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 >
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 >
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 >
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 >
Paul Auster, beloved American writer, died yesterday at 77, at his home in Brooklyn. Auster rose to prominence in the mid 1980s with his widely beloved “New York Trilogy,” beginning with City of Glass, which was rejected 17 times before Read more >
It’s a new month, and, with it, there’s a marvelous myriad of new books to consider, as always. This time, I come bearing gifts in paperback: a whopping twenty-seven books newly being released in paperback for you to consider in Read more >
Basim Khandaqji, a Palestinian writer who has been confined to an Israeli prison cell for the past 20 years, has won this year’s International Prize for Arabic Fiction for his forth novel, A Mask, the Colour of the Sky. The novel follow Nur, an archaeologist Read more >
Last week over 100 cops from the EU’s police agency fanned out over Georgia and Latvia to bust a group of criminals who stole around 170 antique books from libraries across Europe. Over two years, the gang is suspected in Read more >
This month, Harvard University Press published a new edition of Emily Dickinson’s letters, the first in over sixty years, edited by Cristanne Miller and Domhnall Mitchell. It is the most complete volume of the poet’s correspondence to date, presenting 1,304 Read more >
It’s nearly May, and, to usher in the warmer weather to come, I’ve compiled a list of twenty new books out today to consider taking with you to a park bench, a beachfront, a bedside table (with space for more Read more >
You can’t swing a Luddite’s hammer these days without hitting a piece of tech that’s overhyped and underdelivered. AI is the ultimate “solution TK,” promising to fix everything at some point down the road, while actually making the internet more Read more >
Mohammad Abdulrahim Saleh, “the youngest poet to publish a collection in Palestine,” was killed by an Israeli airstrike on October 10. Born and raised in the Jabalia refugee camp in North Gaza, Saleh was one of the earliest casualties of Read more >
To paraphrase the novelist Sheila Heti, I’ve been spending a lot of time lately wondering: how should a person be? These are vexy times, on both global and local theaters. Big questions structure the day. Questions like, what is gender? Read more >
In response to the University of Southern California administration’s recent behavior regarding pro-Palestinian protest on campus, Booker Prize-nominated novelist C Pam Zhang (How Much of These Hills is Gold) and MacArthur Fellow Safiya Noble (Algorithms of Oppression) have withdrawn as keynote Read more >
Following months of escalating protests over its response to Israel’s war on Gaza, and just four days on from the cancelation of its annual literary awards, embattled free expression organization PEN America has now also announced the cancelation of its Read more >
Shaimaa Alareer, an accomplished Palestinian illustrator and the eldest daughter of the murdered poet Refaat Alareer, was killed in an Israeli airstrike on her home in the Al-Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City earlier today. The attack also claimed the lives of her Read more >
As students organize and resist to demand action and justice for Palestinians, publishers are offering free books on Palestine, protest, and more, in solidarity. Verso has seven ebooks available for download, including a case for sanctions against Israel, a collection Read more >
? It’s the moooost wonderfullll tiiiiime of the yeaaaar!? That’s right, folks: tomorrow is perhaps the greatest book-related holiday on the calendar: Independent Bookstore Day! As I’ve been saying at the top of bookstore events at my local indie (where Read more >
That’s according to a recently released survey by the Society of Authors, which heard from over 800 of their members about how they’re feeling about emergent technologies and their impact on their creative work. The Society, a UK-based trade organization Read more >
When SPD (Small Press Distribution) announced its sudden and immediate closure at the end of March, hundreds of small and indie presses were not only caught off-guard but immediately thrown into existential limbo. Publishers and authors took to whatever platforms Read more >
