The Hub

News, Notes, Talk

Anonymous Content is turning Detransition, Baby into a tv show.

Wonderful news, and not a moment too soon! Deadline reported this morning that Torrey Peters’s novel Detransition, Baby is in development as a half-hour dramedy. It’s being developed by Anonymous Content, the production company behind Being John Malkovich, Spotlight, True Read more >

By Walker Caplan

An audio deepfake of Gucci Mane can now read you classic books.

Weird news of the day: the viral creation collective MSCHF has used machine learning to create an audio deepfake of rapper Gucci Mane reading classic texts. MSCHF collected six hours of audio from podcasts and interviews, transcribed them, and created Read more >

By Walker Caplan

Kazuo Ishiguro thinks artificial intelligence could replace human novelists.

Kazuo Ishiguro’s new novel Klara and the Sun, which follows a robot as she tries to understand the human world, has been praised as “a masterpiece about life, love, and mortality” and “a work that makes us feel afresh the Read more >

By Walker Caplan

A Sylvia Plath fan has petitioned the Church to allow her to be buried near the poet.

Sylvia Plath’s grave has been the subject of fascination for many since her death in 1963; over the last decades, the poet’s tombstone, which sits in a parish graveyard in Heptonstall, has attracted tourists, “feminist vandals,” and thieves alike. Now, Read more >

By Emily Temple

Joy Williams' first novel in 20 years is coming this fall.

While we don’t know what the state of the our pandemic society will be come September, we can at least be sure that we’ll all be getting a little Joy Williams, as a treat. Specifically, a new novel—her fifth, and Read more >

By Jessie Gaynor

Two of my favorite writers died this day. Here’s why you should read them.

Two of my favorite writers died on this day, 14 years apart: Georges Perec in 1982 and Marguerite Duras in 1996. I have read the latter in French but not the former, though I suspect it is Perec who warrants Read more >

By Jonny Diamond

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