Lit Hub Weekly: January 12 - 16, 2026

• “There were other loves in Alexander’s life, but none who meant so much to him as Hephaestion.” On Alexander the Great and Hellenistic homophobia. | Lit Hub History
• “‘Can you be a good writer and a good person?’ he muses into his Zoom camera, vaping every few seconds.” Eric Olson profiles Karl Ove Knausgaard. | Lit Hub Criticism
• Ed Simon explores the complex relationships between writers and their day jobs. | Lit Hub Craft
• Steven W. Thrasher on Renee Good, ICE, Zohran Mamdani, and the politics of domination vs. vulnerability. | Lit Hub Politics
• Inside Trump’s war on American classrooms (and American history): “History and social studies classrooms are of particular consequence because that’s where the nation’s past is taught.” | The Baffler
• “The tech CEOs, venture capitalists, social media platforms, AI features being rammed into software and hardware alike are all abetting the president of the United States in his war on reality.” Why reality still matters. | The Verge
• Lauren Boersma Harris profiles Emily Henry and considers the making of a different kind of romance novel. | The New Yorker
• “There’s this Chekhov quote that I’m kind of living by lately. He says a work of art doesn’t have to solve a problem — it just has to formulate it correctly.” David Marchese interviews George Saunders.| The New York Times
• How Vietnamese philosopher Trần Đức Thảo conceptualized the divide between colonized and colonizers. | Aeon
• Tyler Watanamuk considers the art (and commerce) of the book stack. | Dirt
• “Neighbor, you died a poet’s death, witness and justice your final actions.” Danez Smith memorializes Renee Nicole Good, poet, mother, and neighbor. | Harper’s Bazaar
• “Like a lot of people you see in LA in various states of lucidity, John seemed to be living in an eternal present.” Michael Casper profiles the last intellectual. | n+1
• John M. Owen IV considers the lessons of the late German legal theorist Carl Schmitt for the second Trump era. | The Hedgehog Review
• Nitisha Pahwa considers the cautionary tale of Scott Adams. | Slate
• Becky Pepper-Jackson, the teen at the center of a Supreme Court case concerning the rights of trans athletes, reflects on this week’s arguments and her journey so far. | The Cut
• Historian Anouche Kunth discusses the research required to write a book about Armenia, exile, and genocide. | Public Books
• Greta Rainbow considers the longevity bro in literature. | Dirt
• Aditi Rao on the problem with Babel: “ the task remains, to extend care, humanity, solidarity, and life, to tongues—and people—outside of the trajectories inscribed by our protos; to raze the language tree that dictates our cultural debt and our naturalized nations.” | Public Books
• Amir Ahmadi Arian explains why The Blind Owl is Iran’s ultimate banned book. | The Dial

Also on Lit Hub:

Your literary film and TV fix for 2026 • The shady doctors and telemarketing schemes that defrauded thousands of women • How the first Christian rock album kickstarted the Jesus Movement • How Random House brought Capote’s In Cold Blood to bookshelves • Why Back to the Future made Sean Mortimer a misfit skateboarder • Megan Milks follows their fascination with cows to an animal sanctuary • Jane Ciabattari talks to Madeline Cash • The early days of Mao’s Cultural Revolution • Authors answer our burning questions about literary life •  An epistolary exchange between Miroslav Volf and Christian Wiman • How the New York Times failed Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya •  Read “In Shadow, Who Made These Words,” a poem by Bianca Stone • Literary life in the Mississippi Delta’s Parchman Prison • Sara Levine recommends books featuring powerful aunts • Hedonism, nihilism and redemption via The Weekend • Six sad books (by funny women) • Golan Haji on art and letters in the new Syria • Is art the last refuge of our humanity? • How David Bowie both reinvented and killed the concept of a rock god • What happens if Russia wins in Ukraine? • Am I the asshole for crushing on my editor? • Daniyal Mueenuddin’s TBR • 5 book reviews you need to read this week • Myths and conquests of the Phoenicians • Jason Burke chronicles the rise of Carlos the Jackal • Asha Dore considers Lidia Yuknavitch’s The Chronology of Water • Kathleen Boland on getting lost (as a writing practice) •  The best reviewed books of the week • Five books to read in the early days of parenting • In praise of the boarding school novel • Read “Entropy,” a poem by Arthur Sze