Sometimes, it can be hard to know exactly what a literary agent is looking for. Other times, they just come out and tell you, via a “Manuscript Wish List” (#MSWL). These can be both helpful and oddly specific. The following Read more >
Today, the New York Public Library announced their Young Lions Fiction Award finalists. The annual award, now in its 25th year, honors a writer under 35 for an exceptional novel or short story collection. Here are this year’s finalists: ‘Pemi Aguda Read more >
It was recently brought to my attention, via the Lit Hub Slack, that “thromance,” a portmanteau of thriller and romance, has joined the ranks of zippy subgenre names. Maybe it’s because of social media, but it seems like book conversations Read more >
Today the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation announced its annual class of fellows. This year’s “distinguished individuals” include 198 authors, scholars, and artists working across 53 disciplines. Chosen through a rigorous application and peer review process from a pool of Read more >
It’s April 15, just about midway through a month of drizzly days, blossoms, and ever more political chaos, a chaos rippling across the globe. It’s a difficult time to remain happy, hopeful, and certain of things from day to day, Read more >
Two weeks ago, the White House signed a spate of executive orders designed to restore “truth and sanity” to cultural institutions. This administration has made no secret of the fact that it’s gunning for the archive, but the latest saber-rattling Read more >
The Nobel Prize-winning Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa, the last living titan of the Latin American literary “boom,” and one of the most influential writers of the Spanish-speaking world, died on Sunday at the age of 89. His death was Read more >
Portrait of Charlotte Brontë by John Hunter Thompson © The Brontë Society As Patti Smith writes in her introduction to the first-ever publication of A Book of Ryhmes, the poet, a thirteen-year-old Charlotte Brontë, must have transcribed her ‘ryhmes’ (the Read more >
Here on the Eastern seaboard, we’re waiting out the April showers. But it turns out there’s plenty to be grateful for, despite the gloom. This week the Lit Hub staff are shouting out nostalgic reads, making things with our hands, Read more >
Today, the Cleveland Foundation announced the winners of its 90s annual Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards, which seek to recognize books that “have made important contributions to our understanding of racism and our appreciation of the rich diversity of human cultures.” It Read more >
The U.S. Naval Academy recently removed 381 books from its Nimitz Library in Annapolis, Maryland, in another sick and sad blow to freedom of expression. The titles are what you might expect, the result of a ctrl+F search for any Read more >
On May 2nd, the U.S. Postal Service will unveil a new stamp to kick off Children’s Book Week. The newest honoree to be cast Forever in adhesive is Margaret Wise Brown’s Goodnight, Moon. The new pane will pay tribute to Read more >
In a ceremony on Wednesday night, the Whiting Foundation announced the ten new recipients of the Whiting Award, an award “designed to recognize excellence and promise in a spectrum of emerging talent.” The award comes with a monetary prize of $50,000 Read more >
Mark your calendars, Pynchon fans. Today, Penguin Press announced that they will be publishing a new novel by the famously reclusive American master this fall, on October 7. The novel, his first since 2013’s Bleeding Edge, is titled Shadow Ticket, and clocks Read more >
In some ways, writing fiction about theatre—or any other artistic medium—is a tricky brief. (Maybe a little like dancing about architecture.) Though plays make great occasions for exploring motley group dynamics, plays, unlike novels, are collaboratively built. Some wonderful books Read more >
On Friday, a group of 21 state Attorneys General from across the US announced a lawsuit challenging the Trump and Musk cuts to federal agencies. The team of state AGs are suing to to protect a number of organizations, including Read more >
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