Today, the National Book Foundation announced the finalists in all five categories—Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Translated Literature, and Young People’s Literature—for the 2025 National Book Awards. The winners will be announced at the 76th National Book Awards Ceremony & Benefit Dinner Read more >
The clock struck October, and with it, we welcomed in a slew of meaty, fascinating, and binge-worthy books. At long last, Thomas Pynchon’s Shadow Ticket, a much-anticipated work by the 88-year-old author is released. In other fiction news, there’s a Read more >
This demon shooting video game mod might be your new favorite book. MyHouse.wad is a 2023 mod—short for modification, in this case a series of custom levels—for 1994’s Doom II, the second in a franchise of wildly influential games that Read more >
As we round out #BannedBooksWeek, it’s time to observe a grim new tradition. PEN America has announced its annual most-banned-books-of-the-year list. This year’s crop of “objectionable” titles may surprise you. If we consider censored books by theme, critique of an Read more >
I’ll give you a hint. They bleed orange and blue and Dinosaur B-B-Q. Last week, Syracuse University announced the launch of a new Center for the Creator Economy. The first academic hub of its kind on a U.S. college campus, Read more >
One of the great Czech writers of the 20th century, Ivan Klima, died over the weekend at his home in Prague, at the age of 94. Klima lived an incredible, principled life, having survived both the Nazi concentration camp at Read more >
Welcome, officially, to the first Friday of spooky season. The stores are full of candy for sale and those giant yard skeletons are starting to unfurl themselves. Hope you’re starting to feel the vibes and already have some great costume Read more >
The theme this week is running-up-that-hill. Here at Lit Hub, we’re questing for answers. In the Kingdom of Hollownest, or ancient Egypt. We’re trying to keep the dream alive while that big wheel keeps on turning. And we’re accepting invitations Read more >
This #BannedBookWeek, we have a lot to lament. Though some book bans have been stalled or swatted down in the courts, stealthy removal campaigns continue. At home and abroad. But as Haylee May of CPR News first reported, at least Read more >
Today in headlines I never thought anyone would I’d write, the head of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library has resigned after a spat with Melania Trump over an original Eisenhower sword she really, really, really wanted to give to Read more >
The death by suicide of the late, great Hunter S. Thompson in 2005, at the age of 67, is to be reexamined by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation after a request from his widow, Anita. According to NBC: The Pitkin Read more >
Today, the Baillie Gifford Prize for Nonfiction, which recognizes excellence in Nonfiction from authors of any nationality published in English in the UK, announced their 2025 shortlist, six books whittled down from 350 published between November 2024 and October 2025. Read more >
As they say, one man’s collection is another man’s hoarded fire hazard, but reading this story—of a fancy Philadelphia townhouse stuffed to the rafters with 100,000 books—had me wondering where, exactly, that line is. According to the Philadelphia Inquirer: [Estate Read more >
After a 20 year hiatus, Reading Rainbow, the former PBS tentpole, is headed back to the airwaves. A reboot of the literacy loving children’s television show is coming to a (small) screen near you—thanks in part to a brand new Read more >
Today, the Center for Fiction announced the shortlist for their annual First Novel Prize, which was judged this year by Xochitl Gonzalez, Adam Haslett, Tracy O’Neill, and Joseph Earl Thomas (winner of the 2024 First Novel Prize). The shortlisted authors Read more >
Musician Cat Stevens, who has also gone by Yusuf Islam since 1977, is having to put the brakes on his book tour due to unresolved visa issues. Islam had planned and sold tickets for a seven city tour to promote Read more >
Today, McGill University announced the finalists for the 2025 Cundill History Prize, which honors history writing that “demonstrates excellence across the prize’s guiding criteria: craft, communication and consequence.” The winner, who will be announced at the Cundill Festival in Montreal Read more >
Florida man and failed presidential candidate Ron DeSantis will vote today—along with the state’s attorney general, chief financial officer and agriculture commissioner, all republicans—to approve a very shady “grift” “gift” to Donald Trump’s presidential library foundation. The gift in question Read more >
With the world as we know it seemingly caving in around us, never has there been a better time to orient ourselves around what truly matters. Our loved ones. Our activism. Our small kindnesses to each other. Our devotion to Read more >
The 2025 Nobel Prize in Literature will be announced next week, on Thursday, October 9. As always, to prepare myself (emotionally, I guess?), I consulted the UK betting site NicerOdds (nicer than whose, I wonder?) to find out who the Read more >
