On November 16th, Allegheny County Jail’s incarcerated population got a memo from ACJ warden Orlando Harper letting them know that, due to the security issue of potential contraband, they are no longer allowed to receive books from the outside. Instead, Read more >
The Baillie Gifford Prize, founded in 1999 following the end of the NCR Book Award for Nonfiction, celebrates the best non-fiction writing in the English language of the year. The honor comes with £50,000, and each of the shortlisted authors will Read more >
We’ve all had to adapt to the pandemic, and some have adapted more quickly than others—maybe none more so than Ernest Cline, author of Ready Player One, who is touring his new book Ready Player Two on the virtual platform Read more >
In 2003, I wrote my first short story “North Of,” about a girl who brings Bob Dylan home for Thanksgiving dinner. She wants to convince her brother to not go to war. When her plan fails, she and Bob do Read more >
Recognizing the needs of the times, Britain’s National Trust has finally given the people what they really want: the chance to pretend they’re chatting with their employer from Vita Sackville-West’s writing room. It has a fireplace; it is filled with Read more >
Architect Kengo Kuma is designing a public library at Tokyo’s Waseda University, Haruki Murakami’s alma mater, to house the author’s personal archive—as well as tens of thousands of vinyl records Murakami has collected. The library is set to open sometime Read more >
Today, the Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize announced the shortlist for its 2020 award, which honors an English translation of an Arabic text of literary merit published the previous year. The Prize, first awarded in 2006, seeks to bring awareness to Read more >
Next in our series of interviews with the shortlisted nominees for the 2020 Albertine Prize is Zahia Rahmani, author of “Muslim”: A Novel, (Deep Vellum) translated from the French by Matt Reeck. Rahmani is a writer and art historian, in charge of ">Read more >
In the mood for a little holiday shopping? You know what they say: November is the new December! Who says that? Independent bookstores that need your support now! So here are a dozen new books hitting shelves today. Go forth! Read more >
This coffee table book looks pretty good. How much would you pay for it? $50? $200? $20,000? The Vatican Museums, Italian art publisher Scripta Maneant, and Callaway Arts & Entertainment have teamed up to create a limited edition book trilogy, Read more >
Earlier this morning, the Brooklyn Public Library (BPL) announced the winners of the 2020 Brooklyn Public Library Literary Prize for nonfiction and fiction/poetry. The Award, one of the few major literary prizes from a public library system, comes with a Read more >
Alan Rickman once said that “talent is an accident of genes—and a responsibility,” and in autumn 2022 we’ll get to see more of Rickman’s talent, responsibly shared. Canongate has acquired the rights to Rickman’s diaries, which will be edited down Read more >
Joy Harjo, the current U.S. Poet Laureate, has been reappointed to a third term by the Library of Congress. Harjo is only the second poet laureate to serve three consecutive terms since the position was established in 1985. (The first Read more >
Look, Oxford Languages has never exactly stood on ceremony. After all, 2019’s word of the year was “climate emergency,” which is clearly two words. In 2018, the word of the year was “toxic,” which seems appropriate; in 2017 it was Read more >
It’s been a tough week for Poets House. On Monday, the organization announced that it would temporarily suspend operations in light of financial losses during the coronavirus pandemic; today, a group of former employees claims that the closure was motivated Read more >
Next in our series of interviews with the shortlisted nominees for the 2020 Albertine Prize is Yannick Haenel, author of Hold Fast Your Crown, translated from the French by Teresa Lavender Fagan. Haenel is the author of several novels, including The Messenger, Read more >
Today The New York Times published their list of 100 notable books of 2020—and while plenty of our favorites made the cut, we were surprised to see there was only one short story collection on the list. Susan Minot’s Why Read more >
Barack Obama’s A Promised Land, Robert Harris’ V2, Cynan Jones’ Stillicide, and Ismail Kadare’s The Doll all feature among the best reviewed books of the week. Brought to you by Book Marks, Lit Hub’s “Rotten Tomatoes for books.” Fiction 1. Read more >
If you watched the virtual ceremony of the National Book Awards (and if you didn’t, don’t fret: watch it here), you likely had a smile on your face when John Darnielle, novelist, musician, and 2020 judge, closed the heartwarming ceremony with Read more >
We can add Barack Obama to our list of academic posers. In a section of his new memoir, A Promised Land, the former president describes reading books in college to impress girls he liked: Looking back, it’s embarrassing to recognize the Read more >
