Lit Hub Daily: February 5, 2026
THE BEST OF THE LITERARY INTERNET
TODAY: In 1948, a private assembly of 50 major literary and artistic figures listens to a recording of Antonin Artaud‘s play Pour en Finir avec le Jugement de dieu, whose broadcast on French radio three days earlier has been prohibited.
- Mychal Denzel Smith on identity politics, democratic socialism, and Zohran Mamdani’s uncertain relationship with New York’s Black voters. | Lit Hub Politics
- Maris Kreizman tracks down the publishing world in the Epstein Files: “I don’t recommend doing this; I truly believe it made me physically ill.” | Lit Hub Criticism
- “If we’re willing to do the work and make changes, with aging comes wisdom, which allows us to move on and forge a future of our own choosing.” Senior women share their stories of finding sexual freedom. | Lit Hub Memoir
- “A portrait emerges of an artist with a vision, a distinctive way of seeing the world.” 5 book reviews you need to read this week. | Book Marks
- Patmeena Sabit recommends five essential books for understanding Afghanistan by Khaled Hosseini, Parwana Fayyaz, Jamaluddin Aram and more. | Lit Hub Reading Lists
- From Orson Welles to Sarah Vowell, Sarah Montague explores the”king voice” and the evolution of vocal authority. | Lit Hub History
- Adrian McKinty on the legacy of one of Ireland’s great poets: “Seamus Heaney’s poems were read in classrooms where children were growing up with soldiers patrolling their streets.” | Lit Hub Criticism
- Kristy Beachy-Quick seeks solace in Thoreau’s lesser-known works. | Lit Hub Criticism
- “Mo`opuna, the hospital says I can’t bring food or plants inside the building. What is their medicine, compared to ours?” Read from Jasmin ‘Iolani Hakes’s new novel, The Pohaku. | Lit Hub Fiction
- Apoorva Tadepalli examines Amit Chaudhuri’s “poetics of unfinishedness.” | The Baffler
- What’s a Moby-Dick fan supposed to do? Gather in New Bedford, Massachusetts to read the book cover to cover. | Smithsonian Magazine
- Krys Malcolm Belc on rebuilding a safe haven in Minnesota: The job is simple, and involves a lot of standing around: volunteers are there to observe and to alert, as a protective measure so our neighbors’ kids and their parents don’t get kidnapped before they get to have their own golden post-drop off hour.” | Vogue
- Eli Cugini tracks the ascent of fan fiction in publishing. | Defector
- “Chromophobia is a pervasive ideology in Euro-American aesthetics—a fetishism even—that color is something that can be purged or imagined away.” On Pantone’s 2026 Color of the Year. | Los Angeles Review of Books
- Zach Rabiroff considers a new play about cartoonist Mike Diana and a notorious comics obscenity case. | The Comics Journal
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