The Hub

News, Notes, Talk

A Utah school district says a book about a transgender boy is "inappropriate," and we have questions.

Utah is making headlines again, and not because of a Mormon-related scandal, Mitt Romney, or the latest episode of The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City (which, by the way, is a delightful circus of megalomanic #girlbosses who wear frozen Read more >

By Vanessa Willoughby

Here are the best reviewed books of the week.

Vendela Vida’s We Run the Tides, R.O. Kwon and Garth Greenwell’s Kink, Sonia Faleiro’s The Good Girls, and Beverly Jenkins’ Wild Rainall feature among the Best Reviewed Books of the Week. Brought to you by Book Marks, Lit Hub’s “Rotten Read more >

By Book Marks

Meet the bookstore owner behind National Black Literacy Day.

Chicago’s only Black woman-owned bookstore opened in the summer of 2019. Over the past two years, Semicolon has served as a vital and vibrant cultural hub and gallery space. Last summer, as the coronavirus began to tear through our country Read more >

By Book Marks

Here is a deeply soothing bookmaking video for your Friday escape.

“There could be weeks when nothing goes right.” So says 45-year-old typecaster—and last of a dwindling breed—Brian Ferret about his unlikely vocation. Brian handcrafts metal type, one by one, at Arion Press, using antique machinery to squeeze out a mix Read more >

By Jonny Diamond

Take a peek at some literary curiosities and vintage cards from Valentine's Days of yore.

Love, for all its infinite variety, has not changed so very much over the centuries. From ecstasy to anguish, it is a universal experience that has been expressed countless times in the great love stories and poetry. Recently, I have Read more >

By Sammy Jay

This month, Frederick Douglass’s papers will be made available to the public.

Exciting news! The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library is currently in the process of digitizing the Walter O. Evans Collection of Frederick Douglass and Douglass Family Papers. The collection will be fully digitized for public access by the end Read more >

By Walker Caplan

Listen to the sound of an 18,000-year-old conch shell.

What’s something that isn’t literary but feels literary? An 18,000-year-old conch shell was discovered in a cave in France, and now, we can listen to its sound via our computers. The French archeologists who originally discovered the shell missed its Read more >

By Walker Caplan

This passage from Calvino is basically the first Instagram ad targeted at millennials (me).

Last night, I was toggling between reading If on a winter’s night a traveler and scrolling through Instagram. This is not a judgement on the novel, which is incredibly fun and brilliant; rather, it’s me admitting that I have no Read more >

By Katie Yee

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's next book is coming this May.

This morning, Reagan Arthur, Executive Vice President and Publisher of Knopf, announced Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s next book, Notes on Grief. The book, which Knopf will publish on May 11 of this year, is an expansion of her essay of the Read more >

By Emily Temple

The National Book Foundation has found its next Executive Director.

Today, the National Book Foundation announced that Ruth Dickey will be its next Executive Director, filling the role that Lisa Lucas vacated at the end of last year. Dickey has served since 2013 as the Executive Director of Seattle Arts Read more >

By Emily Temple

Here's the cover of Jonathan Franzen's next novel.

On October 5, this timeline will be blessed/cursed by Jonathan Franzen’s first novel since 2015: Crossroads, or, if you’re not abbreviating, Crossroads: A Novel: A Key to All Mythologies, Volume 1. It’s the first novel of a trilogy, A Key Read more >

By Walker Caplan

Asako Serizawa has won the 2021 Story Prize Spotlight Award.

The Story Spotlight Prize, established in 2014, honors books of exceptional promise by first-time authors; collections in alternative formats; or works that demonstrate an unusual perspective on the writer’s craft. The Award comes with a cash prize of $1,000, and Read more >

By Rasheeda Saka

Here are the finalists for the 2021 PEN America Literary Awards.

Today, PEN America announced the finalists for its 2021 Literary Awards, which recognizes and honors “dynamic, imaginative, and thought-provoking” books published in the last year. Previous winners include Nafissa Thompson-Spires, Imani Perry, and Yiyun Li. The 55 finalists were selected Read more >

By Rasheeda Saka

Steal these email sign-offs from famous writers.

It appears that Twitter has returned, once again, to the email sign-off discourse—one of the more boring discourses! Personally, I think “best” is a completely fine, if unimaginative, way to end an email. However, for those of you looking to Read more >

By Jessie Gaynor

Attention (old) millennial book nerds: Redwall is coming to Netflix.

Yes, it’s true: Netflix has picked up the rights to the entire Redwall universe: the beloved series of books by Brian Jacques (which I am sorry to tell you is pronounced “Jakes” and not the cool French way that naturally Read more >

By Emily Temple

Is this cancel culture? Josh Hawley vs. The 1619 Project

QUESTION ONE Please examine the following examples and describe which one is “cancel culture,” and which one is the “marketplace of ideas.” Explain your answer. A) Private citizens organize via the power of their wallets—i.e. a boycott—in protest of a Read more >

By Jonny Diamond