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News, Notes, Talk

Here are June's best reviewed books.

Zakiya Dalila Harris’ The Other Black Girl, Brandon Taylor’s Filthy Animals, Doireann Ní Ghríofa’s A Ghost in the Throat, and Lawrence Wright’s The Plague Year all feature among the best reviewed books of the month. Brought to you by Book Marks, Read more >

By Book Marks

We’re getting a new Pride and Prejudice starring Bowen Yang . . . set on Fire Island.

I declare after all there is no enjoyment like [A FILM ADAPTATION]! This week, Variety announced that Bowen Yang is set to star in a modern Pride and Prejudice feature adaptation, which takes place on Fire Island. Joel Kim Booster, Read more >

By Walker Caplan

Barack Obama on why libraries are more critical to the American project than ever.

Former president Barack Obama was this year’s closing speaker at the American Library Association Annual conference on Tuesday. In a wide-ranging virtual conversation with Secretary of the Smithsonian Lonnie G. Bunch III, he discussed misinformation, racial justice, and (shocker) his Read more >

By Walker Caplan

Who will buy Sylvia Plath's wedding ring?

Across the pond at Sotheby’s London, a cache of Sylvia Plath’s letters and personal items are going under the hammer. There’s a family bible, some honeymoon period correspondence between Plath and Ted Hughes, a photo album full of pictures from Read more >

By Dan Sheehan

Psst: Charles Dickens had the secret bookcase door you've always dreamed of.

In the study at Gad’s Hill, the Kent country house where Charles Dickens lived for many years (and which is now a school), there is something that every dorky child dreams of: a door designed as a fake bookcase, complete Read more >

By Emily Temple

Stop calling JD Vance an “author”—he’s a corporatist grifter.

We’re not particularly interested in covering JD Vance anymore here at Lit Hub. Granted, he did at one point write a book, but Hillbilly Elegy is looking more and more like that classic first move from the politician’s playbook, the Read more >

By Jonny Diamond

Here are the dark and twisty nominees for the 2020 Shirley Jackson Awards.

The Shirley Jackson Awards have announced their impressive list of nominees for the 2020 awards. The awards were established to celebrate the literary career of Shirley Jackson and recognize works that represent “outstanding achievement in the literature of psychological suspense, Read more >

By Vanessa Willoughby

A brief ode to A Series of Unfortunate Events (also known as baby's first metafiction).

A Series of Unfortunate Events looms large over my childhood. It was my favorite series growing up. Personally, I was never a Harry Potter person. I know you, dear open-minded reader of this site, won’t @ me, but the children Read more >

By Katie Yee

UNC has granted Nikole Hannah-Jones tenure despite Republican tantrums.

Here’s a welcome bit of good news: After initially denying Nikole Hannah-Jones (Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and MacArthur fellow) tenure for an endowed professorship at UNC-Chapel Hill’s Hussman School of Journalism and Media—reportedly due to political pressure from the majority Republican Read more >

By Jessie Gaynor

The Hollywood flame still burns for mega-hyped debut novel City on Fire.

Cast your mind back to the fall of 2013. Benedict XVI has recently resigned as pope. Edward Snowden has just made his seismic disclosures. Croatia has become the 28th member of the European Union. And volcanic mega-producer Scott Rudin has picked Read more >

By Dan Sheehan

Attention: we are getting a “sibling sequel” to A Visit from the Goon Squad.

At long last! Jennifer Egan is not only publishing a new novel but it’s a “sibling sequel” to her Pulitzer Prize- and National Book Critics Circle-winning A Visit from the Goon Squad. Like Goon Squad, The Candy House features a cast Read more >

By Vanessa Willoughby

"Though our corn was heavy, our hearts were heavier": An apology from the creator of the Lottery.

To my fellow villagers— I’ve seen the tweets, comments, and high school English papers, and I want to respond. I am deeply sorry for my role in creating the Lottery, and in continuing to uphold systematic neighbor stoning. My youth, Read more >

By Jessie Gaynor

Joy Williams has won the 2021 Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction.

Today, Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden announced that Joy Williams will receive the 2021 Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction, which honors an American writer whose body of work is distinguished for both its mastery and originality of thought Read more >

By Walker Caplan

Charles Dickens worried his own writing was so powerful it would scare him and his friends to death.

It’s exciting to recognize the emotional power of your own writing; to look back and think, “How did I come up with that?” But apparently that power can also be scary: Charles Dickens, after writing the disturbing scene in Oliver Read more >

By Walker Caplan

The shortlist for this year’s Arthur C. Clarke Award is all debuts.

The Arthur C. Clarke Award, which recognizes the best science fiction novel first published in the United Kingdom during the previous year, has released their 2021 shortlist—and for the first time in the award’s 35-year history, the shortlist is entirely Read more >

By Walker Caplan

"Good criticism has integrity." Jessica Hopper on how to be a critic (and who's doing it right).

Chicago-based music critic, producer, and author Jessica Hopper is far from a newbie. Hopper, who began writing music criticism at the age of 15, is releasing an expanded, revised edition of her critically-acclaimed book The First Collection of Criticism by Read more >

By Vanessa Willoughby