Here’s what’s making us happy this week.

Happy Friday, readers! Here at Lit Hub, we’re still catching joy where we can nab it. With apologies for a weekend off here and there, we’re back to report on the sweet things that are making us smile.

Calvin Kasulke is taking heart in the long haul. “As a consistent but not at all competitive runner,” this story about an extremely fast, unsponsored amateur marathon man has proved inspiring for our staffer. Because even the coachless get lucky sometimes.

Or as Calvin sees it? The headline from Vinny Mauri’s story is, some things are still meritocratic in this broken world. “My man simply vibed his way into the record books.”

Jonny Diamond is also in a sporting mood. He’s happy for the fine people of Minnesota (“who, let’s face it, have had a shitty year”) because two of their franchises both advanced last night to the second round of the playoffs.

To the sport illiterate: we’re talking basketball and hockey, respectively. And, adds Calvin, the former victory is all the more exciting since the team has dealt with multiple injuries this season.

Here’s looking at you, Timberwolves and the Wild. Says Jonny, evergreenly: “We should all be Minnesota fans right now.”

Drew Broussard is obsessed with a new Apple TV show. Widow’s Bay is apparently “the best new TV show” to hit the waves in years—for a certain clientele, anyway.

“Funny, unsettling, playful and serious in equal measure. It’s for grown-up Goosebumps kids,” says Drew. “Some seemingly impossible amalgam of Twin Peaks and Schitt’s Creek and 90s monster-of-the-week shows. I love it so much.” Former stage crew kids, assemble!

And this week I, Brittany Allen, took heart in some good news from the land of letters. One is this series recently published in The Baffler, which explores the nitty-gritty world of how writers make a living.

Framed as a symposium, the project includes essays and letters from working class writers, all of them being refreshingly candid about how they got or get it done under capitalism.

Another nice thing? We’re getting a new lit mag, North America! The first issue of The Toronto Review has arrived, and it features fresh, exciting criticism, essays, and fiction from new faces and reliable goodies, like Haley Mlotek.

An early highlight is this piece, on the new indie feature Blue Heron. But I’m so excited to see what they break next.

Wishing you all a weekend of unexpected gems, bespoke thrills, and rewarding sprints.