The Hub

News, Notes, Talk

Vampires, pranks and podcasts: here are some ideas to reboot 2025’s public domain books.

The new year means new calendars you’ll stop using in a month, new resolutions you’ll break in a week, and new public domain works you can remix and ruin all year long. And in 2025, a lot of classics are Read more >

By James Folta

Which of Tom Hanks' beloved typewriters are you?

A special collection landed in the Hamptons this week, care of Tom Hanks—the world’s one true pleasure to have in class. As real ones know, Mr. Hanks has long nursed a fetish for typewriters. He spotlit the technology in his Read more >

By Brittany Allen

It sure looks like Meta stole a lot of books to build its AI.

It’s a grim week for Meta. The company formerly known as Facebook, and before that Facemash, “designed to evaluate the attractiveness of female Harvard students,” now encompasses Facebook, Instagram, Threads, WhatsApp, and Meta, the failed vision for a remote workplace, Read more >

By James Folta

Stuck in a reading rut? Sign up for the annual Free Black Women's Library Reading Challenge.

Is your TBR pile daunting and diffuse? Have you failed to find the kick-off book that suits the vibes of 2025? Or, are you maybe just looking for a structure to put some juice into your reading life? If you Read more >

By Brittany Allen

These were the bestselling books of 2024.

There are the best books of the year, and then there are the most popular. Print books had a relatively good year in 2024; as Publishers Weekly reports, sales rose by less than 1%—which isn’t much, but represents the first Read more >

By Emily Temple

Pico Iyer! Helen of Troy in the '90s! An African history of Africa! 27 new books out today.

Hello, hello, Dear Readers! It’s just about the middle of January, and what a start to the year it has already been, a year already defined, it seems, by its inability to be pinned down, by its chaotic tumult of Read more >

By Gabrielle Bellot

Is an NFL player reading a book on the sidelines a win for books?

Photo from Fox’s Twitter/X account I’m not a big football fan, but I did watch a lot of skateboarding videos as a teen so I understand the appeal of a sport that involves lots of concussions. So I nearly missed Read more >

By James Folta

At this year's MLA convention, protestors put Palestine on the docket.

Another major academic org is in turmoil over Palestine. This weekend, members of the Modern Language Association (MLA) protested the group’s annual convention in New Orleans after the executive council refused to hold a vote on a pro-Palestinian resolution. As Read more >

By Brittany Allen

You can now find Jhumpa Lahiri's first drafts at the New York Public Library.

In pleasant book news, the New York Public Library has acquired Jhumpa Lahiri’s archive. The beloved multilingual translator and award-winning author’s papers will now be available to view in the Berg Collection of English and American Literature, located in the Read more >

By Brittany Allen

Here are this year’s finalists for The Story Prize.

This morning, The Story Prize—which seeks to recognize the best short story collection published every year—announced its three 2025 finalists, chosen from a total of 107 submissions. “Each of these three story collections is so original in conception and brilliantly executed Read more >

By Literary Hub

There’s a new movie version of Hamlet staged in Grand Theft Auto.

Friends, you read that right. A new film is coming to theaters in January that is… Hamlet staged in the Grand Theft Auto video game. Yes, Hamlet acted out by video game avatars, shot in-frame, and edited into its own Read more >

By Olivia Rutigliano

Why is Pamela Paul writing about scholasticide? Do better, New York Times.

Yesterday, UNICEF reported that at least 74 Palestinian children were killed by Israel in the first week of 2025. Also yesterday, Haaretz reported that Israel blocked a UN probe into sexual crimes alleged to have been carried out by Hamas on Read more >

By Dan Sheehan

Why I make a very dumb, ranked list of the 100 words I use most every year.

At the end of the last few years, I’ve made a habit of putting together a list of the top 100 words I’ve published most frequently that year. It’s admittedly a strange and arbitrary way to look at a year’s Read more >

By James Folta

Announcing the 2025 class of Periplus fellows.

Every year, Periplus awards 48 mentorships to writers of color living and working in the United States, pairing each one with a member of the collective, an established writer who will meet monthly with their mentee to foster community, support Read more >

By Literary Hub

What to read next based on your favorite film of the year (redux).

Now that we’ve closed the book on 2024, it’s time to assess its cultural products. Let’s start with movies. This week the Golden Globes distributed their brassy trophies, and the SAG awards listed their nominations. It was an exciting year Read more >

By Brittany Allen

Fable’s AI-generated end-of-year reading summaries veered into bigotry.

I’ve never taken a business school class, but I have to imagine that one of the very first things they teach you is “make sure to not say racist things to your customers,” right after you learn, “this money line Read more >

By James Folta