The Hub

News, Notes, Talk

Here's the best writing advice from Colson Whitehead’s 60 Minutes interview.

If you’re going to listen to anyone about the process of writing, Colson Whitehead is a pretty good choice: the MacArthur Genius Grant recipient won back-to-back Pulitzers for his novels The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys, making him the Read more >

By Walker Caplan

Now you can adopt Jennifer Egan.

Have you been going back and forth on whether or not do adopt a furry best friend for the past year? Did that one very recent New Yorker story about loving difficult animals make you cry?  Do you love books? Read more >

By Katie Yee

A breakthrough technology allows researchers to see inside sealed centuries-old letters.

Yesterday, The Guardian reported that for the first time in history, researchers were able to read an unopened letter without breaking the seal. The international team of researchers, led by Jana Dambrogio and Amanda Ghassaei, used a technique they developed Read more >

By Walker Caplan

D.H. Lawrence was the king of innuendo—but wouldn't admit it.

91 years ago today marks the death of D.H. Lawrence, who E.M. Forster called “the greatest imaginative novelist of our generation” and whose writing Joseph Conrad called “Filth . . . nothing but obscenities.” Both can be true; today we’re Read more >

By Walker Caplan

Here are the finalists for the 2020-21 L.A. Times Book Prize.

Today the Los Angeles Times announced the finalists for its 2020-21 Book Prize, which recognizes and honors outstanding literary work published in the last year. The 55 finalists were selected across 11 categories—Biography, Current Interest, Fiction, Graphic Novels/Comics, History, Mystery/Thriller, Read more >

By Rasheeda Saka

Haruki Murakami has designed a Haruki Murakami-themed T-shirt collection for UNIQLO.

Haruki Murakami has something of a reputation for being reclusive, but strangely—and happily—Murakami fans have had plenty of Murakami-related content to chew on during the pandemic. He’s running an ongoing radio program; he hosted a bossa nova jam; a public Read more >

By Walker Caplan

Peek inside a new illustrated edition of Angela Carter's Nights at the Circus.

The Folio Society has recently released a new edition of weird girl classic Nights at the Circus, beautifully illustrated by British artist and printmaker Eileen Cooper and with an introduction by Sarah Waters. “I describe the method I used as “print-based Read more >

By Emily Temple

Announcing the winners of the PEN/Bellwether Prize and the PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize.

Today, Literary Hub is pleased to announce the winners of PEN America’s two “early career” prizes for writers: the PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction and the PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers. “Taken together, these prizes Read more >

By Rasheeda Saka

17 new books to look forward to.

Dear reader, I have two recommendations for you. The first recommendation is going to the freezer aisle of your local grocery store and taking home a big box of frozen mini eclairs. The second recommendation is going to your local Read more >

By Katie Yee

Dr. Seuss Enterprises ceases publication of six titles because of racist stereotypes.

Complicating conservative claims yesterday that progressives are desperate to cancel Dr. Seuss (rhymes with Joyce), the foundation itself responsible for the legacy of the beloved children’s author announced they will be ceasing publication of six of his books (Seuss-rhymes-with-Joyce wrote Read more >

By Jonny Diamond

Everything you need to know about the controversy over a new translation of Amanda Gorman's poetry.

The Associated Press has reported that Marieke Lucas Rijneveld, the Dutch poet appointed by the Dutch publisher Meulenhoff to translate Amanda Gorman’s “The Hill We Climb” and her first poetry collection into Dutch, has stepped down after criticism that a Read more >

By Walker Caplan

Akwaeke Emezi is publishing a romance novel inspired by Florence + The Machine.

Akwaeke Emezi (Freshwater, Pet, The Death of Vivek Oji) is making their romance debut with You Made a Fool of Death With Your Beauty. The novel, which will be published in 2022 by Atria, centers on “a young artist struggling to Read more >

By Vanessa Willoughby

What's the most-filmed bookstore in the world?

There’s something thrilling about watching a movie or a TV show and finding that you recognize the characters’ surroundings— that you have stood on that street corner or peered into that shop before the characters, before that story begins. As Read more >

By Katie Yee

Why do we keep pretending that The Time Traveler's Wife is a love story?

We’ve known for a while that HBO was working on turning Audrey Niffenegger’s 2003 novel The Time Traveler’s Wife into a series. The show, which boasts Doctor Who and Sherlock writer Steven Moffat as a writer and executive producer, is Read more >

By Vanessa Willoughby

Can Ta-Nehisi Coates make the world's most boring superhero interesting?

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s… more superhero adaptation news! But this time, with some welcome literary cred: Deadline has just announced that Ta-Nehisi Coates will be writing the screenplay for the latest Superman reboot. J.J. Abrams is producing, and Henry Cavill Read more >

By Jessie Gaynor

One nice thing: four longtime friends have founded a literary journal for poetry by women over 50.

Four friends from Delaware have founded an online poetry journal that showcases the work of women over fifty years of age. Quartet is named after the bond between the four founders—Linda Blaskey, Gail Comorat, Jane Miller, and Wendy Ingersoll Perry—and Read more >

By Walker Caplan