Lit Hub

Night Night Fawn Gooood morning. Office of Doctor Eli Zilch. You don’t end with a questioning tone. This is important. You have to end with an ambiguous lilt, the tone of which is impossible to indicate through pun…

“You don’t end with a questioning tone. This is important. You have to end with an ambiguous lilt, the tone of which is impossible to indicate through punctuation on a page.” Read from @jordyrosenberg.bsky.social’s new novel, Night Night Fawn.

A Woman in the World: Colm Tóibín on the Short Fiction of Mary Lavin Like Myra in her story “A Memory,” Mary Lavin lived in a mews house behind Fitzwilliam Square in Dublin. She also had a house on a bend of the river Boyne in County Meath, north of Dublin, a place …

Colm Tóibín considers the short fiction of Mary Lavin: “She had spent her life describing others and finding strategies to create versions of herself on the page; it was not easy to categorize her.”

Rebecca Solnit, Vigdis Hjorth, Terry Tempest Williams, and more: 23 new books out today! Some stunning nonfiction, some scintillating novels: it’s the beginning of a new month, one that promises more sunshine, and more life-giving literature. Rebecca Solnit, Terry Tempest William…

The 23 new books out today include titles by Rebecca Solnit, Vigdis Hjorth, Terry Tempest Williams, and more!

How authors can protect themselves from scams, according to a book publicist. Publishing scams are everywhere right now — and they are getting slicker and harder to detect. As a book publicist who works every day with serious nonfiction authors, I’m seeing more and more writ…

@jessicapellien.bsky.social breaks down nine ways to identify a publishing scam.

Why So Many Women Are Writing About Bears As a daughter of a wildlife biologist growing up in the Canadian wilderness, I’ve been fascinated with bears since I was a child. When I was only five years old, my father brought home an orphaned …

@trinamoyles.bsky.social explores the women adding their voices to the canon of bear literature.

Here are the finalists for the 2026 PEN/Faulkner award for fiction. Today, the PEN/Faulkner Foundation announced the five finalists for the 2026 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. The judging panel, which this year was comprised of Samantha Hunt, Tania James, and De’S…

The PEN/Faulkner Foundation has announced the five finalists for the 2026 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction.

Reading the Stars: On Iconic Actors in the Age of Generative AI Was there ever a time before we read the stars? From astronomy to astrology, humankind has been turning to heavenly bodies to make meaning for as long as we’ve been in existence. For Melissa Anders…

On iconic actors in the age of generative AI and film critic Melissa Anderson’s The Hunger.

Don’t miss these amazing Minnesota writers reading at AWP If you’re headed to Baltimore this week for the 53rd annual AWP (aka literary rumspringa for writers-who-should-know-better), I insist you come have a beer and celebrate some of Minnesota’s (and Am…

Come hang out with me if your at AWP this week… and behold this incredible lineup of Minnesota writers. (And if you show me proof of donation @literaryhub.bsky.social will buy you a beer). lithub.com/dont-miss-th...

Terry Tempest Williams on the Plight of the Monarch Butterfly Tell me what supernatural life / Is painted on your wings, the poet Homero Aridjis writes of monarch butterflies. He knows the migrations, the flaming butterflies, from his childhood when they retu…

“Who are we as a species if we allow monarch butterflies, a living symbol of metamorphosis, to cease to exist?” Terry Tempest Williams on the plight of the monarch butterfly.

What to Check Out in Literary Baltimore While You’re in Town For AWP Baltimore was dubbed “The City That Reads” in 1988, when newly elected Mayor Kurt Schmoke declared his intention to boost literacy in his inaugural address. The slogan was plastered on benches in t…

From Red Emma’s to Edgar Allan Poe, here’s your literary guide to Baltimore for AWP!

F. Scott Fitzgerald on Battling Insomnia (and a Single Mosquito) When some years ago I read a piece by Ernest Hemingway called Now I Lay Me, I thought there was nothing further to be said about insomnia. I see now that that was because I had never had much; it a…

“Life was like that, after all; my spirit soars in the moment of its oblivion; then down, down deep into the pillow…” F. Scott Fitzgerald on his fight with insomnia (and a mosquito).

My March poetry column is live at Lit Hub just in time for the AWP bookfair.

The Weight of the Self: On James Merrill’s A Different Person A number of the people I first shared my love of James Merrill’s writing with are gone now, so I write this for them as much as for you. Some of the gone people perished from AIDS, the same disease…

Hilton Als considers the influence of class and queerness on James Merrill’s A Different Person.

Book awards from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation’s Program in Public Understanding of Science and Technology help authors bridge the two cultures of science and the humanities for a wide audience. In 2025, 17 winners published their books. More on the program: bit.ly/2025SloanBoo... [Sponsored]

Lake Effect Bess Pfeiffer didn’t mean to start anything when she walked into Honey Finnegan’s house with seven copies of The Joy of Sex. She thought it would be fun. Their group had been meeting for years and …

“Bess Pfeiffer didn’t mean to start anything when she walked into Honey Finnegan’s house with seven copies of The Joy of Sex. She thought it would be fun.” Read from Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney’s new novel, Lake Effect.

Read a Passage From Jonathan Galassi’s Book-Length Poem, The Vineyard black-and-blue and purple salvia.What makes guaranitica so special?Does it winter over? Come on, Mac,I thought you were a pro.(This year’s yellow-orange crocosmiaare another story,though they don’t…

“The greatest gardeners in these parts, / as almost everywhere, have left no trace.” Read from Jonathan Galassi’s book-length poem, The Vineyard.
lithub.com/read-a-passa...

How to Talk About Book-Banning in the Classroom: A Story of Censorship, Action, Hope, and Love The following is from Wake Now in the Fire by Jarrett Dapier and illustrated by AJ Dungo. __________________________________ Wake Now in the Fire by Jarrett Dapier and illustrated by AJ Dungo; publ…

Read Jarrett Dapier’s graphic depiction of action, hope, and love in the face of book censorship.

10 New Children’s Books To Get Wonderfully Lost In This March If I have one reading regret, it’s that I almost never read books in the deeply focused way I did as a child. When I was a kid, I could open up a novel the size of my head and spend a solid few day…

@carolinecarlson.bsky.social highlights upcoming children’s books from Esmé Shapiro, Anne Wynter, Laurel Snyder and more.

The Double-Sided Sword of Deception: How Lying Can Help—and Hurt—Us In his 1970s campus novel Changing Places, David Lodge introduced readers to a literary parlor game called Humiliation. The name of this game is also its object. Players—in this case, professors of…

The roles of bluffing and secrecy in our interactions with others (or, how lying can help—and hurt—us).

Woodsy Necromancers and Space Moby-Dick: March’s Best Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books This month’s SFF list was written after yet another historic Nor’easter; if only our TBR stacks could rise as high as these snowbanks. Working toward that goal are March’s new releases, which featu…

This month’s best sci-fi and fantasy books include titles by Alexis Hall, Jenn Lyons, Adrian Tchaikovsky, and more.

Printers’ Fists, Palaces, and Pavese Stone: New Poetry Coming in March By the time this column drops, you may still be shoveling snow to even get to your local bookstore, or maybe, like me, you are headed to Baltimore for the Association of Writers and Writing Program…

@poetmorgan.bsky.social recommends new poetry in March by Andrés Cerpa, Monica Ferrell, Melissa Range, and others.

The Absurdity of Authoritarianism: A Conversation With Svetlana Satchkova When Svetlana Satchkova set out to write The Undead, her novel about a young filmmaker targeted by the Russian state, she had to make negotiations between truth and fiction because the true events …

“Over the years, though, I noticed that some of those people would start thinking about politics only after something happened to them, or to someone they loved.” Virginia Marshall discusses art, repression and exile with Svetlana Satchkova, author of The Undead.

Celebrating, Defending, Mourning, and Loving Bookstores (and Libraries!) on The Lit Hub Podcast A weekly behind-the-scenes dive into everything interesting, dynamic, strange, and wonderful happening in literary culture—featuring Lit Hub staff, columnists, and special guests! Hosted by Drew Br…

Check out @mbwwelch.bsky.social on the @literaryhub.bsky.social podcast talking a few of our favorite things... Bookstores and libraries anybody? 🤩
lithub.com/celebrating-...

Letter From Minnesota: “I Have My Passport With Me.” I’ve been carrying my US Passport in my backpack lately. Sometimes my coat pocket. Or pants pocket. I pat-pat it as I cross campus; when I walk into the grocery store. I live in a small town over a…

ICE activity means that when Michael Torres hears from friends, they are “laying low” and “staying safe,” that they “miss gathering.” Everyone is in hyper alert mode. #AbolishICE @literaryhub.bsky.social

Anti-Fascist Writers, Fascist Family Legacies: Reading Nicholas Mosley in 2026 There’s a long tradition of artists and activists using their platforms to take issue with the reactionary politics of their parents. We’ve seen that this year with Vivian Wilson vocally pushing ba…

Over at @literaryhub.bsky.social, I wrote about Nicholas Mosley's decades-long project of reckoning with his father's Fascism. lithub.com/anti-fascist...

ICYMI: I wrote an essay about Jesse Jackson I am proud of, even though it made me very uncomfortable to write it (sometimes, though, the things we write that make us the most uncomfortable are the most important to write and share). Via @literaryhub.bsky.social

Here’s your very first glimpse of the new Pride and Prejudice adaptation. Today, Netflix released the first teaser trailer for their upcoming six-part adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, written by bestselling author and screenwriter Dolly Alderton (Go…

Check out the first teaser for Netflix’s Pride and Prejudice.

The indie publisher Tyrant Books is returning, under new ownership. Independent publishing great Tyrant Books—which has been dormant since its founder Giancarlo DiTrapano’s death in 2021—is coming back. As Publisher’s Marketplace reports, author and screenwri…

Tyrant Books is back.

Florida is now claiming school libraries are “government speech.” A challenge to a monstrously regressive Florida state law that makes it easier for books to be pulled from school libraries is making its way through a federal circuit court in Atlanta. The appeal …

A challenge to a monstrously regressive Florida state law that makes it easier for books to be pulled from school libraries is making its way through a federal circuit court in Atlanta.

This week, the stock market lost $200 billion over a short story. It’s not quite a War of the Worlds freak out, but this week, once again, a piece of eerie speculative fiction made a big, real world impact. On Monday, a blog post imagining an 2028 economy choked …

On Monday, a blog post imagining an 2028 economy choked by AI agents sent ripples through the stock market, to the tune of $200 billion.