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News, Notes, Talk

26 new paperbacks on shelves this June!

June looms ahead, and that means that summer is here—and, with it, a glorious selection of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry newly released in paperback this month. Below, you’ll find a selection of books spanning many themes, some by names you’ll Read more >

By Gabrielle Bellot

Read the first reviews of One Hundred Years of Solitude.

Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice…   Pablo Neruda called it “the greatest revelation in the Spanish language since Don Quixote of Cervantes.” William Read more >

By Dan Sheehan

A Texas school found the most horrifying way to use public domain Winnie-the-Pooh.

When I saw the trailer for Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey, I thought we’d reached the nadir of public domain-enabled re-imaginings, but it turns out, it can get much, much more horrifying than a low-budget slasher. Like a picture book in Read more >

By Jessie Gaynor

ChatGPT is basically a Gen X’er who stopped reading in 12th grade.

Turns out our soon-to-be AI Overlord, ChatGPT, has a worldview based in the 19th-century canon, Gen X sci-fi favorites, and the social dynamics at Hogwart’s School For Lil Magicians. According to this profile at Business Insider, a data scientist has Read more >

By Jonny Diamond

Critics really hate Josh Hawley's stupid book about manhood.

Supporting Josh Hawley … was the worst decision I’ve ever made in my life. He has consciously appealed to the worst. He has attempted to drive us apart and he has undermined public belief in our democracy. –Missouri Sen. John Read more >

By Dan Sheehan

One great short story to read today: Leslie Marmon Silko's "The Man to Send Rain Clouds."

According to the powers that be (er, apparently according to Dan Wickett of the Emerging Writers Network), May is Short Story Month. To celebrate, the Literary Hub staff will be recommending a single short story, free to read online, every (work) day Read more >

By Emily Temple

23 new books out today!

Astonishingly—at least to me and my inability to keep track of time—it is now near the end of the month, which means that two delightful things loom ahead: the twin promises of summer and the fact that new books that Read more >

By Gabrielle Bellot

One great short story to read today:
Kelly Link's "Stone Animals."

According to the powers that be (er, apparently according to Dan Wickett of the Emerging Writers Network), May is Short Story Month. To celebrate, the Literary Hub staff will be recommending a single short story, free to read online, every (work) day Read more >

By Emily Temple

Read Marilynne Robinson's 1988 review of Raymond Carver's final collection.

Raymond Carver, one of the most beloved and influential short story writers in the history of American fiction, was born eighty-five years ago today. Below is a New York Times review of Carver’s final story collection, Where I’m Calling From, written Read more >

By Dan Sheehan

Edward Carey gives us a preview of the illustrations in his next novel, Edith Holler.

My ninth book, Edith Holler, is set in a theatre in the city of Norwich in the east of England, just after the death of Queen Victoria in 1901. Edith is a child of twelve who has been ill much Read more >

By Edward Carey

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak loves a horsey "bonkbuster."

TIL … that the Rutshire chronicles is not euphemism for government incompetence but a blockbuster romance series by UK author Jilly Cooper OBE, and long a favorite of UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. Writes Politico: U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak Read more >

By Janet Manley

One great short story to read today: Percival Everett's “The Appropriation of Cultures.”

According to the powers that be (er, apparently according to Dan Wickett of the Emerging Writers Network), May is Short Story Month. To celebrate, the Literary Hub staff will be recommending a single short story, free to read online, every (work) day Read more >

By Jonny Diamond

A Florida school is now trying to "restrict" Amanda Gorman's poetry.

People simply must pick a lane: poetry is either impenetrable and outdated, or it’s a dangerous gateway drug to reverse racism. Florida, you cannot have it both ways! Politico reports today that an elementary school in the Miami-Dade area (renowned Read more >

By Janet Manley

Here's the cover for Marie-Helene Bertino's new novel, Beautyland.

Literary Hub is very pleased to reveal the cover for Marie-Helene Bertino’s new novel Beautyland, which will be published by Farrar Straus & Giroux in January 2024. Here’s more about the book from the publisher: At the moment when Voyager Read more >

By Literary Hub

One great short story to read today: Robert Coover's "The Babysitter."

According to the powers that be (er, apparently according to Dan Wickett of the Emerging Writers Network), May is Short Story Month. To celebrate, the Literary Hub staff will be recommending a single short story, free to read online, every (work) day Read more >

By Emily Temple

Haruki Murakami wins Spain's Princess of Asturias Award for literature.

Japan’s son and now the toast of an Infanta of Spain: Haruki Murakami has won the Princess of Asturias Award for literature, an award given by the Spanish royal foundation to significant works from anywhere in the world. The panel Read more >

By Janet Manley

Knopf will publish Gabriel García Márquez's final novel.

Alfred A. Knopf will publish Until August, the final (as far as we know) novel written by Nobel Prize–winning writer Gabriel García Márquez before his death in 2014, next year. After years of rumors that there was an “an entire Read more >

By Dan Sheehan

Haymarket Books is launching a fellowship for writers impacted by the criminal legal system.

Today, Haymarket Books announced a new fellowship aimed at supporting and uplifting writers impacted by the criminal legal system. The Writing Freedom Fellowship will grant 20 writers in poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction  “a significant unrestricted award based upon their Read more >

By Literary Hub

Just a few hateful parents are responsible for most of the book challenges in America.

We all know that things are bad when it comes to widespread, targeted book-banning in America. It’s a free speech crisis unlike any we’ve seen in a generation, and follows in this country’s grand tradition of moral panic-as-national pastime. But Read more >

By Jonny Diamond

One great short story to read today: Kristin Valdez Quade's "The Five Wounds."

According to the powers that be (er, apparently according to Dan Wickett of the Emerging Writers Network), May is Short Story Month. To celebrate, the Literary Hub staff will be recommending a single short story, free to read online, every (work) day Read more >

By Emily Temple