The Hub

News, Notes, Talk

Mother's Day gifts for literary moms.

The most thankless characters in literary history are mothers. They’re always birthing important characters and assuming the shape of overplayed metaphors and even, sometimes, marrying the fratricidal brother of their dead spouse, yet somehow they’re secondary characters when it comes Read more >

By Literary Hub

Author of children's book about grief charged with murdur-durdur.

“How’d you become a children’s book author?” The answer for Kouri Richins, a Utah mom of three who wrote Are You With Me?, a children’s book about coping with grief, is that she allegedly poisoned her husband, then wrote a Read more >

By Janet Manley

One great short story to read today: Rebecca Curtis's "Fish Rot."

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 Janet Manley

21 new books out today!

As May continues, and as the incredible fact that summer is almost here looms, here are some exciting new books to consider picking up today. Below, you’ll find a wide-ranging list, from new releases of classic tales and retellings of Read more >

By Gabrielle Bellot

Here are this year's Pulitzer Prize winners.

The winners and nominated finalists of the 107th Pulitzer Prizes were announced today via remote video stream. The winners each take home $15,000 dollars and serious bragging rights, not to mention an instant ticket into a very illustrious club. The Read more >

By Emily Temple

Did F. Scott Fitzgerald think all women over 35 should be murdered?

Probably not, but it seems likely that he said it. That’s according to an unpublished letter, sent by Fitzgerald to a long-lost cousin back in the spring of 1924, which is going under the hammer this week. In the handwritten note, Read more >

By Dan Sheehan

What is this summer's big mystery book?

The Internet is abuzz over a forthcoming nonfiction book, a 544-page memoir (including 40 full-color photographs) slated to be published by Flatiron on July 9th. Why? Because The Internet thinks it was probably written by Taylor Swift. It all started Read more >

By Emily Temple

Chinese man builds bookstore on a mountaintop. Yes, he’s a poet.

A 57-year-old “self-styled poet” (aren’t they all?) has spent $116,000 of his own money to build a bookstore in a mountaintop village. Oh, and it’s shaped like the number 7 and contains 7,000 books. No, this is not a parable. Read more >

By Jonny Diamond

Meet the owners of the newest bookstore in Brooklyn.

Forty years ago, my not-yet-gentrified neighborhood in Brooklyn had one bookstore, Mostly Books. When the owner retired, it became a video store (RIP Cousins). Then it was derelict, then it was councilman’s office, and now it’s (obviously) a real estate Read more >

By Emily Firetog

Have a look back at every Pulitzer Prize for Nonfiction winner of the 21st Century.

This afternoon, at around 3PM (EST), from Columbia University in New York City, the winner of this year’s Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction will be announced. As well as a check for a cool $15,000 dollars (which feels a little Read more >

By Literary Hub

Announcing the 2023-2024 Steinbeck Fellows.

Literary Hub is pleased to announce the 2023-2024 Steinbeck Fellows: A.J. Bermudez, Francisco González, Alexia Nader, Itto Outini, Amanda Rizkalla and Xueyou Wang. The Steinbeck Fellows Program is financed by the Martha Heasley Cox Center for Steinbeck Studies at San Read more >

By Literary Hub

One great short story to read today: Viet Thanh Nguyen's "Black-Eyed Women."

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

Scholastic recognizes 100 years of teen writing.

What do Amanda Gorman, Truman Capote, John Updike, and Joyce Carol Oates have in common? Each won a Scholastic Art & Writing Award as a teen. The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards began in 1923 and continue to support young Read more >

By Janet Manley

Have a look back at every Pulitzer Prize for Fiction winner of the 21st Century.

On Monday, at around 3PM (EST), from Columbia University in New York City, the winner of this year’s Pulitzer Prize for Fiction will be announced. As well as a check for a cool $15,000 dollars (which feels a little low, Read more >

By Literary Hub

One great short story to read today:
Stuart Dybek's "Paper Lantern."

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 Dan Sheehan

Fatimah Asghar takes the inaugural Carol Shields Prize for Fiction.

The “richest literary prize in the world for women and non-binary writers,” The Carol Shields Prize for Fiction, announced its first winner over night at an event at Parnassus Books. Please have a glass in hand … Fatimah Asghar, author Read more >

By Janet Manley

Happy coronation week! Here's an unforgivable children's book about King Charles.

When we were but children in a distant former colony, we had a set of cardboard coronation crowns upholstered poorly in imitation velvet so we could play kings and queens. The Queen was on our money, and her portrait hung Read more >

By Janet Manley

Illinois passes bill to stop book-bannings.

Guess who made it out of committee? On Wednesday, the Illinois state legislature passed House Bill 2789, which would ensure libraries or schools that remove books from their shelves do so with the knowledge they shall ~shelve~ the state grant Read more >

By Janet Manley

This Alaska bookstore in Sarah Palin’s hometown isn’t backing down about its drag story time.

Respect and support to Wasilla, Alaska’s Black Birch Books, who’re getting a lot of online flack for announcing a drag story time in June. But despite a slew of negative, and sometimes threatening, comments and reviews, Black Birch owner Taylor Read more >

By Jonny Diamond

One great short story to read today:
Diane Cook's "The Way the End of Days Should Be."

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