The Hub

News, Notes, Talk

There's a new Dick(ens) pic coming and it looks like a ho-ho-hoot.

Yes, in what seems certain to become the most critically-acclaimed adaptation of Charles Dickens’ festive opus ever committed to celluloid, Ryan Reynolds and Will Ferrell (like Bill Murray, Michael Caine, and Matthew McConaughey before them) are putting their own unique spin Read more >

By Dan Sheehan

Your guide to free virtual literary events this November.

We love to be active and engaged members of the literary community. We also love to not leave our bed. Now you can do both! * 2022 Brooklyn Public Library Book Prize Celebration November 2 @ 7pm EST Hosted by Read more >

By Katie Yee

Yes, a Republican running for congress has written Christian fanfiction about Anne Frank.

In a particularly heinous act of literary graverobbing a guy named Johnny Teague—a pastor and businessman running for congress in Texas’s 7th district—has written a “sequel” to The Diaries of Anne Frank. Yup. According to Jewish Telegraphic Agency: The Lost Read more >

By Jonny Diamond

19 paperbacks to be grateful for this November.

Never not giving thanks for paperbacks. * Gish Jen, Thank You, Mr. Nixon: Stories (Vintage, November 1) “There are 11 [stories] here—insightful, wistful, nuanced—sometimes heartbreaking and often funny. Each tale packs in social commentary, political asides, and keen observations that Read more >

By Katie Yee

Here are the 2022 Whiting Creative Nonfiction grantees.

Today, the Whiting Foundation announced the 2022 recipients of the $40,000 Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grant, which seeks to “foster original, ambitious projects that bring writing to the highest possible standard.” Previous grantees include Rachel Aviv, Sarah M. Broom, and Chloé Read more >

By Literary Hub

18 new books to kick your November reading into gear.

We’re starting the month off strong, with new books from Katherine Dunn, N.K. Jemisin, Franny Choi, Dorthe Nors, and more. Not to mention the celebrity book component: Bono, Bob Dylan, and Matthew Perry (whose memoir we might be looking forward Read more >

By Katie Yee

5 spooky story collections you probably haven't read—but should.

There’s something about short stories that screams Halloween to me; I think it’s because they’re the perfect length to be read around a campfire, or with a flashlight in hand on a dark and stormy night. And because there is Read more >

By Katie Yee

Henry Cavill wants to play The Witcher's Geralt faithfully—or not at all.

News dropped over the weekend that Henry Cavill is handing over the role of Geralt to Liam Hemsworth (ugh) after season 3 of The Witcher on Netflix (expected to air next summer). The internet was none too happy about it (same), Read more >

By Eliza Smith

Read the short stories behind Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities.

If you, like me, spent the weekend squirming while watching Guillermo del Toro’s new anthology horror series, Cabinet of Curiosities, on Netflix, you might also have noticed that all the episodes but one start with a hat tip toward the Read more >

By Eliza Smith

7 stone-faced writers accompanied by perfect cuties.

Listen. It’s Friday, and things aren’t great. But here’s something nice for you: a collection of frowning, eye-rolling, dead-panning literary types holding on to adorable animals. Like I said, it’s Friday. The real question is—how could you be so grumpy Read more >

By Emily Temple

Here are the winners of the 2022 Kirkus Prize.

In a ceremony on Thursday at the Austin Central Library, Kirkus Reviews announced the three winners of their ninth annual Kirkus Prize in Fiction, Nonfiction and Young Readers’ Literature. The winners were chosen from the 1,436 books that received the Read more >

By Emily Temple

Why did no one warn Matthew Perry that Keanu Reeves is universally beloved?

By now, perhaps you’re aware of the kerfuffle over the two (2) separate instances in Matthew Perry’s forthcoming memoir, Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing, in which he takes extremely cheap shots at Keanu Reeves in the context of Read more >

By Jessie Gaynor

Where the Wild Things Bone: Stephen Colbert mocks Republicans’ moral panic.

We’ve been covering the rising, almost biblical, flood of Republican censorship for a while now, but with midterm debate season in full-swing, all of the crazy is going mainstream. On his show last night Stephen Colbert took aim at the Read more >

By Jonny Diamond

Cover reveal: See the cover for Jane Wong's Meet Me Tonight in Atlantic City.

Literary Hub is pleased to reveal the cover for Meet Me Tonight in Atlantic City, the debut memoir by Kundiman fellow Jane Wong, which will be published by Tin House this spring. Here’s how the publisher describes the novel: In Read more >

By Literary Hub

Cover reveal: See the cover for Michael Chang's Synthetic Jungle.

Literary Hub is pleased to reveal the cover for Michael Chang’s Synthetic Jungle: Poems, their latest poetry collection forthcoming from Curbstone Books. Chang’s poetry has been nominated for Best New Poets, Best of the Net, and the Pushcart Prize. In Read more >

By Eloise King-Clements

Toni Morrison will finally be on a U.S. stamp in 2023.

This week, the United States Postal Service announced their 2023 slate of stamps, including new forever stamps honoring literary legends Toni Morrison and Ernest J. Gaines. (Morrison has been immortalized on stamps before, but it’s USPS policy that living people Read more >

By Emily Temple

Listen to Phoebe Bridgers and Andrew Bird “reimagine” Emily Dickinson.

Andrew Bird has recorded a collaboration with Phoebe Bridgers billed as a “reimagination” of the Emily Dickinson poem “I felt a Funeral in my Brain.” According to Bird (whose latest album, Inside Problems, was released this past summer): I came Read more >

By Jonny Diamond

Turns out there's an actual Frankenstein Castle in Germany—complete with legendary mad scientist.

Today I learned that not only is there a real Frankenstein Castle (in Mühltal, Germany), but that is was the birthplace of a 17th century alchemist named Johann Konrad Dipple, who was obsessed with finding the secret to immortality and Read more >

By Emily Temple

What you should read next, based on your favorite Midnights song.

It’s rare in this day and age that you know exactly what everyone is doing at a given moment. In the olden days, before streaming services, you could pretty much guarantee that your colleagues and friends were all gathered around Read more >

By Katie Yee

Japanese bookstores are closing at a much faster rate than here in America.

As reported in the Japanese Times (with a headline worthy of Murakami), bookstores have been closing at an alarming rate in Japan over the last decade. According to an industry organization, there are currently 11,952 stores operating in Japan, compared Read more >

By Jonny Diamond