You know what they say: November is the new December! When’s the best time to support your local bookstore and get holiday gifts? Well, there’s no time like the present. (Get it?) (I’m sorry.) (But seriously, support your favorite indie and Read more >
Kamala Harris-related books have seen a sharp increase in popularity post-Biden/Harris presidential win. On Sunday, a whopping four books on Amazon’s Top 10 bestsellers list were either about or penned by the vice president-elect. The books in question: Harris’s memoir Read more >
Hey, you! Yes, you, Big Little Lies tertiary character. You, person who put “Hermès Dreamcatcher” on your wedding registry. You, mostly harmless but debilitatingly-cosseted pigeon. Incinerate your detoxifying Charcoal Body Scrub Towel, peel off your Body Vibes Smart Stickers, melt Read more >
The Scotiabank Giller Prize, founded in 1994, recognizes the best Canadian fiction of the year. With a cash prize of $100,000, the Award is one of the largest Canadian literary prizes. Previous winners include Esi Edugyan, Elizabeth Hay, and Sean Michaels. Read more >
Looking for a fragrance that conjures the smell of ancient scrolls and aged books? Look no further for your strangely specific wish: Powell’s Books is selling it. The fragrance, called “Powell’s by Powell’s,” promises to “deliver the wearer to a place Read more >
As COVID cases surge to record numbers and Republicans flirt with a paper coup the future of the nation’s bookstores remains perilous. Yes, we all have a lot to worry about—but if you care about that unwieldy, amorphous thing called Read more >
After a very nerve-wracking few weeks, the declaration of a new President-elect, and multiple attempts by the Trump administration to dispute the results of the election, the Associated Press is here to ask the question that really matters: Does voting Read more >
Today, Aspen Words announced the longlist for the 2021 Aspen Words Literary Prize, which honors a piece of fiction that speaks to our contemporary moment. The Award, which comes with a $35,000 cash prize, is one of the largest literary Read more >
By my count, 2020 has seen the publication of quite a few books featuring cannibalism. From Maria Dahvana Headley’s new translation of Beowulf to Shalom Auslander’s Mother for Dinner, this has been the year of books that feature people eating people. Honestly, Read more >
Poet Paul Tran has sold their debut poetry collection, All the Flowers Kneeling, to Paul Slovak at Penguin Books as part of the Penguin Poets series. According to the publisher, All the Flowers Kneeling catalogs “the emotional and psychological transformation Read more >
Do you feel old yet? If the answer is yes, then join the club! Today, director and author Matthew A. Cherry announced via Twitter that Blue Ivy Carter (that’s right: Beyoncé and Jay Z’s eight-year-old daughter) is the narrator of Read more >
I’ve written before of my love for postcards; throughout this year, those that I’ve received have been well-packaged morale boosters, pleasant breaks from the monotony of this non-time. The literary magazine The Common is back this fall with a fun yearly tradition, Read more >
Ah, tradition! Just as Shakespeare wrote King Lear in quarantine, in this quarantine, rich people are buying copies of King Lear for $10,000,000. While independent bookstores are struggling during COVID—according to the American Booksellers Association, more than one independent bookstore Read more >
Yep, apparently, theoretical physicists have finally solved—or almost solved—the black hole information paradox. “Information, they now say with confidence, does escape a black hole. If you jump into one, you will not be gone for good. Particle by particle, the Read more >
Next in our series of interviews with the shortlisted nominees for the 2020 Albertine Prize is Jean-Baptiste Del Amo, author of Animalia (translated from the French by Frank Wynne). Del Amo’s visits to industrial livestock farms compelled him to write his celebrated, Read more >
This morning, The Atlantic has graced us a brand new (that is, quite old but never before published) short story by Edith Wharton, entitled “A Granted Prayer.” The story was discovered by scholar Sarah Whitehead, who found the typescript in the Read more >
It’s (almost) over. It’s finally (almost) over [weeps with relief, turns off TV forever, flies kite in sunlit park]. Yes, thanks to Black voters in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Georgia, and Latino voters in Arizona and Nevada, it looks very much Read more >
Happy Friday. We made it. It’s the end of the longest week of the longest year, and here’s a really cool looking cover for Anthony Veasna So’s forthcoming debut short story collection, Afterparties. Blurbed by Bryan Washington, George Saunders, and Read more >
Aside from his scintillating prose, deadpan wit, and fearless approach to dealing with some of the darkest corners of American history, Colson Whitehead’s literary career has been marked by an audacious versatility. Though many of his works feature some element Read more >
In 1934, The Observer’s crossword writer, Edward Powys Mathers, wrote a short mystery novel that was also a fantastically difficult literary puzzle. The book, Cain’s Jawbone—named after the “first recorded murder weapon” and published under his nom de plume, Torquemada—consists Read more >
