The Hub

News, Notes, Talk

Apparently John Steinbeck once wrote a horror story about a boy being chewed by his own gum.

For all writers feeling bound by genre, here’s something hopefully liberating: Snopes has brought it to our attention that John Steinbeck, known for his portrayals of injustice in central California, wrote and published a horror story about a boy who Read more >

By Walker Caplan

Here are the finalists for the 2021 Joyce Carol Oates Prize.

The Joyce Carol Oates Prize, which is sponsored by the Simpson Literary Project, honors a distinguished mid-career author of fiction every year. The prize comes with a $50,000 purse, and has been bestowed annually since 2017. The finalists were selected Read more >

By Rasheeda Saka

If writing's got you down, remember that James Patterson's first book was rejected 31 times.

Unless you’re a disgraced politician, trying to get a book published can be difficult, nerve-wracking, soul-denting work. If you’re anything like me, though, it really helps to hear that rejection is the rule in the publishing industry, rather than the Read more >

By Jessie Gaynor

Deesha Philyaw has won the 2020 Story Prize.

The Story Prize, established in 2004 and sponsored by the Chisholm Foundation, honors the best short story collection published in the previous year. The Award comes with a $20,000 purse and an engraved silver bowl, making the award one of Read more >

By Rasheeda Saka

Everything you probably don't want to know about Mumford & Sons, Jordan Peterson, and Andy Ngo.

One of Mumford’s large adult sons has apologized for praising anti-anti-fascist Andy Ngo’s new book, Unmasked (in which, according to Alexander Nazayran at the LA Times, “Distortions and untruths hover like flies around every shred of confirmable fact.”) Look, I Read more >

By Jonny Diamond

I can’t stop thinking about this bizarre forgotten chapter from The Godfather.

If you’re a lover of great sentences (and if you’re on Lit Hub, you probably are), I can’t in good conscience recommend that you read Mario Puzo’s The Godfather. With all due respect to the late Puzo, whose most famous Read more >

By Raf Richardson-Carillo

Check out this video game inspired by Haruki Murakami’s short stories.

If you’re looking for something interesting to do while wearing your Murakami-themed shirt and listening to your Murakami-curated bossa nova, here’s an idea: play Memoranda, a point-and-click adventure game inspired by Murakami’s short stories. Memoranda, released by Canadian indie studio Read more >

By Walker Caplan

A new Hans Christen Andersen museum takes architectural inspiration from one of his stories.

This summer, a new museum dedicated to the works of Hans Christen Andersen will open in his birthplace of Odense, Denmark. H.C. Andersen’s House looks absolutely gorgeous—it was designed by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma and his team, who were inspired Read more >

By Emily Temple

Art Spiegelman and Robert Coover have collaborated (over Zoom!) on a new illustrated dystopian story.

Two of my favorite American geniuses, writer and graphic artist Art Spiegelman, and short story master Robert Coover, have collaborated on a new illustrated story, Street Cop. Street Cop is the fourth text in the literary subscription project isolarii. “Street Cop Read more >

By Emily Temple

Here’s the literary Twitter bot that’s helped me survive lockdown.

There’s no one way to survive a pandemic (and survival is the bar here, people—those of you thriving can take it somewhere else). Aside from the real and ever-present threat of death, COVID-19 has forced us all into various kinds Read more >

By Jonny Diamond

Norton Juster, author of The Phantom Tollbooth, has died at 91.

Norton Juster, the writer best known for his beloved, innovative children’s classic The Phantom Tollbooth, as well as The Dot and the Line, died last night at the age of 91. Juster was also an architect, and he has said Read more >

By Emily Temple

22 (!) new titles to add to your TBR pile.

With the weather getting slightly warmer and spring just around the corner, I have vaguely thought about the concept of “getting back into shape.” In college, my friends and I used to go to the Rec Barn to exercise (read: Read more >

By Katie Yee

We're finally getting a Kindred adaptation!

Yes, more than four decades on from its original publication, Octavia Butler’s legions of fans will soon be able to watch a prestige television adaptation of the visionary Sci-Fi author’s most beloved novel, and I think I speak for everyone Read more >

By Dan Sheehan

Take a look inside this rare, self-published Andy Warhol cookbook.

Some pleasant Monday browsing! A rare self-published cookbook by Andy Warhol—one of only 34 color copies made—is up for auction this month at Bonhams. Warhol collaborated on the book with his friend Suzie Frankfurt, who wrote the text, and his Read more >

By Walker Caplan

Octavia Butler is now officially on Mars.

How did I miss this?! NASA’s Perseverance rover has touched down on Mars—and NASA has named its landing site after Octavia Butler. “Octavia E. Butler Landing” is located in Jezero Crater, just north of Mars’s equator. Once flooded with water, Read more >

By Walker Caplan

Read the newly announced inscription for the Barack Obama Presidential Library.

Yesterday, on the 56th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, the civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery interrupted by police violence, the Obama Foundation announced the inscription that will adorn the exterior of the former president’s presidential library in Chicago. The Read more >

By Walker Caplan