Will you take the Ulysses in 80 challenge?
yes I said yes [you] will Yes. 80 days to read the Big One? That’s only 6 to 8 pages a day. Piece of piss. Sure, you could knock those out each morning in less time than it takes stately, Read more >
The Hub
News, Notes, Talk
WATCH: Dua Lipa visits a women’s prison reading group.
Working with the Booker Prize Foundation, Dua Lipa recently visited HMP Downview, a women’s prison in Surrey, to get a firsthand glimpse of Books Unlocked, a program set up by the BPF and the National Literacy to foster a culture Read more >
By Jonny Diamond
Ada Limón's poem is going to one of Jupiter's moons and your name can go with it.
U.S. poet laureate Ada Limón has been called up for active duty in the NASA Europa Clipper space mission! Limón wrote a poem (which you can hear her read over at this jump) that will be engraved on the spacecraft Read more >
By Janet Manley
They share a common foe, now Mary Trump and E. Jean Carroll are writing a romance novel.
I didn’t see it coming, but I’m open to it: E. Jean Carroll announced today in her Substack, post-legal victory over Donald Trump in her civil sexual abuse case, that she is writing a serialized romance novel with Trump’s niece, Read more >
By Janet Manley
The best unhinged books to read while smiling on a beach.
As the sun climbs, people are folding their linens into packing cubes and squaring a nice good beach read on top—something to sink into in the glare of the Caribbean sun, or squint at through oversized sunglasses. Get yer sizzling Read more >
By Janet Manley
Must be nice: Beverly Cleary's old mansion listed for $1.8 million.
Beezus and Ramona, the first book by Beverly Cleary in her beloved Ramona series, came out in 1955, so I can’t beat myself up too much for not having written it myself. And yet. Cleary’s old Berkeley mansion was listed Read more >
By Janet Manley
The case against criticizing books (specifically mine).
In the past few months, it has become increasingly clear that something is very wrong with book criticism. As the editor of a literary website, I believe that a robust literary discourse can only make the industry stronger and more Read more >
By Jessie Gaynor
One great short story to read today: Sam Lipsyte's "The Dungeon Master."
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
The world pays respect to Ama Ata Aidoo, Ghana’s late author-playwright.
Ama Ata Aidoo has died aged 81, reports the BBC, and tributes are coming from across the globe. Aidoo was a feminist who served as Ghanaian education minister in the 1980s and was the first published female African dramatist. She Read more >
By Janet Manley
Channing Tatum dropped some sparkle onto Books Are Magic.
You know when two people you like turn out to know each other, and you think, oh COOL but also WEIRD? That’s how I feel about a photo I saw of Channing Tatum dropping into Emma Straub’s Books Are Magic Read more >
By Janet Manley
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 >
