The Hub

News, Notes, Talk

Reese Witherspoon is perfectly insufferable in the new Little Fires Everywhere trailer.

There’s a new trailer for Little Fires Everywhere, the upcoming Hulu miniseries based on Celeste Ng’s 2017 novel, to get us through the next three weeks until its premiere on March 18. The story of interconnected family dramas in a Cleveland Read more >

By Corinne Segal

Excuse me: Is Amazon really using this small publisher to try to prove that it's not evil?

Last night, I was in my third hour of binge-watching The Bold Type when I stumbled upon an ad that made me do a double-take. The ad was for Amazon Storefronts, a section launched in 2018 as a way for Read more >

By Katie Yee

New editions of six Stanisław Lem books place the sci-fi icon back in the spotlight.

This month, science fiction fans and Solaris lovers everywhere have cause to celebrate: six newly-illustrated editions of work by the late Polish author Stanisław Lem (1921-2006) are being published by The MIT Press. Lem’s influence on science fiction has been compared to Read more >

By Aaron Robertson

Would Henry David Thoreau really have wanted us to buy these lavender sweatpants?

This morning, I received a marketing email from cool athleisure brand Outdoor Voices, advertising a nice looking set of Cotton Terry Sweats and telling me I should buy them because they are simple, and Henry David Thoreau advocated simplicity. Sure, Read more >

By Emily Temple

German far-right party distributes racist coloring books.

The global creep of fascism continues apace with news of German far-right party AfD (Alternative for Germany) distributing racist coloring books at a rally last weekend. And lest you dismiss the AfD as a bunch of fringe asshats (I mean, Read more >

By Jonny Diamond

Authors Guild releases grim 50-page report on “The Profession of the Author in the 21st Century”

The Authors Guild, whose “mission is to support working writers,” and “advocate for the rights of writers by supporting free speech, fair contracts, and copyright” commissioned an in-depth look at what it means to be a professional writer in the Read more >

By Jonny Diamond

The man responsible for cut/copy/paste (and making countless writers' lives easier) has died.

It’s hard to imagine how people wrote novels (or blog posts) before the advent of the cut and paste function. (Don’t @ me, Luddites.) Cut/paste is a gift to anyone who doesn’t necessarily want to kill every darling, but would Read more >

By Jessie Gaynor

The L.A. Times announces its 2019 Book Prize finalists and a new award for science fiction.

It’s an exciting year for the Los Angeles Times Book Prizes! This will be its 40th year of celebrating the literary community. The Times announced their 2019 Book Prize finalists today; the winners will be announced at a ceremony in Read more >

By Katie Yee

LeBron James, my hero, has written a children's book.

Is there anything LeBron James can’t do? Before you attempt to form a response, let me save you some time; the answer, of course, is no. Case in point: HarperCollins yesterday announced a two-book deal with the LeBron James Foundation. James’ Read more >

By Dan Sheehan

Compassion fatigue is taking its toll on librarians.

Early retirements, compassion fatigue, and burnout: these are the issues that are currently affecting public librarians as they attempt to take on the work of caring for their visitors’ mental health as well as their day-to-day jobs, according to School Read more >

By Julia Hass

In which a very blasé Carson McCullers gets interviewed on a ship.

From the archives: a clip from Ship’s Reporter, a talk show that aired from 1948-1952, in which Jack Mangan interviews Carson McCullers about The Member of the Wedding. . . on a ship. At the beginning of the interview, McCullers Read more >

By Emily Temple

I regret to inform you that Miss Havisham, Dickens’ embittered crone, is actually only . . . 40.

Yes, as it turns out, Miss Havisham, the aggrieved and decrepit antagonist of Charles Dickens’s novel Great Expectations—the wealthy lady who has never taken off the wedding dress she wore when her fiancé jilted her at the alter a lifetime Read more >

By Olivia Rutigliano

Announcing the finalists for the $35,000 Aspen Words Literary Prize.

The Aspen Institute has just announced the shortlist for their Aspen Words Literary Prize, an annual award honoring a work of fiction that highlights important contemporary issues. This year’s finalists were selected by Alexander Chee, Amy Garmer, Saeed Jones, Helen Read more >

By Katie Yee

Announcing the fourth annual Honey & Wax Book Collecting Prize.

Literary Hub is pleased to announce that submissions are now open for the fourth annual Honey & Wax Book Collecting Prize, which awards $1,000 to an outstanding book collection conceived and built by a young woman, aged 30 or younger, Read more >

By Emily Temple

Watch a rare recording of one of Toni Morrison's earliest interviews about Beloved.

Today would have been Toni Morrison’s 89th birthday, and if you can’t make it to one of the many celebrations going on in her honor around the country, you should at least indulge in reading her words—and also, perhaps, in Read more >

By Emily Temple

Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson will reunite in adaptation of long-buried Martin McDonagh play.

Deadline earlier today reported the truly stupendous news that Oscar- and Tony-winning playwright and filmmaker (and current squeeze of the all-conquering Phoebe Waller-Bridge) Martin McDonagh will soon be reuniting his In Bruges stars Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson for The Banshees of Inisheer, Read more >

By Dan Sheehan