Joy Harjo, the current U.S. Poet Laureate, has been reappointed to a third term by the Library of Congress. Harjo is only the second poet laureate to serve three consecutive terms since the position was established in 1985. (The first Read more >
Look, Oxford Languages has never exactly stood on ceremony. After all, 2019’s word of the year was “climate emergency,” which is clearly two words. In 2018, the word of the year was “toxic,” which seems appropriate; in 2017 it was Read more >
It’s been a tough week for Poets House. On Monday, the organization announced that it would temporarily suspend operations in light of financial losses during the coronavirus pandemic; today, a group of former employees claims that the closure was motivated Read more >
Next in our series of interviews with the shortlisted nominees for the 2020 Albertine Prize is Yannick Haenel, author of Hold Fast Your Crown, translated from the French by Teresa Lavender Fagan. Haenel is the author of several novels, including The Messenger, Read more >
Today The New York Times published their list of 100 notable books of 2020—and while plenty of our favorites made the cut, we were surprised to see there was only one short story collection on the list. Susan Minot’s Why Read more >
Barack Obama’s A Promised Land, Robert Harris’ V2, Cynan Jones’ Stillicide, and Ismail Kadare’s The Doll all feature among the best reviewed books of the week. Brought to you by Book Marks, Lit Hub’s “Rotten Tomatoes for books.” Fiction 1. Read more >
If you watched the virtual ceremony of the National Book Awards (and if you didn’t, don’t fret: watch it here), you likely had a smile on your face when John Darnielle, novelist, musician, and 2020 judge, closed the heartwarming ceremony with Read more >
We can add Barack Obama to our list of academic posers. In a section of his new memoir, A Promised Land, the former president describes reading books in college to impress girls he liked: Looking back, it’s embarrassing to recognize the Read more >
From a longlist dominated by debuts came a shortlist dominated by debuts, and from that shortlist comes our winner, also a debut! The winner of the Booker Prize is: Douglas Stuart, Shuggie Bain (Scotland-US) (Looks like the bookies were right.) Stuart is the Read more >
I can’t stop thinking about The Young Visiters; or, Mr Salteenas Plan. A social satire about a status-seeker who loses his young lover when they take a trip to a friend’s country house, it’s one of the funniest novels I’ve Read more >
The Nature of Middle-earth, a collection of previously unpublished J.R.R. Tolkien essays exploring the world of Middle-earth, will be released by HarperCollins in June 2021. The work will be edited by Carl F. Hostetter, Tolkien expert and head of the Read more >
I will never forget the first and only time I visited Shakespeare and Company in Paris. I was 18. I was lost—no, not in the metaphysical, poetic angst way. I was actually, literally lost. (Ask anyone who knows me: I Read more >
Tonight, the National Book Awards made its virtual debut, presenting awards in five categories—Young People’s Literature, Translated Literature, Poetry, Nonfiction, and Fiction—to five winners from among 25 finalists. Congratulations to all the winners, which you can find in bold below. Read more >
It’s clear already that this year’s holiday season is going to be a weird one, but here’s a cool gift opportunity that also helps out a great publication: n+1 is creating personalized reading lists for people who donate to its newest fundraiser. Read more >
Ah, February 2021: maybe by then, we’ll have forgotten that 2020 ever existed. An upcoming book by Olga Tokarczuk, translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones and illustrated by Joanna Concejo, promises to help us cleanse the timeline: The Lost Soul, a story Read more >
This morning, Publishers Marketplace reported that two-time Booker Prize winner and historical fiction supremo Hilary Mantel has a new short story collection on the horizon. Learning to Talk, which will be released by Holt at some point next year, is Read more >
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