Waiting for Godot author Samuel Beckett’s work embraced experimentation and nonsense—and, it appears from this video, his life did as well. In 1969, Beckett learned he had received the 1969 Nobel Prize in Literature via a telegram from his publisher, Read more >
Since you’re on here, you know that it is the month of the Internet novel. Two heavy-hitters in particular—Lauren Oyler’s Fake Accounts and Patricia Lockwood’s No One Is Talking about This—have been brought into the world, and everyone on Book Twitter Read more >
The movie adaptation of Nico Walker’s Cherry—the best-selling debut novel about an Iraq veteran turned heroin addict turned bank robber—will be released in theaters in two days, directed by the Russo Brothers (who you might know from Avengers) and starring Read more >
If you’ve ever gotten a bad critique in workshop and thought about it for, well, years, you’re in good company: the company of The Scream artist Edvard Munch. We’ve known for a while that a pencil inscription at the top Read more >
Need a break from writing? Or some cinematic inspiration to begin writing? Or, just really like typewriters? Then perhaps I can interest you in two minutes, four seconds of typewriters on screen, set to Leroy Anderson’s irrepressibly jaunty “The Typewriter.” Read more >
I love every inch of The Talented Mr. Ripley. I think every writer should read it—mostly because it’s a pleasure from start to finish, but it doesn’t hurt that there is so much to learn from Patricia Highsmith about pacing, Read more >
Lawrence Ferlinghetti—a crucial supporter of the Beat movement and literary icon who bore a century’s worth of witness to social and political transformation—died on Monday at the age of 101 of interstitial lung disease, The Washington Post confirmed. Ferlinghetti epitomized Read more >
Surprisingly, despite the heavy toll taken by the COVID-19 pandemic on brick and mortar bookstores (especially independent brick and mortar bookstores) nationwide, US book sales actually increased by 8 percent in 2020. What demographic is responsible for keeping the industry Read more >
For Flannery O’Connor enthusiasts and critics alike: PBS’s next episode in their American Masters biographical series focuses on Flannery O’Connor. The episode premieres on March 23rd and, as per PBS, features never-before-seen archival footage and newly discovered journals of O’Connor’s. Read more >
If you love space (or have a four year old [or both!]) you know that the Perseverance rover landed on the celestial planet Mars on Thursday. The mission will least one year on Mars, which means it will last 637 Read more >
National Book Award-winning fiction writer and former story editor for HBO’s Westworld (back in Season 1, before it jumped the RoboShark) Charles Yu, in collaboration with TaiwaneseAmerican.org, has created the Betty L. Yu and Jin C. Yu Creative Writing Prizes, “intended Read more >
While we’re all still in varying levels of lockdown, here’s a new travel destination to dream about: Book and Bed Tokyo. Book and Bed is an “accommodation bookshop”: a bookstore first, hostel second, so avid readers don’t need to pay Read more >
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 >
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 >
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 >
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 >
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