The Hub

News, Notes, Talk

Suggestions for new MFA discourses.

Look, we were all waiting for a new discourse to come around and knock Bad Art Friend off its surprisingly sturdy pedestal, but personally, I was hoping for something slightly more interesting than Should MFA Programs Teach You How to Read more >

By Jessie Gaynor

Another Don DeLillo adaptation is coming—with Jez Butterworth adapting.

2021 has been a busy year for Don DeLillo adaptations. When you consider there have only been two screen adaptations of DeLillo novels in the past, that doesn’t seem like that big of a statement—but it’s actually been a whirlwind. Read more >

By Walker Caplan

How to donate a box of books without getting the bomb-squad involved.

Yes, that happened. A local branch of Oregon’s Deschutes County Library system had to call in the bomb squad to ascertain the nature of a Styrofoam box left on its doorstep. As reported in Newsweek (for some reason!?): After the Read more >

By Jonny Diamond

18 new books to get you excited about reading again.

If you’re in a reading rut, fear not! There are some glorious books coming into the world today, guaranteed to get you back in the groove of things. We’ve got life wisdom from Nick Offerman and Sutton Foster! A thriller Read more >

By Katie Yee

Listen to a 1962 recording of Sylvia Plath reading "Daddy."

The poem is spoken by a girl with an Electra complex. The father died while she thought he was God. Her case is complicated by the fact that her father was also a Nazi and her mother very possibly part Read more >

By Dan Sheehan

The movement to put translators' names on book covers is working.

This September 30th—International Translators Day—a group of translators, writers and publishers signed an open letter asking that translators be named on the covers of the books they translate. “It is thanks to translators that we have access to world literatures Read more >

By Walker Caplan

Everything you need to know about the Sally Rooney/Israel controversy.

If you were on Twitter yesterday, you may have seen people talking about Sally Rooney being anti-Semitic. The reason for this conversation is the claim that Rooney refused to let her new novel, Beautiful World, Where Are You, be translated Read more >

By Walker Caplan

Read this newly discovered 1949 Ann Petry essay about Harlem.

On this day in 1908, Ann Petry was born in the bucolic seaside town of Old Saybrook, CT. Her groundbreaking novel The Street (1946) was an immediate success, selling 20,000 copies in advance of its release. It went on to Read more >

By Vanessa Willoughby

Here are some poetic ways to respond to annoying work emails.

During a recent passive scrolling session on Twitter, I found this tweet from way back in early 2019—yes, it was a long passive scrolling session, but I’m trying to make something of it here—in which Devin Gael Kelly jokes that Read more >

By Snigdha Koirala

This new web tool gets rid of everything but punctuation—so you can see your hidden literary style.

How does one visualize a writer’s style? You can close read and accumulate observations; you can map the structure of a text through drawing; and now, a new web tool allows you to visualize any piece of writing by stripping Read more >

By Walker Caplan

What to read next based on your favorite... roller skate moves!

Just like everyone else in their 20s who spends too much time scrolling through Instagram Reels, I have gotten very into roller skating over the past few months. It’s pure joy! It makes you feel like a child! It gives Read more >

By Katie Yee

The 10 best Goosebumps covers, ranked.

Today is the 78th birthday of RL Stine, AKA Jovial Bob Stine, AKA “the Stephen King of children’s literature.” It also happens to be the perfect season to revisit some of his ~spoooooookiest~ book covers! Luckily, someone I can only Read more >

By Jessie Gaynor

The creator of Midnight Mass is now adapting Poe's Fall of the House of Usher.

Director/writer Mike Flanagan has quickly made a name for himself as a horror maestro. The man behind Netflix’s hit anthology series The Haunting and the recently released Midnight Mass is set to adapt Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Fall of the Read more >

By Vanessa Willoughby

Instead of acting like Kidney Person, be more like these 19th-century literary haters.

Today, for no reason in particular, I’m thinking about writerly infighting. It’s alarming to know that your insulting groupchat messages could become public—especially in a culture of networking, where negative feelings about fellow writers are mostly expressed through texts, emails, Read more >

By Walker Caplan

Presenting the Giving Tree Kid's Hierarchy of Needs.

On this day in 1964, Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree was published. As children’s classics go, this one is divisive: it is about noble self-sacrifice? Generosity turned to martyrdom, run amuck? Millennial parent burnout??? Silverstein himself said of the book, “It’s about Read more >

By Jessie Gaynor

Sue Grafton’s alphabet series will be adapted for TV—despite her family’s "blood oath."

Exclusive rights to the late Sue Grafton’s popular alphabet book series featuring private investigator Kinsey Millhone—A is for Alibi and so on—have sold to A+E Studios. Now, the studio can develop the entirety of the series for television. Steve Humphrey, Read more >

By Walker Caplan