonerated.

The rape conviction at the center of The Lovely Bones author Alice Sebold’s memoir, Lucky, has been overturned after an executive producer on its Netflix adaptation started asking questions about the guilt of Anthony Broadwater. Broadwater, now 61, served 16 Read more >

By Walker Caplan

Breaking: Alaska teen turns Gilgamesh into rap.

Something actually, genuinely fun to send you off on your holiday weekend: Tracen Wassily, a junior at Dillingham High School in Alaska, has turned the Epic of Gilgamesh into a rap. According to KDLG, Public Radio for Alaska’s Bristol Bay, Read more >

By Walker Caplan

F. Scott Fitzgerald's list of silly suggestions for Thanksgiving leftovers is... not great.

When Thanksgiving is represented in literature, it’s almost always as a showcase for extreme family dysfunction. And don’t get me wrong, I love a catastrophic dinner scene—but I also love Thanksgiving. It’s a holiday that unites so many of my Read more >

By Jessie Gaynor

Impeachment probe confirms: yeah, Cuomo’s book deal was shady.

In April, back when a few Cuomosexuals still roamed New York, the Times Union published interviews with anonymous current and former Cuomo staffers claiming they were given tasks related to Cuomo’s memoir about the COVID-19 pandemic, American Crisis, for which Read more >

By Walker Caplan

J.R.R. Tolkien's estate has shut down a cryptocurrency called . . . "J.R.R. Token."

Using energy with abandon, stealing ape art NFTs: cryptocurrency seems pretty lawless, except, it turns out, if you infringe on trademark rights. The Guardian has reported that the estate of J.R.R. Tolkien has taken legal action to block a Lord Read more >

By Walker Caplan

11 new books to be grateful for this week.

Today brings us new titles from A.S. Byatt, Ann Patchett, Mario Vargas Llosa, Haruki Murakami, and more! What a line-up! We’re grateful for new books and the people who had a hand in crafting them, this week and all weeks. Read more >

By Katie Yee

Why George Eliot disparaged "silly novels by lady novelists."

On this day in 1819, novelist, poet, and translator George Eliot was born Mary Ann Evans in Warwickshire, England. Eliot’s mother died when she was 17 and in 1841, Eliot and her father moved to Coventry, which later provided inspiration Read more >

By Vanessa Willoughby

Eileen Myles, Geoff Dyer, and other authors have signed an open letter supporting Sally Rooney.

In October, Sally Rooney chose not to sign a translation deal for Beautiful World, Where Are You with her previous Hebrew publisher, the Israel-based Modan Publishing House, in compliance with the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement, which works to end international Read more >

By Walker Caplan

Long live The Believer (which has a new issue coming out!)

We remain moderately to very upset about the shuttering of The Believer, but are pleased to remind you that there are two more issues coming out! The first of which drops this December and—per the stylishly charming video below—is the Read more >

By Jonny Diamond