The latest live event to shift its plans in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic: the National Book Festival. Organizers announced Thursday that the festival, which was originally set to take place Aug. 29 at the Washington Convention Center will Read more >
Here’s something I think about all the time: in 2013, Maya Rudolph played Maya Angelou in a skit on Saturday Night Live. It might be my favorite skit ever? First, there’s the fact that SNL even aired a skit that Read more >
Most of what I learned in elementary school history classes was the history of the state of Illinois. I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, and I guess the reasoning behind the curriculum was that it would be more Read more >
The announcement of a forthcoming Amazon series focusing on Lisbeth Salander, the protagonist of Steig Larsson’s Millennium series, challenges our assumptions about what a literary adaptation actually is. We know that the Amazon show is currently titled The Girl With the Read more >
“The dog ate my homework” is, perhaps, the oldest excuse in the book. But it really happened to John Steinbeck! His dog, Toby, apparently ate half of the first manuscript of Of Mice and Men. On this very day, May Read more >
Dracula lay undisturbed and unadapted for twenty-five years after its publication in 1897, before waking up as Nosferatu and dawning perhaps the greatest cultural juggernaut of the century. When F. W. Murnau’s film Nosferatu was released in 1922, Bram Stoker, Read more >
Back at the Literary Hub office, we would get a dozen donuts whenever we were feeling down, or had something to celebrate, or if we were just hungry. Basically, what I’m saying is: we were always eating donuts. I miss Read more >
Edith Wharton’s first published short story, “Mrs. Manstey’s View,” was accepted on this day one hundred and twenty-nine years ago, in the year of our lord 1891, by the clever folks at Scribner’s magazine. I sat down to read the tale Read more >
Lockdown Lit @ Lunch with Mary South and Erin Somers Tuesday, May 26, 2pm EDT Lockdown Lit @ Lunch, a new weekly salon that spotlights books published during the coronavirus pandemic, hosts Mary South (You Will Never Be Forgotten) and Read more >
The following short commentaries were discovered in 1908 by Mr. Thomas Finnimore, scholar, as appendices to the journal of Arthur Morgan, a member of the now disbanded gang of outlaws led by Dutch van Der Linde, presumed dead. * Wellll, all Read more >
Can the master of literary minimalism make sense of the labyrinthine hell that is American health insurance? Let’s find out! You’re well. That’s swell. Terrific. That’s covered. You’re sick. Is it bad? That’s bad. Well, that’s covered, too. If it’s Read more >
Taking quarantine hobbies to a new level, George R.R. Martin is purchasing a historic railway in New Mexico along with two others in the hopes of revitalizing it with entertainment options and cultural events. The line runs from Santa Fe Read more >
Julie Otsuka’s The Buddha In the Attic is the only book by an Asian-American writer that I was assigned in all four years of college. (Ahem, professors, diversify and decolonize your curriculums!) Since it’s AAPI Month, I’ve been thinking about Read more >
If you’d like to spend the long weekend before Raymond Carver’s birthday revisiting some of his short stories, be sure to add this to the list: There’s only one recording of Raymond Carver reading his iconic short story, “What We Read more >
On May 23, 2000, fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer tuned in for the finale of season four, expecting another huge production (the last season finale was the two-part “Graduation Day,” after all), though possibly confused as to how the show was Read more >
Turns out, model and feminist Emily Ratajkowski, known for fighting back against slut-shaming after her droll performance in Robyn Thicke’s Blurred Lines video earned her undeserved criticism (hey, it’s hard out there for a model with giant boobs!), is currently Read more >
Ever have one of those days when you just need like a half-dose of Lothlorien™ (street name=Mirkwood) to get to sleep? Well friend, you’re not alone—I, too, could occasionally benefit from a little over-the-counter Tolkien at bedtime, to ease my Read more >
An Alaska school board is backpedaling after its decision to remove five American classics from its curriculum backfired spectacularly, drawing national press and local protest. The Matanuska-Susitna (Mat-Su) Borough School Board had previously voted to remove The Great Gatsby by F. Read more >
A few years ago, I was in Oxford, MS, home of the University of Mississippi, the great Square Books, and (formerly) William Faulkner. I went to visit Rowan Oak, the Faulkner family home-turned-museum, which was a lovely place to spend Read more >
Bookselling is tricky business: Some months are good, some months are bad, and sometimes, you’re hit with unexpected demand for the novels of an accused murderess and charlatan who became the talk of the town for possibly shooting her husband Read more >
