Weird news of the day: the viral creation collective MSCHF has used machine learning to create an audio deepfake of rapper Gucci Mane reading classic texts. MSCHF collected six hours of audio from podcasts and interviews, transcribed them, and created Read more >
Kazuo Ishiguro’s new novel Klara and the Sun, which follows a robot as she tries to understand the human world, has been praised as “a masterpiece about life, love, and mortality” and “a work that makes us feel afresh the Read more >
Sylvia Plath’s grave has been the subject of fascination for many since her death in 1963; over the last decades, the poet’s tombstone, which sits in a parish graveyard in Heptonstall, has attracted tourists, “feminist vandals,” and thieves alike. Now, Read more >
While we don’t know what the state of the our pandemic society will be come September, we can at least be sure that we’ll all be getting a little Joy Williams, as a treat. Specifically, a new novel—her fifth, and Read more >
Two of my favorite writers died on this day, 14 years apart: Georges Perec in 1982 and Marguerite Duras in 1996. I have read the latter in French but not the former, though I suspect it is Perec who warrants Read more >
If you’re going to listen to anyone about the process of writing, Colson Whitehead is a pretty good choice: the MacArthur Genius Grant recipient won back-to-back Pulitzers for his novels The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys, making him the Read more >
Have you been going back and forth on whether or not do adopt a furry best friend for the past year? Did that one very recent New Yorker story about loving difficult animals make you cry? Do you love books? Read more >
Yesterday, The Guardian reported that for the first time in history, researchers were able to read an unopened letter without breaking the seal. The international team of researchers, led by Jana Dambrogio and Amanda Ghassaei, used a technique they developed Read more >
91 years ago today marks the death of D.H. Lawrence, who E.M. Forster called “the greatest imaginative novelist of our generation” and whose writing Joseph Conrad called “Filth . . . nothing but obscenities.” Both can be true; today we’re Read more >
Today the Los Angeles Times announced the finalists for its 2020-21 Book Prize, which recognizes and honors outstanding literary work published in the last year. The 55 finalists were selected across 11 categories—Biography, Current Interest, Fiction, Graphic Novels/Comics, History, Mystery/Thriller, Read more >
Haruki Murakami has something of a reputation for being reclusive, but strangely—and happily—Murakami fans have had plenty of Murakami-related content to chew on during the pandemic. He’s running an ongoing radio program; he hosted a bossa nova jam; a public Read more >
The Folio Society has recently released a new edition of weird girl classic Nights at the Circus, beautifully illustrated by British artist and printmaker Eileen Cooper and with an introduction by Sarah Waters. “I describe the method I used as “print-based Read more >
Today, Literary Hub is pleased to announce the winners of PEN America’s two “early career” prizes for writers: the PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction and the PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers. “Taken together, these prizes Read more >
Dear reader, I have two recommendations for you. The first recommendation is going to the freezer aisle of your local grocery store and taking home a big box of frozen mini eclairs. The second recommendation is going to your local Read more >
Complicating conservative claims yesterday that progressives are desperate to cancel Dr. Seuss (rhymes with Joyce), the foundation itself responsible for the legacy of the beloved children’s author announced they will be ceasing publication of six of his books (Seuss-rhymes-with-Joyce wrote Read more >
The Associated Press has reported that Marieke Lucas Rijneveld, the Dutch poet appointed by the Dutch publisher Meulenhoff to translate Amanda Gorman’s “The Hill We Climb” and her first poetry collection into Dutch, has stepped down after criticism that a Read more >
Akwaeke Emezi (Freshwater, Pet, The Death of Vivek Oji) is making their romance debut with You Made a Fool of Death With Your Beauty. The novel, which will be published in 2022 by Atria, centers on “a young artist struggling to Read more >
There’s something thrilling about watching a movie or a TV show and finding that you recognize the characters’ surroundings— that you have stood on that street corner or peered into that shop before the characters, before that story begins. As Read more >
We’ve known for a while that HBO was working on turning Audrey Niffenegger’s 2003 novel The Time Traveler’s Wife into a series. The show, which boasts Doctor Who and Sherlock writer Steven Moffat as a writer and executive producer, is Read more >
It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s… more superhero adaptation news! But this time, with some welcome literary cred: Deadline has just announced that Ta-Nehisi Coates will be writing the screenplay for the latest Superman reboot. J.J. Abrams is producing, and Henry Cavill Read more >
