Lit Hub Weekly: January 26 - 30, 2026

• Read our Letters from Minnesota series for dispatches from the Twin Cities on ICE’s terror and community resistance. | Lit Hub 
• “Poetry is a testament to the failure of wolves.” An anonymous Midwest poet writes a letter to his daughter about the murder of a poet. | Lit Hub Politics
• Stefan Merrill Block recounts the misery of being an unwilling homeschooler. | Lit Hub Memoir
• James Folta talks to Minneapolis bookseller Angela Schwesnedl about anti-ICE resistance. | Lit Hub Bookstores
• Inside Llewyn Davis is a “documentary about dating an aries,” and more Letterboxd reviews from Jo Barchi. | Dirt
• Víctor Navarro-Remesal considers the quiet reflection that “slow games” allow. | The MIT Press Reader
• LLMs can (technically) write. But they can’t write memoir. | Aeon
• Jeremy Lybarger considers George Whitmore’s “ruthless and unsentimental” narrative of queer survival, Nebraska. | The Nation
• Hermione Hoby makes the case for Infinite Jest on its 30th birthday. | The New Yorker
• On aliens, speculative fiction, and the challenge of exploring non-human perspectives. | The Point
• Kristen Radtke remembers her childhood best friend Alex Pretti, the ICU nurse murdered by ICE in Minneapolis. | The Verge
• “In a post-Kirkified world, this impulse to bastardize Good’s image after her death emerged immediately on mainstream social media, boosted by influential right-wing influencers, and mutated alongside the rapid spread of misinformation about her.” On the unsettling meme economy in the aftermath of violence. | 404 Media
• George Monaghan introduces you to Jack Edwards, TikTok’s most influential literary critic. | The New Statesman
• “A woodchuck lives as he’s meant to, whistling at every moment to the perfect freedom of the nonentity we imagine. His limitation is limitless.” Nick Neeley on Thoreau, Dillard, and the noble  woodchuck. | Orion
• “For a long time, I really felt frustrated by it like, ‘I wish I could feel things less intensely.’ I’m only starting to really feel grateful for it.” Jennette McCurdy tells Sofia Coppola about writing Half His Age. | Interview
• Before Heated Rivalry, there was… Don DeLillo’s pseudonymously published erotic hockey novel? | The New York Times

Also on Lit Hub:

The urgency of preserving Gaza’s culture • A conversation with Isabelle Baafi • Myths, legends, and folklore of Russian forests • Tramaine Suubi recommends debut astropoetry collections • Why we shouldn’t feel bad about our abortions • The earliest prehistoric settlements on what is now British land • George Saunders tells Jane Ciabattari about writing Vigil • Rebecca Hall reflects on Negro Liberation, her father’s groundbreaking book • Revisiting the mythic 1947 Black Dahlia murder • The progressive politics of Coretta Scott King • The history of partnership (and love) between humans and dogs • Val McDermid’s ode to writing in the winter • How tabloid journalism shaped the racist narrative of the Bernie Goetz subway shooting • How folklore holds the weight of cultures in flux • On participating in Black art and community online • Roger Dooley’s search for nautical eighteenth-century treasure • Heather Rose explains how living quietly enhances her writing • What Europeans encountered on Easter Island/Rapa Nui • The role of chatbots in literacy • A graphic account of the day Ukraine rose up for democracy • Stephen Fishbach on taking inspiration from his time on Survivor • Am I the literary asshole? •  January’s best reviewed books • The bestselling indie press fiction and nonfiction this week •  How to survive between writing projects • Why Thomas Jefferson couldn’t resist fame • Motivation and imitation as keys to successful creativity • Bob Dylan’s COVID-era album