The Hub

News, Notes, Talk

The Macbeths just keep on coming.

Macbeths, it would seem, are like busses: you wait forever for the right one to arrive and then two round the corner at once. Barely a week on from the release of the first teaser trailer for Joel Coen’s upcoming Read more >

By Dan Sheehan

Everything you need to know about the controversy over Obama’s presidential library.

Yesterday saw the groundbreaking of the Obama Presidential Center, former president Barack Obama’s presidential library in Jackson Park on Chicago’s South Side. In their speeches, the former president and Michelle Obama both focused on their personal ties to the South Read more >

By Walker Caplan

Bachelorette contestant bios.">

Bachelorette contestant bios.">A ranking of all the literary "fun facts" in the new Bachelorette contestant bios.

If you’re a member of Bachelor Nation, you’ve probably already spent some time perusing the contestant bios for the new season of The Bachelorette, in which Michelle Young, a fifth-grade teacher from Minnesota who seems genuinely lovely, will endeavor to find Bachelorette contestant bios.">Read more >

By Jessie Gaynor

Ruth Reichl is “grateful” she doesn’t have to be a food critic in today’s media climate.

Ruth Reichl is pretty wonderful. Even if you weren’t familiar with her long and impressive career as one of the nation’s preeminent food writers (as critic, chef, memoirist, and even novelist), you’d probably be charmed by her strangely soothing, oddly Read more >

By Jonny Diamond

13 new books to look forward to this week.

A baker’s dozen worth of books to hold close as sweater-weather arrives… * Anthony Doerr, Cloud Cuckoo Land (Scribner) “Doerr demonstrates a singular gift for bringing these complex, fully realized characters to empathetic life in this brilliantly imagined story, which Read more >

By Katie Yee

Read Herman Melville's embarrassingly short, typo-marred obituary.

130 years ago today, at the ripe old age of 72, Herman Melville—history’s most famous chronicler of seditious scriveners and light-skinned leviathans—suffered a heart attack and passed away at his New York home. Melville’s last novel, The Confidence-Man, had been Read more >

By Dan Sheehan

James Patterson and Scholastic are joining forces to mitigate illiteracy.

In rather heartwarming news, bestselling novelist James Patterson is working with Scholastic Book Clubs to tackle literacy inequity. On Monday, Scholastic announced that Patterson had donated $1.5 million to help launch “The United States of Readers,” a classroom initiative created Read more >

By Vanessa Willoughby

Here is the shortlist for the 2021 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize.

The Center for Fiction has just announced its shortlist for the 2021 First Novel Prize. The seven titles were selected from a longlist of twenty-seven debut novels, all published in the US between January 1 to December 21. The prize, Read more >

By Snigdha Koirala

I'm obsessed with this Instagram series of popular books redesigned "for men."

Recently, while wasting time on the literary internet, I stumbled upon something very good: the Instagram account @monobrow_ny, where multi-disciplinary designer Christine Rhee shares creative redesigns for contemporary classics. Recently, she’s been doing a series of “Fake Books for Men,” Read more >

By Emily Temple

This year's literary MacArthur fellows on the best writing advice they've received (and more).

The MacArthur Foundation has announced its annual list of fellowship recipients: 25 individuals working in a variety of disciplines “who show exceptional creativity in their work and the prospect for still more in the future.” Each MacArthur fellow will receive Read more >

By Corinne Segal

Bookseller of Kabul vows to stay open despite only two customers since the rise of the Taliban.

Shah Muhammad Rais, who was made famous in The Bookseller of Kabul, has vowed to keep his bookshop open, despite having had only two customers since the Taliban retook the country in the middle of August. Founded in 1974 Rais’s Read more >

By Jonny Diamond

We're finally going to get to read Kelly Link's novel.

Today in Good Things The Internet Told Me: Kelly Link’s debut novel at last has a pub date! That’s right—the MacArthur Fellow and Pulitzer Prize finalist, who we’ve heard has been working on a novel, has, in fact, been working Read more >

By Emily Temple

Hey nerds, need some glasses?

If the The Paris Review is known for one thing, it’s CIA activity great writing. But if The Paris Review is known for two things, it’s great writing and losing to Lit Hub at softball cool glasses, in both Black and “Brioche Tortoise.” That’s right: it’s Read more >

By Jessie Gaynor

Everything you need to know about the current book supply-chain issues—and how you can help.

You may have heard about the supply-chain issues currently affecting multiple industries in the United States, and unfortunately, that also includes the book industry. While issues in the book supply chain are causing substantial delays in both printing and delivery of Read more >

By Walker Caplan

Here are this year's British Fantasy Award winners.

This weekend, at Fantasy Con, the UK’s oldest convention for fantasy, horror, and science fiction, the British Fantasy Society announced the 2021 British Fantasy Award Winners. The jury also recognized Katherine Fowler with the Legends Award, and Alasdair Stuart with Read more >

By Snigdha Koirala

Helen Scales explains the enormous sea creature that was projected on the UN building last week.

If you live in New York City, you may have noticed the hubbub around the General Assembly of the United Nations, which began last week and runs through tomorrow. Considering that it was also UN Climate Week, you may also Read more >

By Emily Temple