There’s something so delightful about watching a movie or television show and spying a famous author on screen. It’s how I imagine a birdwatcher would feel if they spotted a rare bird while they were just walking to the grocery Read more >
There are teaser trailers and then there are teaser trailers. Sometimes all you get are a few maddeningly blurry flashes of action. Often it’s just snippet of ponderous dialogue over a slow-moving title card. But occasionally, very occasionally, a teaser Read more >
The Hollywood Reporter announced this morning that a new Harry Potter series is in early development at HBO Max. Though HBO Max and Warner Bros. said in a statement that “there are no Harry Potter series in development at the Read more >
Short of becoming a time machine for well-meaning Gen X slackers, I cannot imagine a grander afterlife for the humble phone booth than to be reincarnated as a cosy wee library. One day you’re a rusted urinal, all-but invisible to Read more >
This summer, we learned that Spotify was searching for someone to run an new audiobooks division, and now, the next chapter in that story has been made public: today Spotify released a collection of classic audiobooks on its platform, including Read more >
Yesterday, writer and book critic Michael Schaub announced all the finalists for the 2020 National Book Critics Circle Award, which honors the “finest books” published in English during the last year. The thirty finalists were selected across six categories—Autobiography, Biography, Read more >
After years of disheartening instances of “Republican politician-turned-author,” here we have a potential case of “author-turned-Republican politician,” and I gotta say… it doesn’t feel that much better! According to The Columbus Dispatch, Ohio Senator Rob Portman won’t seek re-election in 2022, Read more >
Honestly, every night around here is a little like Burns Night, the annual Scots tradition in honor of national poet-hero Robbie Burns: a little too much whisky, the inevitable descent into maudlin self-pity, and the consumption of barely edible food Read more >
Some news for self-published writers: this week, Publishers Weekly reported that Naver, Korea’s leading internet platform, is acquiring Wattpad for over $600 million in cash and stock. For those who aren’t among the 90 million people that used Wattpad in Read more >
Back when Paul Thomas Anderson was in high school, before his sweeping porn industry epic Boogie Nights became a hit, he and a few friends made the The Dirk Diggler Story: a half-hour-long proto-Boogie Nights narrated by Anderson’s father. The Read more >
William Boyd’s Trio, Nnedi Okorafor’s Remote Control, Janice P. Nimura’s The Doctors Blackwell, and Simon Winchester’s Land all feature among the best reviewed books of the week. Brought to you by Book Marks, Lit Hub’s “Rotten Tomatoes for books.” Fiction Read more >
It’s rare to see Raven Leilani’s Luster next to Doctor De Soto, William Steig’s children’s book about a mouse that performs dental surgery—but this is par for the course at Oh Hello Again, Seattle’s newest bookshop. Oh Hello Again, rather Read more >
For a long while Barnes & Noble was villain number one in the eyes of indie bookstore owners, the poster child for soulless, homogenizing box stores (they even made a movie about it!)—but that was 25 years ago. These days, Read more >
The late Umberto Eco—professor, novelist, children’s book author—was a man of many talents. One of which, as seen in a video clip posted on Twitter by writer Ted Gioia, was quickly finding books in his famously massive personal library. I Read more >
Ard Su’s colorful, stylized illustrations have accompanied fiction by Lorrie Moore in The New Yorker and interviews on NPR NextGen. But before she completed her MA in illustration at the Maryland Institute College of Art, she studied Japanese, in the Read more >
Between Bernie’s mittens, Ella Emhoff’s coat (and iconic Pence mocking), and the president of the United States no longer being a proudly monstrous coup-stoking white supremacist, there were some big wins at yesterday’s inauguration. Of course, as a literary website, Read more >
Remember that one week last year when we were all pushing to save the USPS? Well, here is another reason to support them: they’re putting beloved sci-fi writer Ursula K. Le Guin on a stamp! Honestly, why is this not Read more >
Today, the New Yorker Union announced that its members will be “undertaking a twenty-four-hour work stoppage,” lasting between 6 A.M. this morning (Thursday, January 21), through 6 A.M. tomorrow. During this time, the official statement reads, “union members will not Read more >
Loathe as I am to be the bearer of dispiriting news on this hopeful day, here’s a dispatch from Hungary that manages to be both petty and terrifying at the same time. It seems that authoritarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s Read more >
According to Arlette Saenz just now on CNN soon-to-be President Joe Biden will be editing his inaugural speech right up to the very last second, in what is the presidential version of “Wait, can you use this version?” Apparently, he Read more >
