The Hub

News, Notes, Talk

Center yourself with some springtime affirmations for book lovers.

As the weather turns towards warmth and rebirth, it’s time to reset and set some intentions for spring. Write these encouragements on Post-its, stick them to your bathroom mirror, and start living your best life. Read more >

By James Folta

Fires, collisions, and Kurt Russell: The untold history of David Foster Wallace's cruise ship.

Her name was Zenith, and she deserves to sail alongside Pequod, Demeter, and the ship of Theseus in the fleet of literature’s floating icons. You probably won’t recognize her name, but you no doubt know this ship made famous by Read more >

By James Folta

The shortlist for the 2024 International Booker Prize has landed.

This morning, the International Booker Prize dropped its shortlist, and this year’s panel has nominated a pleasing panoply of novels from six different countries. There are debuts beside books from feted laureates. And these novels vary widely across style, too—the Read more >

By Brittany Allen

Would you like to buy Cormac McCarthy's writing desk? (Or maybe his shirt?)

Attention Cormac McCarthy superfans: A selection of works and personal items from the writer’s life are currently up for auction at Bonhams. The collection, which comes directly from McCarthy’s second wife Annie DeLisle, includes an antique cherrywood library desk that Read more >

By Emily Temple

The Beatles! Natasha Trethewey! Librarians’ secret lives! 24 new books out today.

Ah, another April Tuesday, that undefinable month of storm and blossom, coolness and warmth, cruelty and catharsis. April may represent many a thing, depending on whom you ask, but what’s clear on this particular Tuesday is that new things to Read more >

By Gabrielle Bellot

A brief remembrance of Ghassan Kanafani.

The Palestinian cause is not a cause for Palestinians only, but a cause for every revolutionary, wherever he is, as a cause of the exploited and oppressed masses in our era. –Ghassan Kanafani   Ghassan Kanafani—the Palestinian resistance writer and Read more >

By Dan Sheehan

Meta considered buying Simon & Schuster to build its AI.

Over the weekend, The New York Times published a long article on how tech companies are trawling and stealing to gather vast amounts of data to build their generative programs. Companies like Google, Meta, and OpenAI are chasing increasingly large Read more >

By James Folta

The ten cringiest things in poetry.

This weekend saw another round of Mary Oliver discourse on Twitter. Like all Mary Oliver discourse, the essential argument was whether her poetry is Cringe and Corny or Good, Actually. I have no desire whatsoever to weigh in on this Read more >

By Jessie Gaynor

The New School claps back at Germany's anti-Palestinian bullshit.

When a formal letter begins with “Albertus Magnus would have been appalled!,” you know it’s gonna be good. That’s how The New School interim president Donna E. Shalala opened a blistering missive to Rector of the University of Cologne, Prof. Read more >

By Dan Sheehan

What to read next based on your favorite teen comedy.

Attention, nostalgic cinephiles–in honor of the recent anniversaries of certain teen movies dear to former freaks and/or geeks (Happy 35th, Heathers! And 25th, 10 Things…!), I’ve been revisiting the classics with an eye to locating their literary cousins. If you Read more >

By Brittany Allen

Annie Dillard's "Total Eclipse" is the best thing you can read about the eclipse today.

For obvious reasons, today is an excellent day to read Annie Dillard’s 1982 masterpiece “Total Eclipse,” in which she describes seeing a solar eclipse with her husband in Washington, and which is very likely the best piece of writing ever Read more >

By Emily Temple

Canadian writers call on Scotiabank to divest from Israeli arms manufacturer.

“We refuse to let our work distract for even a second from the filthy business of war. To use language that will be familiar to a bank: it’s not worth it. We won’t be bought. There isn’t a book or Read more >

By Dan Sheehan

Celebrate the solar eclipse with some of the best and worst ellipses in literature (and life).

People around the world are getting ready for the total solar eclipse next Monday, April 8th. I secured a pair of glasses last month, since the last time there was a solar eclipse in New York, I had to borrow Read more >

By James Folta

The unlikely literary inspiration behind Francis Ford Coppola's new film.

Fellow travelers and cinephiles—look sharp. Solidarity may really be upon us. Word on the street is that Francis Ford Coppola’s much-anticipated epic, Megalopolis, about an idealistic architect with utopian dreams for New York City, is inspired by not just one Read more >

By Brittany Allen

Kaleidoscopic novelist John Barth has died at 93.

It’s hard not to think about form when writing—to say nothing of starting—an obituary for John Barth. The conventions of the obituary are there to be picked up: appraise the work succinctly (see “kaleidoscopic” above), trace the biography (did you Read more >

By James Folta

Claire Jiménez has won the 2024 PEN/Faulkner Award for What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez.

Today, the PEN/Faulkner Foundation announced the winner of the 2024 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction: Claire Jiménez’s What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez (Grand Central). What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez was chosen by a panel of judges (Xochitl Gonzalez, Alan Michael Parker, and Lynn Read more >

By Literary Hub