The Hub

News, Notes, Talk

Here's the cover for Katherine Min's posthumous novel The Fetishist.

Lit Hub is pleased to share the cover from Katherine Min’s novel, The Fetishist, which will be published by Putnam in January 2024. Min’s debut novel Secondhand World was a runner-up for the PEN-Bingham Award in 2007. Writer Cathy Park Hong met Min in 2009 Read more >

By Literary Hub

One great short story to read today: Edward P. Jones's "Bad Neighbors."

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

This is how you publicize the reissue of a classic dystopian novel.

I love this. Legendary UK publisher Faber Editions has reissued Sven Holm’s 1967 dystopian classic, Termush, which is set at “a luxury hotel at the end of the world.” So why not set up a fake hotel website that looks Read more >

By Jonny Diamond

Taika Waititi has set his sights on Ishiguro's Klara and the Sun.

Does Taika Waititi ever sleep? It seems like every other week brings news that the Oscar-winning New Zealander has attached himself to another Hollywood project. Time Bandits, Interior Chinatown, The Incal, Thor 6: OMGods, some Glup Shitto Star Wars nonsense…the list goes Read more >

By Dan Sheehan

The 2023 Tony nominations include nods to Stoppard and the Isaac-Brosnahan chemistry.

The 2023 Tony nominations are out and include the Jessica Chastain revival of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House (also with Succession’s Arian Moayed), and your old friend Tom Stoppard. The nominations for best new play are: Ain’t No Mo’ by Read more >

By Janet Manley

One great short story to read today: García Márquez's "The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World."

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 Gabrielle Bellot

26 new books out today.

As May begins, bringing the promise of brighter and warmer weather to many of us—weather often perfect for reading outside—there are, as ever, a lot of exciting new books out. Should you indeed head out to read—or cozily stay inside—consider Read more >

By Gabrielle Bellot

On creating a board game that is also a work of literature.

Telling good stories in games is really hard. It’s hard in any medium, of course, but games provide a set of challenges over and above those faced by novelists and screenwriters. Take the question of agency—if the player is allowed Read more >

By Tommy Wallach

One great short story to read today:
Alice Munro's "Wenlock Edge"

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) Read more >

By Emily Temple

25 new paperbacks on shelves this May.

It’s a new month, and that means, amongst other things, that a lot of wonderful, exciting, thought-provoking titles are finally being released in paperback. The titles below span a wide range, including authors old and new, established and promising. I Read more >

By Gabrielle Bellot

James Shapiro takes "Winner of Winners" Baillie Gifford Prize.

The Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction has been running for 25 years, recognizing the best work of non-fiction each year with a tidy sum of £25,000. This year, to celebrate its quarter century, the prize looked back on its previous Read more >

By Janet Manley

Neil Gaiman has an album coming out!

Neil Gaiman has his first full-length album coming out, a collaboration with Australian indie string quartet FourPlay called Signs of Life. Gaiman, obviously, has tried his hand at all kinds of writing—adapted myth, tv, comics—and has now written a record’s Read more >

By Jonny Diamond

Poet Sarah Holland-Batt wins the 2023 Stella Prize.

Sarah Holland-Batt spoke at an Australian royal commission in 2019 on the poor state of aged care on behalf of her father, who had Parkinson’s and died in 2020. She later worked her experiences into a collection, The Jaguar, that Read more >

By Janet Manley

Here is the 2023 Women's Prize for Fiction shortlist.

Across the pond this morning, the good people at the Women’s Prize for Fiction—one of the literary world’s most high-profile and prestigious awards—announced the 2023 shortlist, which includes both former winners and three first-time novelists. This year’s shortlist was selected Read more >

By Dan Sheehan

If he were alive today, would former librarian Mao Zedong be a men’s rights YouTube star?

Ah, now I see why Republicans want to ban books and defund libraries. According to JSTOR Daily, a young Mao Zedong was an ardent library patron who loved hanging out with books so much he briefly became an assistant librarian. Read more >

By Jonny Diamond

The story of the 74-year-old debut novelist and TikTok dad will warm your cold heart.

Lloyd Devereux Richards’ debut thriller Stone Maidens was published in 2012, received by a largely indifferent world until Devereux Richards’ daughter Margueritte posted a TikTok about her dad, aged 74, last year. Nearly overnight, the mystery novel about an FBI Read more >

By Janet Manley

17 new books out today.

Remarkably, the end of April is already almost here. But, of course, there are many reasons and ways to enjoy these last few days of the month. You might acknowledge the birthdays of certain literary legends, like Defoe (the 24th), Read more >

By Gabrielle Bellot

Here are the winners of the 2023-2024 Rome Prize in literature.

The American Academy in Rome, America’s oldest overseas center for independent studies in advanced research in the arts and humanities, has announced the winners of the 2023-24 Rome Prize, which aims to gift its recipients with “time and space to Read more >

By Emily Temple

Two New York City books will split this year's $70,000 Gotham Book Prize.

Today, the Gotham Book Prize, a new annual award created during the first year of the pandemic to honor and support the best writing about New York City, announced its 2023 winners. This year, the prize will be increased from Read more >

By Emily Temple

Definitive proof that publishing your novel won't make you happy.

Hug an author today! Fifty-four percent of debut authors responding to Bookseller survey said the process had a negative impact on their mental health—equally likely to feel bummed out whether they pubbed with a Big Four or an indie publisher. Read more >

By Janet Manley