The Hub

News, Notes, Talk

Karen Russell! Torrey Peters! Joan Didion! 25 new books out today.

March marches on, and though the month has just begun, it already, perhaps unsurprisingly, feels like many months of compressed time, if not more, days darkly alchemized into eons by so much political chaos. Still, there are always bright spots, Read more >

By Gabrielle Bellot

A Columbia professor's message to his fellow Jewish faculty members.

[As news broke last Friday of the Trump administration’s plan to revoke $400 million dollars of research funding to Columbia University, filmmaker and Columbia professor James Schamus posted the following to a faculty list serve there. It has been lightly Read more >

By James Schamus

The Lit Hub Staff’s Favorite Villains: Emily Temple on Bulgakov's Woland

For our Villains Bracket week, a few Lit Hub staffers wrote a little bit on their favorite villain from our initial group of 64. Here’s Emily on Woland from Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita. Despite the fact that you (monsters) Read more >

By Emily Temple

The Lit Hub Staff’s Favorite Villains: Drew Broussard on Randall Flagg

For our Villains Bracket week, a few Lit Hub staffers wrote a little bit on their favorite villain from our initial group of 64. Here’s Drew on Randall Flagg from Stephen King’s work. “The man in black fled across the Read more >

By Drew Broussard

A Small Press Book We Love:
Wings in Time by Callie Garnett

Small presses have had a rough year, but as the literary world continues to conglomerate, we at Literary Hub think they’re more important than ever. Which is why, every (work) day in March—which just so happens to be National Small Read more >

By Jessie Gaynor

The State Department pulled $1 million in funding for the Iowa International Writing Program.

Photo from the IWP’s webpage. The legendary and beloved International Writing Program was told on Wednesday that the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs was terminating their federal funding. The loss amounts to around $1 million Read more >

By James Folta

Three unionized Barnes & Nobles in NYC have ratified an historic first contract.

The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union announced yesterday that workers have ratified union contracts at three New York City Barnes & Noble stores, which is a first for Barnes & Noble in the U.S.  Through organizing and solidarity, over Read more >

By James Folta

18 Canadian performing arts organizations have joined the cultural boycott of Israel.

As reported by Richie Assaly in the Toronto Star yesterday, Buddies in Bad Times Theatre—the largest queer theater company in the world—is among 18 theater and performing arts organizations that have joined a “cultural and academic boycott” of Israel: On Read more >

By Dan Sheehan

Stop linking to Amazon already!

Folks, the time has come to stop linking to Amazon. For good. If you’re reading this site, you likely already knew this in your heart. And I’m actually not here to give you the litany of reasons why Amazon’s extractive Read more >

By Drew Broussard

What makes a good villain? 15 writers weigh in.

Putting together our bracket to determine the best villain in literature brought up a lot of existential questions about villains: What makes a good one? Can a character be villainous without being an antagonist? What even is a villain? I Read more >

By James Folta

A Small Press Book We Love:
The Bear by Andrew Krivak

Small presses have had a rough year, but as the literary world continues to conglomerate, we at Literary Hub think they’re more important than ever. Which is why, every (work) day in March—which just so happens to be National Small Read more >

By Jonny Diamond

An Indiana bill is threatening Dolly Parton's Imagination Library.

Sometime after she wrote two of the best songs of all time in an alleged single sitting, Dolly Parton turned her talents to charming the world. She’s acted in perfect films (9 to 5), continued to make perfect country, pop, Read more >

By Brittany Allen

A Small Press Book We Love:
The President's Room by Ricardo Romero

Small presses have had a rough year, but as the literary world continues to conglomerate, we at Literary Hub think they’re more important than ever. Which is why, every (work) day in March—which just so happens to be National Small Read more >

By Drew Broussard

An architecture journal’s Palestine issue was abruptly shelved.

Image by Amal Al-Nakhala and Journal of Architectural Education Earlier this week an influential academic publication on architecture, Journal of Architectural Education, or JAE, had its forthcoming fall issue on Palestine canceled by its publisher “without having read the content of Read more >

By James Folta

Here are the finalists for the 2025 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction.

This week, the PEN/Faulkner Foundation announced the finalists for the 2025 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. A three judge panel—comprised of authors Bruce Holsinger, Deesha Philyaw, and Luis Alberto Urrea—considered 414 novels and short story collections published in the US during Read more >

By Brittany Allen

A Small Press Book We Love:
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Small presses have had a rough year, but as the literary world continues to conglomerate, we at Literary Hub think they’re more important than ever. Which is why, every (work) day in March—which just so happens to be National Small Read more >

By Jonny Diamond