The Hub

News, Notes, Talk

Seven books to scratch that Pride and Prejudice itch.

Jane is in the air lately. This year, Joe Wright’s Pride and Prejudice turns twenty, which is the same age Keira Knightley was when she starred as the cool girl’s Lizzy Bennet. A new feast of a French film, Jane Read more >

By Brittany Allen

Bernardine Evaristo has been awarded the Women's Prize for Fiction's Outstanding Contribution Award.

Today, the Women’s Prize Trust announced Bernardine Evaristo as the recipient of the Women’s Prize Outstanding Contribution Award, a unique prize meant to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Women’s Prize for Fiction. All authors who had been previously longlisted, Read more >

By Literary Hub

My book recommendations versus your book recommendations.

Book recommendations are not all created equal. Sometimes when I tell a friend what they should read next, I feel sure they’ll like it. But when I get a recommendation? Well, sometimes it sends me in the opposite emotional direction: Read more >

By James Folta

Melissa Febos! Mike Tyson! Taylor Jenkins Reid! 26 new books out today.

The summer is here! And while that message is perhaps inescapably bittersweet this year, what with the world being on fire in ways both metaphorical and all-too-literal, it remains a truth universally acknowledged that a day of delightful weather can Read more >

By Gabrielle Bellot

All the fake books in Wes Anderson's multiverse, ranked.

This week, Wes Anderson’s latest concoction, The Phoenician Scheme, hits screens. And thanks to this latest work from a pointillist who loves his reference texts, I’m thinking about Anderson’s prop books. Wes has romanticized the literary arts for almost his Read more >

By Brittany Allen

What are the most Lynchian items in the David Lynch auction?

David Lynch has made frequent appearances on Lit Hub over the years—my colleague Brittany wrote a touching ode to his work when he died—and now you have the chance to own some of Lynch’s things, thanks to an upcoming auction Read more >

By James Folta

Here's what's making us happy this week.

A theme of this week is deliberate regression. We’re going—excuse me while I don my best Huey Lewis voice—back in tiiiime, to child-like wonder, honest delusion, and an era before hi-def digital graphics. Drew Broussard is all about this dungeon-crawl Read more >

By Brittany Allen

One great short story to read today:
Kevin Brockmeier's “The Ceiling”

According to the powers that be (er, apparently according to Dan Wickett of the Emerging Writers Network), May is Short Story Month. To celebrate, for the third year in a row, the Literary Hub staff will be recommending a single short Read more >

By Dan Sheehan

Living with Mr. Spock! Thom Gunn! Harriet Tubman! 25 books out in paperback this June.

June is here, which means that summer has also arrived. And even in a horrific world—or especially in one—there is power in small comforts, including warmer, sunnier days, and what better than to have a lovely new book at your Read more >

By Gabrielle Bellot

The revolutionary Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o has died.

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o has died. The Kenyan novelist, playwright, poet, and critic was 87. The “towering giant of Kenyan letters” broke through in 1964, with the publication of his first novel, Weep Not, Child. The bold debut, nurtured under his Read more >

By Brittany Allen

One great short story to read today:
Leigh Newman's "Nobody Gets Out Alive"

According to the powers that be (er, apparently according to Dan Wickett of the Emerging Writers Network), May is Short Story Month. To celebrate, for the third year in a row, the Literary Hub staff will be recommending a single short Read more >

By Brittany Allen

Here are some real book recommendations based on those fake books that AI invented.

In case you missed it, The Chicago Sun-Times and a bunch of other papers got duped into running a reading list full of made-up, AI slop. (Some of the books are real—Bonjour Tristesse, Beautiful Ruins, Dandelion Wine, Call Me By Read more >

By James Folta

Meet the 2025 Griffin Poetry Prize finalists.

Last month, the Griffin Poetry Prize—the world’s largest international prize for a single book of poetry published in English—announced its 2025 shortlist. The winner will be announced at a ceremony in Toronto on June 4th, and will receive C$130,000. Each Read more >

By Literary Hub

One great short story to read today:
James Tadd Adcox's "A Haunting"

According to the powers that be (er, apparently according to Dan Wickett of the Emerging Writers Network), May is Short Story Month. To celebrate, for the third year in a row, the Literary Hub staff will be recommending a single short Read more >

By Drew Broussard

One great short story to read today: Breece D’J Pancake’s “Time and Again”

According to the powers that be (er, apparently according to Dan Wickett of the Emerging Writers Network), May is Short Story Month. To celebrate, for the third year in a row, the Literary Hub staff will be recommending a single short Read more >

By Jonny Diamond

Tash Aw! A biography of Tim O'Brien! Lesbian hotlines! 22 new books out today.

May is nearing its end, and this has been a month that once again will be remembered most, perhaps, for its political and socioeconomic horrors, for its ever-larger steps towards American fascism. In these frightening, flummoxing times, art soothes, clarifies, Read more >

By Gabrielle Bellot

Here's what's making us happy this week.

Happy spring, fellow travelers. This week we’re back to basics with the good stuff. Physical books supplied by physical people are bringing us lots of joy. And when the pages don’t compel, we’re moving our bodies around. In the wake Read more >

By Brittany Allen

Your week in book news, in Venn diagrams.

Another big week in book news, with new releases and faux releases. Don’t get caught unaware if anyone asks you what you thought of Tidewater Dreams by Isabel Allende or The Last Algorithm by Andy Weir. Have a great long Read more >

By James Folta

One great short story to read today:
Jessi Jesewska Stevens's "Honeymoon"

According to the powers that be (er, apparently according to Dan Wickett of the Emerging Writers Network), May is Short Story Month. To celebrate, for the third year in a row, the Literary Hub staff will be recommending a single short story, Read more >

By Brittany Allen

Michael Crummey’s The Adversary has won the 2025 Dublin Literary Award.

Today, Canadian writer Michael Crummey’s “dark, enthralling novel about love and its limitations” was announced as the winner of this year’s Dublin Literary Award. Selected from a shortlist of six novels, The Adversary took home the top prize. The Dublin Read more >

By James Folta