The Hub

News, Notes, Talk

The most recent "crisis in the humanities" is really just a case of crossed wires.

Every now and then, a particular conversation flares up online (as it does in the old fabled halls of the academy). This would be the “crisis in the humanities,” a phrase which, though clichéd, refers to real issues typically associated Read more >

By Aaron Robertson

Hulu has ordered a series based North American Lake Monsters from Kelly Link's press.

Today, Hulu announced in a press release that it has ordered a new horror anthology series from writer and producer Mary Laws based on Nathan Ballingrud’s Shirley Jackson award-winning debut collection North American Lake Monsters, which came out from Kelly Read more >

By Emily Temple

Your weekly book deal memo: Marie Kondo, Ottessa Moshfegh, Trixie & Katya

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

This week on Lit Hub Radio: Bob Caro, Bad Mothers, and BDSM.

Lisa Lucas talks Robert Caro and the injustices of NYC urban planning: “I was just absolutely shaken by the clear interest in justice that Bob Caro had, and the loving, tender, thoughtful regard in which he described the people that Read more >

By Kevin Chau

Happy birthday words, happy birthday nouns, happy birthday Margaret Wise Brown!

Children’s book author Margaret Wise Brown was born on this day in 1910. Even if you don’t know her name, you’re probably familiar with her beloved Goodnight Moon. (Goodnight stars, goodnight air, goodnight noises everywhere—yup, that’s the one!) She published Read more >

By Katie Yee

Sharing stories of writer Judith Kerr's kindness, energy, and love for cats.

Judith Kerr, author of beloved children’s books including The Tiger Who Came To Tea and the Mog series, has died at 95, her publisher HarperCollins confirmed. Kerr fled Nazi Germany as a Jewish refugee with her family in 1933 and Read more >

By Corinne Segal

It's been a gratifying journey for Jokha Alharthi and Marilyn Booth, Man Booker International Prize winners.

The announcement on Tuesday that Jokha Alharthi and her translator Marilyn Booth received this year’s Man Booker International Prize for Celestial Bodies brought smiles to many people’s faces, and for good reason. Celestial Bodies is the first novel written by an Omani Read more >

By Aaron Robertson

Marie Kondo is writing another book for you to throw out.

As if to prove once and for all that she does not actually require you to throw away all your books, people, so put down your pitchforks, Marie Kondo is herself writing another one. Her next project will be a Read more >

By Emily Temple

Hilary Mantel's final Thomas Cromwell novel finally has a pub date.

Yesterday, we got excited by this billboard in London’s Leicester Square, which seemed to hint that, at long last, Hilary Mantel’s beloved Thomas Cromwell trilogy, which began with Wolf Hall, might be coming to a conclusion. This morning, HarperCollins confirmed Read more >

By Emily Temple

Don Jr. sold a book and his agent/only friend is his lawyer.

Donald Trump, Jr., a man who may or may not be subject to a witch’s curse, has sold a book. As you probably don’t recall, because every day is approximately 27 years long, Trump was shopping the book last year Read more >

By Jessie Gaynor

Jokha Alharthi and Marilyn Booth win the 2019 Man Booker International Prize.

Just minutes ago in a ceremony at London’s Roundhouse, Celestial Bodies, written by Jokha Alharthi and translated by Marilyn Booth, was announced as the winner of the 2019 Man Booker International Prize (which is worth a whopping £50,000!). The win makes Alharthi Read more >

By Dan Sheehan

UNHhhh. . . Trixie and Katya have sold an advice book for ladies!

You guys, you guys: beloved RuPaul’s Drag Race alums and hosts of UNHhhh Katya Zamolodchikova and Trixie Mattel have sold a book to Plume. According to Publishers Marketplace, it will be “a satirical advice book styled as a mid-century homemaking Read more >

By Emily Temple

Cartoon Brexit villain Jacob Rees-Mogg's book is getting roasted by critics.

The name Jacob Rees-Mogg might not mean a lot to most Americans, hypnotized as they are by the orange glow of their own garbage fire, but alongside former London mayor Boris Johnson and former UKIP leader Nigel Farage, the ludicrously Read more >

By Dan Sheehan

From Orwell to Knocked Up, why are so many abortion stories about... men?

A 2003 cartoon by Gary Cangemi suggests that abortion kills geniuses, geniuses are male, and women are their vessels. In a special issue of his strip Umbert the Unborn entitled “The Greatest Moments in Unborn History,” a fetal Thomas Edison Read more >

By Fran Bigman

Someone returned a library book in Ireland after 80 years

If this person can return their overdue library book, so can you: last week, someone brought a copy of The White Owl by Annie MP Smithson back to a library in Ireland more than 80 years after it was checked Read more >

By Corinne Segal

George R. R. Martin says there will be more unicorns in his ending to Game of Thrones.

Last night, on his blog, George R. R. Martin wrote a little bit about the journey that was HBO’s Game of Thrones, thanking those who worked on the show and dipping a little bit into what’s next—including what’s next for Read more >

By Emily Temple

New Books Tuesday: Your weekly guide to what’s publishing today, fiction and nonfiction.

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

Read more than 200 women on abortion and life in Alabama.

Alabama local newspapers The Birmingham News, Mobile Press Register and Huntsville Times devoted their Sunday editions to more than 200 essays on abortion, reproductive justice, and life as women in Alabama. They run the gamut and are very worth your Read more >

By Corinne Segal

The five pieces Lit Hub readers loved last week...

If you’re a regular Lit Hub reader, you know that we publish quite a bit every day of the week. No one can be expected to read everything, but we thought it might be helpful to start offering a weekly Read more >

By Aaron Robertson

EXCLUSIVE COVER REVEAL: Paul Lisicky's forthcoming memoir, Later.

Paul Lisicky, the author of five books, including The Narrow Door, Famous Builder, and Lawnboy, has a new memoir coming out in March next year. Here’s the cover: According to the team at Graywolf: When Paul Lisicky arrived in Provincetown in the early 1990s, he Read more >

By Emily Firetog