The Hub

News, Notes, Talk

Check out this gorgeous illustrated map of Black-owned bookshops across the country.

Happy Independent Bookstore Day! As part of its guide to Black-owned bookshops in the US, O, The Oprah Magazine created an illustrated map of some of the highlights, and it’s really delightful. The team also asked writers like Tayari Jones, Kiley Read more >

By Corinne Segal

This Saturday is Independent Bookstore Day: no better time to stock up on books.

Just a friendly reminder that tomorrow, August 29th, is Independent Bookstore Day. This year, the festivities will be both online and in-person at 600+ local bookstores around the country, starting tonight with a conversation between Mary Norris and Ann Goldstein Read more >

By Emily Temple

Here are some dead authors who would have been terrible on Twitter.

As both a social media editor and a sometimes-writer who is on Twitter, I feel uniquely qualified to say that writers shouldn’t be on Twitter. I know: everyone has to hustle. Twitter can be a “community.” Personally, though, I find Read more >

By Jessie Gaynor

Here are six movie adaptations that drastically changed their novels’ endings.

With very few exceptions, if I’ve even partially enjoyed a book, and someone has bothered to adapt that book into a movie, I will seek out and watch said movie. Often this proves a mistake, and my pleasant memories of Read more >

By Dan Sheehan

Poetry magazine will skip its September issue to address its "deep-seated white supremacy."

For the first time in more than a century, Poetry magazine will cease printing for a month, the editors announced this week. The decision comes nearly two months after the poetry community rose up in protest against the magazine and Read more >

By Corinne Segal

Powell's Books will stop selling books through Amazon due to its "detrimental impact" on stores.

With this year’s Independent Bookstore Day occurring at a particularly rough time for booksellers, the iconic Powell’s Books in Portland has decided to make a statement and stop selling through Amazon. In a statement, owner Emily Powell notes that the Read more >

By Corinne Segal

A writer's retreat in Tokyo will treat you like a Real Author, deadlines, nosy editors, and all.

We may not all be able to churn out a book during this pandemic, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have a bare-knuckle, nose-to-the-grindstone writing experience. One Tokyo inn has fully embraced the “writer” part of a writer’s retreat with Read more >

By Aaron Robertson

I just want to listen to the sound of this 16th century book on loop.

If you’re in need of a moment of aural respite, here’s one courtesy of Marsh’s Library, a “perfectly preserved library of the early Enlightenment in central Dublin.” (Also known as “the library that put readers in cages.”) Marsh’s Library, which Read more >

By Jessie Gaynor

After a vote, Carlin Romano will remain on the NBCC board.

The latest in the ongoing controversy at the National Book Critics Circle: after a “special meeting” on Monday, over 130 members of the NBCC met to vote on whether or not to remove Carlin Romano from its board. Romano, you’ll Read more >

By Emily Temple

The Discomfort of Evening has won the International Booker Prize.

The International Booker Prize is awarded annually to the best book written in any language, translated into English, and published in the UK or Ireland. It comes with a whopping £50,000—shared equally between the author and translator. This year, the Read more >

By Katie Yee

Heads up: The American Masters documentary of Ursula K. Le Guin is streaming for free.

If you’re looking for new ways to fill these waning days of our pandemic summer, here’s a good one: watch Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin, a documentary of the author produced with Le Guin’s participation over the course of a Read more >

By Jessie Gaynor

The way you pull your favorite books off the shelf is probably ruining them.

Many of us have been spending a lot more time with our book collections than usual—just another side effect of staying at home all the time. But if you’ve been idly wondering whether your books have been getting the TLC Read more >

By Emily Temple

Helen Macdonald wishes she'd never read On the Road.

Welcome to the Book Marks Questionnaire, where we ask authors questions about the books that have shaped them. This week, we spoke to H Is for Hawk and Vesper Flights author Helen Macdonald. * Book Marks: First book you remember Read more >

By Book Marks

Writers Against Trump wants to mobilize the literary community in advance of the election.

With voter registration deadlines approaching and misinformation around voter fraud spreading, a newly-formed coalition of writers is volunteering their time to defeat Donald Trump in the presidential election this fall. The group, Writers Against Trump—whose initial members include Paul Auster, Read more >

By Corinne Segal

Happy pub day to the first mainstream children's book featuring a Sikh character.

A groundbreaking children’s book based on an equally groundbreaking sports hero comes out today: Fauja Singh Keeps Going by Simran Jeet Singh, featuring the story of the first centenarian marathon runner, is also the first children’s book from a major Read more >

By Corinne Segal

Do we really need another book about Henry David Thoreau?

Long a part of the BIG CANON OF IMPORTANT AMERICANS, Thoreau is also a part of that less vaunted group of writers judged severely by the quality of diehard fan they inspire (think Kerouac, Bukowski, Hemingway)—wild-eyed young men hurling themselves Read more >

By Jonny Diamond