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News, Notes, Talk

A new Hans Christen Andersen museum takes architectural inspiration from one of his stories.

This summer, a new museum dedicated to the works of Hans Christen Andersen will open in his birthplace of Odense, Denmark. H.C. Andersen’s House looks absolutely gorgeous—it was designed by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma and his team, who were inspired Read more >

By Emily Temple

Art Spiegelman and Robert Coover have collaborated (over Zoom!) on a new illustrated dystopian story.

Two of my favorite American geniuses, writer and graphic artist Art Spiegelman, and short story master Robert Coover, have collaborated on a new illustrated story, Street Cop. Street Cop is the fourth text in the literary subscription project isolarii. “Street Cop Read more >

By Emily Temple

Here’s the literary Twitter bot that’s helped me survive lockdown.

There’s no one way to survive a pandemic (and survival is the bar here, people—those of you thriving can take it somewhere else). Aside from the real and ever-present threat of death, COVID-19 has forced us all into various kinds Read more >

By Jonny Diamond

Norton Juster, author of The Phantom Tollbooth, has died at 91.

Norton Juster, the writer best known for his beloved, innovative children’s classic The Phantom Tollbooth, as well as The Dot and the Line, died last night at the age of 91. Juster was also an architect, and he has said Read more >

By Emily Temple

22 (!) new titles to add to your TBR pile.

With the weather getting slightly warmer and spring just around the corner, I have vaguely thought about the concept of “getting back into shape.” In college, my friends and I used to go to the Rec Barn to exercise (read: Read more >

By Katie Yee

We're finally getting a Kindred adaptation!

Yes, more than four decades on from its original publication, Octavia Butler’s legions of fans will soon be able to watch a prestige television adaptation of the visionary Sci-Fi author’s most beloved novel, and I think I speak for everyone Read more >

By Dan Sheehan

Take a look inside this rare, self-published Andy Warhol cookbook.

Some pleasant Monday browsing! A rare self-published cookbook by Andy Warhol—one of only 34 color copies made—is up for auction this month at Bonhams. Warhol collaborated on the book with his friend Suzie Frankfurt, who wrote the text, and his Read more >

By Walker Caplan

Octavia Butler is now officially on Mars.

How did I miss this?! NASA’s Perseverance rover has touched down on Mars—and NASA has named its landing site after Octavia Butler. “Octavia E. Butler Landing” is located in Jezero Crater, just north of Mars’s equator. Once flooded with water, Read more >

By Walker Caplan

Read the newly announced inscription for the Barack Obama Presidential Library.

Yesterday, on the 56th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, the civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery interrupted by police violence, the Obama Foundation announced the inscription that will adorn the exterior of the former president’s presidential library in Chicago. The Read more >

By Walker Caplan

Attention: Alyssa Cole is writing a YA fantasy romance graphic novel.

Calling all Alyssa Cole aficionados! The Reluctant Royals author is expanding her expertise to graphic novels. Cole announced on Twitter that she recently signed a six-figure, two-book deal with HarperCollins/Balzer + Bray for Reject Squad, a new graphic novel. The Sleeping Read more >

By Vanessa Willoughby

Gov. Cuomo got a seven-figure advance for his appallingly premature pandemic victory-lap memoir.

Today’s unsurprising-but-still-depressing publishing news: Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who has been accused of sexual harassment by five women, reportedly received “at least low- to mid-seven figures” for his memoir, American Crisis: Leadership Lessons From the COVID-19 Pandemic, which was published by Read more >

By Jessie Gaynor

Cover reveal: There's A Revolution Outside, My Love, Tracy K. Smith and John Freeman, eds.

Lit Hub is pleased to reveal the cover of There’s A Revolution Outside, My Love (edited by Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Tracy K. Smith and founder of Freeman’s John Freeman), which will be published in May 2021. The cover was designed by Read more >

By Literary Hub

"It's incredibly lazy and depressingly effective." John Oliver on Fox News's Dr. Seuss antics.

If you have somehow missed the ongoing conversation around the recent “cancellation” of Dr. Seuss (read: his own foundation’s decision to let certain books with racist imagery to go out of print), well, bless you. But even if, like me, Read more >

By Emily Temple

Can you sit through all 9 minutes of this Bret Easton Ellis-directed sunglasses ad?

You probably know that Bret Easton Ellis is not only a novelist but a director, but did you know that he once directed a nine (9) minute long ad Persol sunglasses? (And do you hate that that string of words Read more >

By Katie Yee

Here are the best reviewed books of the week.

Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun, Viet Thanh Nguyen’s The Committed, Stephen King’s Later, and Isabel Allende’s The Soul of a Woman all feature among the Best Reviewed Books of the Week. Brought to you by Book Marks, Lit Hub’s “Rotten Read more >

By Book Marks

Back in 1986, the Castros helped retrieve Hemingway's stolen Nobel Prize.

The period leading up to Ernest Hemingway’s 1954 Nobel Prize win was a pretty nightmarish one for Papa. Debilitating health problems (migraines, high blood pressure, liver disease, diabetes), near-fatal accidents (two plane crashes in as many days while vacationing in Read more >

By Dan Sheehan

Here is your definitive ranking of Bret Easton Ellis film adaptations, from best to worst.

Did you know? Bret Easton Ellis was born this weekend (March 7, to be exact) in 1964. In honor (?) of this highly problematic Pisces, I’ve ranked all the movies that have been adapted from his books. I am aware Read more >

By Vanessa Willoughby

Ray Romano covers Beyoncé in the first Made for Love trailer.

Yes, you read that headline correctly. The first trailer for Made for Love—the upcoming HBO adaptation of Alyssa Nutting’s batshit 2017 novel—has hit the internet, and it is weird in all the most wondrous ways. Chief among them: the dulcet Read more >

By Dan Sheehan

10 writers we’d like to see as politicians.

On this day in 1945, ardent lover of the working class man (and woman, of all classes) Pablo Neruda was elected as a communist senator for the northern Chilean provinces. Neruda, long an admirer of Vladimir Lenin, saw the Soviet Read more >

By Jonny Diamond

Anonymous Content is turning Detransition, Baby into a tv show.

Wonderful news, and not a moment too soon! Deadline reported this morning that Torrey Peters’s novel Detransition, Baby is in development as a half-hour dramedy. It’s being developed by Anonymous Content, the production company behind Being John Malkovich, Spotlight, True Read more >

By Walker Caplan