What are the greatest history pop songs of all time? I decided to make a playlist and collect them; it’s a playlist for my forthcoming book, The World: A Family History of Humanity. History books do not usually have soundtracks, Read more >
We have ceded more terrain to the robots. A ToolTester survey found that people surveyed in late 2023, 53% incorrectly identified AI-generated writing as human-made; a figure that rose to 63.5% when the technology was more advanced (GPT-4). So, not Read more >
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby was published 98 years ago today, on April 10, 1925. Despite less-than-thrilling sales, the following year, Paramount Pictures turned it into an 80-minute silent film starring Warner Baxter as Jay Gatsby, with Lois Wilson Read more >
Literary Hub is pleased to reveal the cover for Álvaro Enrigue’s new novel You Dreamed of Empires, translated by Natasha Wimmer, which will be published by Riverhead in January 2024. Here’s a bit about the book from the publisher: One Read more >
In the latest legal reporting on Kanye West’s “Donda Academy,” a $15,000-a-year private school, I was reminded of Homer Simpson’s failed religion. Most charter schools/religions fail, though the details of West’s academy seem more damning than the usual bespoke curriculum Read more >
Literary Hub is pleased to reveal the cover for two-time National Book Award winner Jesmyn Ward’s latest novel, Let Us Descend, “a haunting masterpiece about an enslaved girl in the years before the Civil War,” which will be published by Scribner Read more >
Another day, another piece of horrifying anti-trans news in the book world. Even by recent standards, though, this one seems particularly fucked-up. An Alaska-based children’s book illustrator has been dropped by his publisher after making terroristic threats against transgender people. Read more >
After creating several lifetimes’ worth of mythologies, Jorge Luis Borges saw his own end in 1986 (he died), and the entire surreal estate came to rest with his wife, Maria Kodama. You can picture it piled into her living room: Read more >
The Carol Shields Prize is the largest prize for women and non-binary writers, with a $150,000 windfall for the winner, and $12,500 for runners-up. It aims to improve representation of works by female and nonbinary writers, and readership of same. Read more >
Tom Holland the writer and historian has respectfully asked that the good people of India stop tagging him in photographs of actor Tom Holland from the recent Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre (NMACC) event, a Bollywood night-of-nights. An honest mistake! Read more >
Apparently, after years and years of the thwarted desires of…someone or other…an “updated take” on the perfect 1999 film Cruel Intentions (based, of course, on Dangerous Liaisons (Les Liaisons dangereuses) by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, which is why I get to talk Read more >
In December 2022, author Chelsea Banning had 37 people RSVP “yes” to her book event. On the day, only two showed up. In March 2023, Jamar Perry showed up to his 7 p.m. book event to find the bookstore empty, Read more >
Today, the PEN/Faulkner Foundation has announced the winner of the 2023 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction: Yiyun Li’s The Book of Goose (FSG). The Book of Goose was chosen by a panel of judges (Christopher Bollen, R.O. Kwon, and Tiphanie Yanique) from 512 Read more >
After an extremely lucrative but creatively deadening sojourn on Marvel Money Island, Oscar-winning writer-director Chloé Zhao is returning to more cerebral fare. Deadline announced this morning that the one of the Nomadland and Eternals director’s next projects will be a film adaption Read more >
Today, the Windham-Campbell Prizes announced this year’s eight winners, each of whom will receive an $175,000 award. This annual prize recognizes excellence in fiction, nonfiction, drama, and poetry written in the English language from anywhere in the world, and is Read more >
Up and at ’em! The National Book Foundation announced the most recent crop of honorees under its 5 under 35 program, each of whom was chosen by a past winner. The titles include novels, and poetry and short story collections. Read more >
Kristen Roupenian’s short story-to-screen empire continues to expand at a terrifying pace. As reported by Deadline, another story from Roupenian’s collection, You Know You Want This—which followed in the wake of her viral story, “Cat Person”—will be adapted for the Read more >
If you liked the Joan Didion estate sale, you’re going to love the auction of two letters by Ernest Hemingway detailing near-death experiences. In the pair of letters written to a “co-ed” (about which more below), you have, in the Read more >
It’s the first Tuesday of April, month of showers, flowers, and slowly warming weather, and, should you find yourself inside, consider curling up with one (or more) of these: * Tiffany Clarke Harrison, Blue Hour (Soft Skull) “In lyrical language, Harrison Read more >
Today, the Cleveland Foundation announced the winners of its 88th annual Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards, which seek to recognize books that “have made important contributions to our understanding of racism and our appreciation of the rich diversity of human cultures.” “These Read more >
