The Hub

News, Notes, Talk

Remembering Russell Chatham, landscape painter and writer.

Photo © Stephen Collector. This past Sunday, artist Russell Chatham, a self-taught landscape painter and writer whose work was prized by Hollywood luminaries, among others, died in Northern California at the age of 80. In 1978, approaching the height of Read more >

By Aaron Robertson

Idaho coward attempts censorship by hiding books in the public library—but one writer strikes back.

Apparently, an incredibly immature person has been hiding books in the Idaho public library that they don’t want the general public to read. Some of the books have simply been turned around so the spine can’t be read (a very Read more >

By Katie Yee

Gary Oldman loves acting in literary adaptations.

Yes, the Oscar-winning English star of that garbage Winston Churchill movie I hate-watched one dreary winter night last year, has, over the course of his illustrious thirty-five-year career, appeared in no less than fourteen literary adaptations (Henry & June, JFK, Rosencrantz Read more >

By Dan Sheehan

Sebastian Junger, David Chang, Matt Bell & more: the week in book deals.

My personal form of astrology is to anxiously trawl Publishers Marketplace every week. No, wait, hear me out: it’s how I can tell the only future that matters: which books I will be reading a year and a half from now. Also, Read more >

By Emily Temple

The Aspen Words Literary Prize longlist includes Colson Whitehead, Laila Lalami, and more.

Aspen Words has announced the longlist for the 2020 Aspen Words Literary Prize, a $35,000 award given to a work of fiction that “illuminates a vital contemporary issue and demonstrates the transformative power of literature on thought and culture.” The Read more >

By Aaron Robertson

Why Donald Trump Jr.’s bestselling book has a dagger beside it. Yes, a dagger.

Briefly, should you have to argue with a relative this Thanksgiving about the actual popularity of Donald Trump Jr.’s number one New York Times bestseller, Triggered, please note the dagger beside the listing. This dagger, you can tell cousin Jared, Read more >

By Jonny Diamond

Lucy Ellmann's Ducks, Newburyport has won the 2019 Goldsmiths Prize.

The winner of the 2019 Goldsmiths Prize is Lucy Ellmann’s Ducks, Newburyport, a one-sentence, 1,034-page novel that you can absolutely finish, provided you’re not a baby. The Goldsmiths Prize—which includes a £10,000 purse—is awarded each year to “a book that Read more >

By Jessie Gaynor

Here's the 2018 VIDA Count.

VIDA has released its annual assessment of gender parity (or lack thereof) in the literary world. Of the 40 publications they examined, Tin House, Granta, and Poetry Magazine published the greatest percentages of non-male-identified writers, while Poetry Magazine and Ninth Ward led in Read more >

By Jessie Gaynor

Lessons in worldbuilding from N. K. Jemisin (plus a preview of her next book).

At the WIRED25 Festival in San Francisco last weekend, author N.K. Jemisin gave attendees a real treat: a two-hour crash course in imagining and building future worlds. Jemisin is the Hugo, Nebula, Locus, etc. Award-winning author of the Broken Earth Read more >

By Aaron Robertson

Some smart things to read on Impeachment Day.

As George Kent and Bill Taylor ready themselves to begin public testimony in the impeachment hearings of the 45th President of the United States, Donald Trump, here are a few Lit Hub deeper dives on impeachment—its historical antecedents, the way Read more >

By Jonny Diamond

Sally Rooney, Chanel Miller, and Jason Reynolds are the "next" most influential people of the year.

Today for the first time, TIME released an addendum to their annual list of the 100 most influential people of the year: the TIME 100 Next, which is meant to highlight the “rising stars who are shaping the future of business, entertainment, Read more >

By Emily Temple

Lin-Manuel Miranda is not throwing away his shot (to reopen the Drama Book Shop).

A bookshop that runs independently Meanwhile, Amazon keeps shittin’ on us endlessly Essentially, the rent keeps rising relentlessly Let the tourists come around, go on a spending spree Stop by, exchange ideas, sip some coffee There will be a cultural Read more >

By Katie Yee

Attention: Kevin Wilson's novel about twins that spontaneously combust is going to be a movie.

The team that brought us The Fault In Our Stars, (500) Days of Summer, and The Disaster Artist is coming together to adapt Kevin Wilson’s just-released novel. It is Elizabeth Gabler’s first acquisition at 3000 Pictures, a new production label focused on Read more >

By Katie Yee

Here's your chance to win personalized postcards from literary stars.

Continuing a wonderful holiday tradition, literary magazine The Common has launched its sixth annual author postcard auction. Until November 30th, readers will have an opportunity to bid online for personalized, handwritten postcards from 30 writers, including André Aciman, Valeria Luiselli, George Saunders, Read more >

By Aaron Robertson

What would an AI text generator do with the first lines of literature's greatest novels?

Neural networks are getting fancier and AI is getting scarier. And now we have a neural network that can do a pretty credible job writing copy (based on its inputs, of course, and a prompt). So look, I’m fine with Read more >

By Jonny Diamond

The 5 new books you should be reading this week.

Every week, a new crop of great new books hit the shelves. If we could read them all, we would, but since time is finite and so is the human capacity for page-turning, here are a few of the ones Read more >

By Emily Temple

Public memorial for the great Toni Morrison set for November 21 in NYC.

If you are in New York City on Thursday, November 21 you have the good fortune to be able to honor one of the truly great American writers, the late Toni Morrison. Morrison, who died on August 5 at the Read more >

By Jonny Diamond

So here's a story from A to Z: Ginger Spice is writing a novel.

Good news, Spice Girls fans: soon(?) you’ll be able to spice up your bookshelf with a novel by Geri Horner (née Halliwell), AKA Ginger Spice. At “the 50th anniversary party of upmarket watch company TAG Heuer Monaco at Chucs Cafe Read more >

By Jessie Gaynor

What book would you choose to have made into a paper sculpture?

Yes, yes, books are for reading, BUT have you seen Maryland artist Jodi Harvey’s book sculptures? If you’re not sure what to get the reader in your life, might I suggest commissioning Harvey to take an edition (“first editions are Read more >

By Jonny Diamond

The longlist for this year's €100,000 International DUBLIN Literary Award is 156 books long.

The longlist for the 2020 International DUBLIN Literary Award was announced today, and it is indeed long—156 books long, to be precise. The prize is sponsored by the Dublin City Council, and the longlist is comprised of nominations from public Read more >

By Jessie Gaynor