The Hub

News, Notes, Talk

A new report tracks workplace retaliation against pro-Palestinian media workers.

For some months, members of the Freelance Solidarity Project and the National Writers Union (NWU) have been tracking, compiling and verifying incidents of retaliation against media workers who’ve expressed open support (or merely been perceived as supporting) Palestine. A full Read more >

By Brittany Allen

One great short story to read today:
Rebecca Curtis's "Hansa and Gretyl and Piece of Shit"

According to the powers that be (er, apparently according to Dan Wickett of the Emerging Writers Network), May is Short Story Month. To celebrate, for the second year in a row, the Literary Hub staff will be recommending a single short story, Read more >

By Emily Temple

Against the objectification of books (or, some thoughts on The Discourse).

A few weeks back, The Washington Post ran a piece spotlighting “super readers,” a self-selecting class of book nerds who pride themselves on reading very, very fast. I clicked on this article even as my hackles rose, and some pre-programmed Read more >

By Brittany Allen

I invented the abstract colorful blob book cover.

A satirical confession, from an imagined designer who unleashed the style of book cover with “amorphous shapes of suggestive colors” on the world. I’ve created a monster. I’m the designer who first created the colorful blob book cover. You know Read more >

By James Folta

One great short story to read today:
Jamaica Kincaid's "Girl"

According to the powers that be (er, apparently according to Dan Wickett of the Emerging Writers Network), May is Short Story Month. To celebrate, for the second year in a row, the Literary Hub staff will be recommending a single short story, Read more >

By Brittany Allen

One great short story to read today:
Helen Oyeyemi's "Books and Roses"

According to the powers that be (er, apparently according to Dan Wickett of the Emerging Writers Network), May is Short Story Month. To celebrate, for the second year in a row, the Literary Hub staff will be recommending a single short story, Read more >

By Drew Broussard

Colm Tóibín! Jamaica Kincaid plus Kara Walker! Lily Dancyger! 27 new books out today.

It’s finally May, and to usher in the new month, I’ve compiled a list of no less than twenty-seven new books to consider. Below, you’ll find work from many beloved names, including Long Island, a new novel from Colm Tóibín; an Read more >

By Gabrielle Bellot

The best-dressed writers at the Met Gala.

Over the past twenty years or so, the Costume Institute’s annual Met Ball has exploded from in-crowd cause célèbre to the Oscars of fashion. The benefit began in 1948 as a slightly cheeky fundraiser popular among the Capote’s Swans set. Read more >

By Brittany Allen

Here are this year’s Pulitzer Prize winners.

The winners and nominated finalists of the 2024 Pulitzer Prizes were announced today by administrator Marjorie Miller via remote video stream. The winners each take home $15,000 dollars and serious bragging rights, not to mention a ticket into a very Read more >

By Emily Temple

What the hell happened at Readers Take Denver, the “Fyre Festival of Books?"

Social media has been in an uproar after last month’s Readers Take Denver, when thousands of authors and readers arrived in Denver, Colorado for what was billed as a weekend of events, signings, and meet-and-greets with authors. But RTD (not Read more >

By James Folta

One great short story to read today:
J.G. Ballard's "The Garden of Time"

According to the powers that be (er, apparently according to Dan Wickett of the Emerging Writers Network), May is Short Story Month. To celebrate, for the second year in a row, the Literary Hub staff will be recommending a single short story, Read more >

By Emily Temple

Pitches to save your literary website.

If you haven’t read yesterday’s New York Magazine piece about the former Cosmopolitan editor-in-chief and recently hired chief creative and content officer at The Daily Beast, I highly recommend it. It seems that the media industry, having tried pivoting to video, hedge Read more >

By Jessie Gaynor

Possible Pride and Prejudice sequels inspired by the Bridget Jones books.

Conceived as a modern day Elizabeth Bennet—or at least, another woman in love with an emotionally unavailable man—Bridget Jones made a massive splash when she hit the shelves in 1996. Her diary, written by Helen Fielding and alternately derided and Read more >

By Brittany Allen

Houses from literature that Airbnb could definitely trick us into booking.

Airbnb, the vacation rental company and possibly why your rent is too high, recently announced a line of movie tie-in rentals inspired by cinema classics, including the house from Prince’s Purple Rain and a very precarious-looking, dangling recreation of the Read more >

By James Folta

One great short story to read today:
Senaa Ahmad's "Let's Play Dead"

According to the powers that be (er, apparently according to Dan Wickett of the Emerging Writers Network), May is Short Story Month. To celebrate, for the second year in a row, the Literary Hub staff will be recommending a single short story, Read more >

By Emily Temple

Grab your tickets for Freedom to Write for Palestine.

If you’re in New York City next Tuesday, May 7, why not head on over to Judson Memorial Church on Washington Square, where more than two dozen writers and musicians will be performing their work to raise money for We Are Read more >

By Dan Sheehan

10 of the best author-turned-artists, ranked.

In an essay on the painter Walter Sickert, Virginia Woolf once voiced a surprising preference: “Words are an impure medium; better far to have been born into the silent kingdom of paint.” This turned out to be a running theme. Read more >

By Brittany Allen

One great short story to read today:
Donald Barthelme's "The School"

According to the powers that be (er, apparently according to Dan Wickett of the Emerging Writers Network), May is Short Story Month. To celebrate, for the second year in a row, the Literary Hub staff will be recommending a single short Read more >

By Emily Temple

“Crazy with the poison of Vietnam in my lungs.” Paul Auster on the ’68 Columbia protests.

Auster second from the right, in a photo by Jerry Upham from the collection of Paul Cronin and re-printed in Vanity Fair As police, administrators, politicians, and outsiders attack college protesters in a wave of reactionary repression, I am reminded Read more >

By James Folta

One great short story to read today:
Ling Ma's "Office Hours"

According to the powers that be (er, apparently according to Dan Wickett of the Emerging Writers Network), May is Short Story Month. To celebrate, for the second year in a row, the Literary Hub staff will be recommending a single short Read more >

By Emily Temple