The Hub

News, Notes, Talk

Smaller, shorter books aren’t the only way to make publishing more climate friendly.

The BBC published a story the other day on the push towards shorter and slimmer books, as a potential way for publishers to save money and reduce their climate impact. According to a 2021 study, a single paperback book accounts for Read more >

By James Folta

Meet the writer who added “lol” to the end of every sentence of In Search of Lost Time.

Have you ever wondered what would happen if Proust’s seven-volume classic In Search of Lost Time and your text messages stepped into the telepod from The Fly? You might get something like Andrew Weatherhead’s bizarre and compelling web literature project, Read more >

By James Folta

Am I supposed to read all this? On spending time with Jenny Holzer's word art.

There’s a scene in Vinson Cunningham’s debut novel, Great Expectations, when a preternaturally jaded Obama campaign worker is mystified by something he sees on the wall at a donor’s house. Describing the piece as a hodgepodge of text and light, Read more >

By Brittany Allen

Rumaan Alam! Gay Shakespeare! How Elon Musk killed Twitter! 26 new books out today.

It’s another Tuesday, just at that moment in September when its linger summeriness may begin to shift more decisively into the cooler fires of autumn, but there’s no shift in one thing: that September has a ton of new books Read more >

By Gabrielle Bellot

Here's the 2024 Booker Prize shortlist.

Today, the Booker Prizes announced their 2024 shortlist: six books narrowed down from the “Booker’s Dozen” (otherwise known as the longlist of 13), chosen from a starting pool of 156 books written in English and published between October 2023 and Read more >

By Literary Hub

Oxford University Press USA Guild is protesting the firing of 13 unionized staffers.

The OUP USA Guild, part of the News Media Guild and representing around 150 workers, is demanding that Oxford University Press reverse the recent firing of US-based workers, claiming the layoffs are in violation of the Collective Bargaining Agreement that Read more >

By James Folta

Here’s the longlist for the 2024 National Book Award for Fiction.

Today, the National Book Foundation announced the longlist for the 2024 National Book Award for Fiction. The ten titles were selected from a pool of 473 books submitted for consideration by their publishers. This year’s judges for Fiction are Jamie Ford, Read more >

By Literary Hub

Here’s the shortlist for the 2024 BBC National Short Story Award.

Today, the shortlist for the 2023 BBC National Short Story Award with Cambridge University was announced on BBC Radio 4’s Front Row. The BBC National Short Story Award, now in its nineteenth year, grants £15,000 to the winning author; each Read more >

By Literary Hub

Here’s the longlist for the 2024 National Book Award for Nonfiction.

Today, the National Book Foundation announced the longlist for the 2024 National Book Award for Nonfiction. The ten titles were selected from a pool of 671 books submitted for consideration by their publishers. This year’s judges for Nonfiction are Brenda J. Read more >

By Literary Hub

What to do about that embarrassing Deathly Hallows tattoo.

A meme’s going around. I saw it first on FKA Twitter: 💀 pic.twitter.com/B5PrCZMml9 — THE lusty argonian maid (@lindawg) September 1, 2024 Though there’s no data to support this “discovery,” the internet was quick to take it on its face. Read more >

By Brittany Allen

Here’s the longlist for the 2024 National Book Award for Poetry.

Today, the National Book Foundation announced the longlist for the 2024 National Book Award for Poetry. The ten titles were selected from a pool of 299 books submitted for consideration by their publishers. This year’s judges for Poetry are Richard Blanco Read more >

By Literary Hub

A hip-hop syllabus—for fans, by fans.

Questlove, best known as one of the more famous drummers to ever live and co-founder of The Roots, released a memoir this month called Hip-Hop is History. Co-written with his regular collaborator, Ben Greenman, this personal narrative builds on a Read more >

By Brittany Allen

There was no better reader than James Earl Jones.

Photo by Howard Smith-Imagn Images, from SI.com James Earl Jones died on Monday at the age of 93, after a career filled with iconic performances, including in Star Wars, The Lion King, Roots, The Great White Hope, and a movie Read more >

By James Folta

Here’s the longlist for the 2024 National Book Award for Translated Literature.

Today, the National Book Foundation announced the longlist for the 2024 National Book Award for Translated Literature. The ten titles were selected from a pool of 141 books submitted for consideration by their publishers. This year’s judges for Translated Literature are Read more >

By Literary Hub

The Giller Prize has dropped the Scotiabank name but not the money.

Last week, amid ongoing controversy over its primary sponsor’s links to Israeli arms manufacturer Elbit Systems, the embattled Giller Foundation quietly dropped ‘Scotiabank’ from the title of its flagship literary award. From here on out, the Scotiabank Giller Prize (Canada’s Read more >

By Dan Sheehan

Here’s the longlist for the 2024 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature.

Today, the National Book Foundation announced the longlist for the 2024 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature. The ten titles were selected from a pool of 333 books submitted for consideration by their publishers. This year’s judges for Young People’s Read more >

By Literary Hub