The Hub

News, Notes, Talk

Hillary Clinton is . . . coming for Stacey Abrams's literary crown?

As the age-old advice goes, “Write what you know.” For Hillary Clinton, apparently this means pivoting from writing dense memoirs about “hard choices” and nonfiction books about women’s empowerment to . . . political fan fiction thinly disguised as a Read more >

By Vanessa Willoughby

Today in late capitalism: Here is a coloring book that teaches children about credit.

Can you think of a single feel-good news story from the past five years that isn’t, at its core, an indictment of the society in which we live? Here at Lit Hub, one of our most-read stories last year was Read more >

By Jessie Gaynor

The Great Gatsby adaptation boom continues—this time with an animated feature.

So we beat on, boats against the current, borne ceaselessly back into the past, making film adaptations of the same classics again and again and again. As absolutely anyone might have predicted, there’s a new development in The Great Gatsby Read more >

By Walker Caplan

Is Ted Cruz laundering dark money through sales of his own book?

Cancun day-tripper or Zodiac Killer? Such is the daily challenge set by walking late night punchline Ted Cruz, whose continued presence in the national consciousness seems like cruel parody at this point. The latest bit of Cruzian skullduggery involves shady Read more >

By Jonny Diamond

14 new books to add to your TBR pile today.

As I write this, it’s raining in Brooklyn, my dog is curled up at my feet, and my third cup of coffee is cooling. Pretty much the perfect atmosphere for reading. (Besides, I’m fresh out of new episodes of WandaVision to Read more >

By Katie Yee

Here are the finalists for the 2020 Bram Stoker Award.

Today, the Horror Writers Association—dedicated to promoting horror and dark fantasy writers—announced the finalists for the annual Bram Stoker Award, which honors the best work in horror and dark fiction published in the last year. The Award is named in Read more >

By Rasheeda Saka

This is the supernatural, time-traveling romance series YOU SHOULD be watching.

Despite having watched several seasons of Outlander I confess I eventually gave up. Sure, the scenery is gorgeous (The Grampians! The Highlands!), and the leads are very easy on the eyes, but the incessantly soap operatic twists built around a Read more >

By Jonny Diamond

Did everyone else know about Ryan Gosling's enormous literary tattoo?

I don’t know what’s wrong with me or what year I think it is, but it’s just now come to my attention that Ryan Gosling has a big ol’ tattoo on his arm commemorating the most disturbing and perverse children’s Read more >

By Emily Temple

Victor LaValle and Jo Mi-Gyeong are teaming up on a comic about a young girl and her android teddy bear.

Some fun news! Today, comics publisher BOOM! Studios announced a new five-issue original series written by Victor LaValle, whose novel The Ballad of Black Tom was a finalist for both the Hugo and the Nebula as well as a Bram Read more >

By Walker Caplan

All the memes in Patricia Lockwood’s No One Is Talking About This, explained.

Patricia Lockwood’s No One Is Talking About This gets the ephemerality of online right: images and interactions flash onscreen, seeming very important, and then, for the time being, they slip away. But not all readers are as digitally literate as Read more >

By Walker Caplan

Malcolm X's family has released a letter that claims the FBI and NYPD conspired in his murder.

On Saturday, members of Malcolm X’s family called a press conference to reveal a letter about the alleged FBI and NYPD involvement in the murder of the late orator, author, and activist. The letter, written by former undercover NYPD officer Read more >

By Vanessa Willoughby

Remember the weird Edna St. Vincent Millay burn in a Lois Lowry book?

Edna St. Vincent Millay was born on this day in 1892, so naturally I’m thinking about my introduction to the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet: a tangential burn on her poem “God’s World” in Lois Lowry’s Anastasia Has the Answers. In the Read more >

By Jessie Gaynor

Got $18 million dollars lying around? Wanna buy Steinbeck's house?

If you’re like me, the millions of dollars you set aside for travel and leisure in 2020/2021 are now burning a hole in your pocket. These days, it feels like there’s little for a twenty-first century robber baron to spend Read more >

By Dan Sheehan

What I desperately miss about the book industry’s best annual gathering.

I have always been an outsider at Winter Institute, the American Booksellers Association’s annual conference—and yet I love it so. Having only attended four of the last six I am a relative newcomer compared to many of the legendary booksellers Read more >

By Jonny Diamond

Cover reveal: Oxford American's Spring 2021 Food Issue, guest edited by Alice Randall.

Food, like a great novel, can tell a story. The storytelling opportunities are endless: the way we eat, the culinary traditions we pass down from one generation to the next, and communal rituals can provide deeper insight into ourselves and Read more >

By Vanessa Willoughby

Here are the best reviewed books of the week.

Patricia Lockwood’s No One is Talking About This, Roberto Bolaño’s Cowboy Graves, Henry Louis Gates’ The Black Church, and Bill Gates’ How to Avoid a Climate Disasterall feature among the Best Reviewed Books of the Week. Brought to you by Read more >

By Book Marks