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News, Notes, Talk

Paul Tran will join the Penguin Poets series with their debut poetry collection.

Poet Paul Tran has sold their debut poetry collection, All the Flowers Kneeling, to Paul Slovak at Penguin Books as part of the Penguin Poets series. According to the publisher, All the Flowers Kneeling catalogs “the emotional and psychological transformation Read more >

By Walker Caplan

Blue Ivy Carter is narrating the audiobook adaptation of the short film Hair Love.

Do you feel old yet? If the answer is yes, then join the club! Today, director and author Matthew A. Cherry announced via Twitter that Blue Ivy Carter (that’s right: Beyoncé and Jay Z’s eight-year-old daughter) is the narrator of Read more >

By Rasheeda Saka

Here's how to get a personalized postcard from one of your favorite authors.

I’ve written before of my love for postcards; throughout this year, those that I’ve received have been well-packaged morale boosters, pleasant breaks from the monotony of this non-time. The literary magazine The Common is back this fall with a fun yearly tradition, Read more >

By Aaron Robertson

The new COVID trend? Apparently, it's buying rare books.

Ah, tradition! Just as Shakespeare wrote King Lear in quarantine, in this quarantine, rich people are buying copies of King Lear for $10,000,000. While independent bookstores are struggling during COVID—according to the American Booksellers Association, more than one independent bookstore Read more >

By Walker Caplan

To celebrate scientists solving the black hole paradox, read this short tale of a tiny black hole.

Yep, apparently, theoretical physicists have finally solved—or almost solved—the black hole information paradox. “Information, they now say with confidence, does escape a black hole. If you jump into one, you will not be gone for good. Particle by particle, the Read more >

By Emily Temple

Jean-Baptiste Del Amo's novel of industrial farming says more about the humans than the cattle.

Next in our series of interviews with the shortlisted nominees for the 2020 Albertine Prize is Jean-Baptiste Del Amo, author of Animalia (translated from the French by Frank Wynne). Del Amo’s visits to industrial livestock farms compelled him to write his celebrated, Read more >

By Aaron Robertson

Read a previously unpublished short story by Edith Wharton.

This morning, The Atlantic has graced us a brand new (that is, quite old but never before published) short story by Edith Wharton, entitled “A Granted Prayer.” The story was discovered by scholar Sarah Whitehead, who found the typescript in the Read more >

By Emily Temple

Election results for places in famous book titles.

It’s (almost) over. It’s finally (almost) over [weeps with relief, turns off TV forever, flies kite in sunlit park]. Yes, thanks to Black voters in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Georgia, and Latino voters in Arizona and Nevada, it looks very much Read more >

By Dan Sheehan

EXCLUSIVE: Here's the cover for Anthony Veasna So's debut story collection, Afterparties.

Happy Friday. We made it. It’s the end of the longest week of the longest year, and here’s a really cool looking cover for Anthony Veasna So’s forthcoming debut short story collection, Afterparties. Blurbed by Bryan Washington, George Saunders, and Read more >

By Lit Hub Daily

Don't know where to start with Colson Whitehead? Here's a reading list.

Aside from his scintillating prose, deadpan wit, and fearless approach to dealing with some of the darkest corners of American history, Colson Whitehead’s literary career has been marked by an audacious versatility. Though many of his works feature some element Read more >

By Dan Sheehan

A comedian has just solved "the world's most difficult literary puzzle."

In 1934, The Observer’s crossword writer, Edward Powys Mathers, wrote a short mystery novel that was also a fantastically difficult literary puzzle. The book, Cain’s Jawbone—named after the “first recorded murder weapon” and published under his nom de plume, Torquemada—consists Read more >

By Emily Temple

Here are the best reviewed books of the week.

Nicole Krauss’ To Be a Man, Megan Hunter’s The Harpy, Shirley Hazzard’s Collected Stories, and David Sedaris’ The Best of Meall feature among the best reviewed books of the week. Brought to you by Book Marks, Lit Hub’s “Rotten Tomatoes Read more >

By Book Marks

Here are the 2020 Kirkus Prize winners.

Tonight, at its special virtual ceremony hosted from the Austin Central Library, Kirkus Reviews announced the winners of the 7th-annual Kirkus Prizes in fiction, nonfiction, and young readers’ literature, which celebrate the most inventive, electric, and timely fiction of the year. The Award Read more >

By Rasheeda Saka

And the host of the 71st National Book Awards is...

Jason Reynolds! The two-time National Book Award Finalist, and current National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, will host the 71st National Book Awards on November 18, 2020. “To be at the forefront of ushering in the celebration of my peers Read more >

By Literary Hub

6 definitively good things that came out of last night's election.

There’s a long way to go before we get to a final decision on the next president of the United States. Frankly, it’s disheartening that it’s even this close. But I am happy to report the following definitively good things Read more >

By Jonny Diamond

Need to relax? Try the soothing sounds of old French books. (Yes, really.)

Apparently, there is only one time of year/election cycle/planetary crisis at which I am desperate enough turn to ASMR to soothe my ragged, sad brain. Unfortunately, it is that time again. Fortunately, the world of literary ASMR—that is, relaxing book Read more >

By Emily Temple