The Hub

News, Notes, Talk

Noah Baumbach is publishing a book.

I would have guessed autobiographical novel, or perhaps quirky short story collection, but no; as reported by Deadline earlier today, the writer-director of The Squid and the Whale, Marriage Story, and White Noise is currently working on a memoir, which has Read more >

By Dan Sheehan

The moments in literature we DEFY ChatGPT to compute.

Every day I see another article framed around a journalist feeding something into ChatGPT and publishing the results, or an author writing 87 books with AI in a single day, or a publishing house using LMM to sort the slush Read more >

By Janet Manley

Simon & Schuster UK is launching a TikTok hype house for books.

For hundreds of years, stories were constrained by the limited fire power of someone reading a text then offering a measured appreciation that could make or break sales of said book. Now, there is a new way: 1) Pile BookTok Read more >

By Janet Manley

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 >

By Dan Sheehan

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