Lit Hub

Thanks to a group of booksellers, Amazon is pulling out of the Paris Book Fair. Amazon has pulled out of sponsoring the Paris Book Fair, thanks to pressure from a booksellers’ association: Syndicat de la Librairie Française (SLF). The SLF, which represents independent bookstor…

Let’s go booksellers!
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The Body Builders Ada was twelve when her mother killed the dog. She was relieved when it died. It made her realize that life wasn’t for everyone. It was a golden retriever with soft curly hair. Her mother bought it…

“Ada was twelve when her mother killed the dog. She was relieved when it died. It made her realize that life wasn’t for everyone.” Read from Albertine Clarke’s new novel, The Body Builders.

Six Essential Books About Birds A few years ago, more or less on a whim, I started following a group of scientists who were studying a small seabird on an island off the coast of Washington State. The bird, called the rhinoceros …

Eric Wagner recommends six essential books about birds by Adam Nicolson, J.A. Baker, Helen MacDonald, and more.

How J.R.R. Tolkien Blocked W.H. Auden From Writing a Book About Him Like many of us, W. H. Auden was a huge Tolkien fan in his day. In 1954, the celebrated poet raved about The Fellowship of the Ring in The New York Times, writing “No fiction I have read in t…

This week in literary history: that time Tolkien stopped W. H. Auden from writing a book about him.

Cinnamon Swirl Banana Bread: A Sweet Taste of Nostalgia Growing up, my mother used to blame my sweet tooth on the fact that she had a chocolate milkshake every day she was pregnant with me. But dessert was not a regular part of our diet, except for ice …

Tanya Bush thinks you should embrace nostalgia (by baking cinnamon swirl banana bread).

A Life in Jazz: On Love, Loss and Self-Discovery to an Improvised Beat “wind and crying blue rain tearing me up” –Jimi Hendrix * I. Listen, the first time I saw Miles Davis play live was at the Chicago Coliseum in 1981. Miles had just come out of retirement after six …

Jeffery Renard Allen on love, loss, and the impact of jazz on his creative and personal lives.

Your Favorite Male Rapper’s Favorite Rapper When Missy Elliott’s debut album, Supa Dupa Fly, dropped in 1997, it was the summer before my eighth birthday. I wasn’t old enough to buy CDs without parental permission, but I thought I was grown …

“She gives herself room to revel in the playfulness and re-invention of a new genre, defying expectations of Black women just as hip hop was becoming the dominant sound of radio.” Jessica Lynne praises Missy Elliott’s sonic world.

Robert Morgan on Reading War and Peace For the First Time The fall of 1958 was the last time we grew sorghum cane and made our own molasses on our small farm in the Blue Ridge Mountains. After school, I worked long hours cutting and stripping the stalks, …

“I saw that the blue ridge mountains were everywhere, and that the gift of fiction was to connect me to everybody.” Robert Morgan remembers reading War and Peace for the first time.

Are Economists, in Fact, the Unacknowledged Poets of the World An anecdote in Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations, if a single worker were tasked with manufacturing a pin, he could perhaps at best hope to produce ten in a day, but if the labor was divided acros…

“Economists are the unacknowledged poets of the world.” Ed Simon considers money as an overlooked language.

What Being a Professional Athlete Taught Me About Writing—and What It Didn’t It is not coincidental that in 21st-century America, athletic success has become synonymous with virtue. Ostensibly instilling values like hard work, diligence, and perseverance, competitive sports…

What being a professional athlete can teach you about writing.
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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…

“I feel wild and lonely, and wonder if that’s how I am desired: unknown and at a distance. It’s easier not to care from that far away.”—Michael Torres #AbolishICE @literaryhub.bsky.social

Why Jane Austen Adaptations Just Keep Coming—And We Keep Watching It is a truth universally acknowledged, that every generation must be in want of a fresh Jane Austen adaptation (or several). However differently the youth of each generation may be characterized, …

Why are there so many Jane Austen adaptations? And why do we keep watching?

The Authors Guild is allowing more writers to certify their books are AI-free. The Authors Guild is expanding its Human Authored certification program to allow publishers and non-Guild members certify that their work is untainted by AI, according to the Guild and Publishers W…

The Authors Guild is expanding its Human Authored certification program to allow publishers and non-Guild members certify that their work is untainted by AI.

A spot of good news! Adult fiction sales are up 1%. As Publishers Weekly reported yesterday, there’s a little bit to celebrate this week in Bookland. Industry analyst and Circana BookScan employee Brenna Connor recently gave a bird’s eye…

Indies, genre, and trends towards the analog are all to thank for helping an increase in adult fiction sales.

The American Library Association’s workers have formed a union. Workers at the American Library Association have announced that they’re forming union with AFSCME Council 31. When the new union is certified, American Library Association Workers United/AFSCME wil…

In case you missed it: Workers at the American Library Association have announced that they’re forming union with AFSCME Council 31.

A mini reading list to understand what’s happening in Iran. Today marks the seventh day of the unlawful U.S-Israel war against Iran. Like many a citizen, I’ve been struggling to understand what’s animating this latest burst of imperial violence.…

Brittany Allen recommends books to help you understand what’s happening in Iran.

Here’s what’s making us happy this week. Hello, weekenders. It’s been a minute. We’ve been holding our joy a bit too close to the vest over here at the Hub, with editorial apologies. But the good Fridays are back! Molly Odintz…

The Lit Hub staff spent the week loving omakase, booksellers, and more!

This week’s news in Venn diagrams. It’s the AWP Conference and Bookfair this week, and most of the Lit Hub staff has been in Baltimore. With the editors out of town, those of us not at AWP have been taking good care of the place, an…

From publishing scams to iced coffee, catch up on the news with these Venn diagrams.

No Friend to This House Aphrodite through the dark Symplegades; Aphrodite perched on her rock at Paphos, and looked out at the Cyprian sea. No wonder she always came here when one or another of the gods had irritated her.…

“Aphrodite perched on her rock at Paphos, and looked out at the Cyprian sea. No wonder she always came here when one or another of the gods had irritated her.” Read from @nataliehaynes.bsky.social’s novel, No Friend to This House.

Benjamin Hale on How to Expand a Magazine Article Into a Book This first appeared in Lit Hub’s Craft of Writing newsletter—sign up here. The short answer to “How did you expand an article into a book?” is simply that I had such an abundant wealth of material,…

Benjamin Hale explains the process of turning a magazine article into a book.

The Best Reviewed Books of the Week Featuring Saba Sams, Jazmine Ulloa, Jordy Rosenberg, and more

Saba Sams’ Gunk, Vigdis Hjorth’s Repetition, and Terry Tempest Williams’ The Glorians all number among the best reviewed books of the week.

8 Badass Librarians We Need to Celebrate This International Women’s Day In the late Victorian era, Melvil Dewey, inventor of the Dewey Decimal system (and a womanizer) argued that women make excellent librarians because we have “a clear head, strong hand… and great hea…

Jess deCourcy Hinds celebrates the librarians who inspired her for International Women’s Day.

On the Rise of Pitchfork and 21st-Century Music Criticism In 1994—when a young Jeff Bezos started Amazon, and Yahoo! went live, and Netscape launched the first commercial browser for the World Wide Web—a friend of Ryan Schreiber’s introduced him to the In…

Ronen Givony traces the ascent of Pitchfork and the early days of online music criticism.

“French Walk,” a Poem by Anna Lena Phillips Bell I wish you green-blue walks along the river’s edge, the verge, the itch of wishing quelled by knowing well— better with each word you light on. With every step and every query— figures of speech, s…

“I wish you green-blue walks along / the river’s edge, the verge, the itch / of wishing quelled by knowing well—” Read “French Walk,” a poem by Anna Lena Phillips Bell from the collection Might Could.

Life on the Front Lines of America’s Caregiving Crisis There was a time when Jade thought, We can handle this. She first met John over the phone. It was 1990, and she worked for a California nursing agency, where she processed payroll. At the time, Jad…

“She held all the possibilities at once, suspended in uncertainty.” Stories from America’s caregiving crisis.

Larry Sultan on the Role of Ambiguity in Art In the mid-1980s I saw the painting Bad Boy by Eric Fischl and felt the powerful combination of shock and recognition. I had never seen an image like this before—one that was so transgressive and y…

“I think part of the role of ambiguity relates to my own ambivalence. I don’t know what to make of things.” Larry Sultan on art and ambiguity.

The Fight for Economic Justice and the Pathway Out of Poverty More than twenty years ago, I slowly pushed a clattering shopping cart out through the lazy automatic doors of a Williamsburg Food Lion, with no groceries, just my hungry toddler looking up at me w…

The pathway out of poverty can only be cleared—and forged—when we all are involved and recognize parents in poverty as capable and worthy. The parents Nicole Lynn Lewis refers to are student parents who are raising kids while getting a degree. @literaryhub.bsky.social

No Stars, or: Are We Reviewing Ourselves to Death? Depending on your beliefs, the first review ever was either Adam telling Eve her leaf bra was shit or an ocean dwelling single cell organism telling another ocean dwelling single cell organism it d…

Are we reviewing ourselves to death? “If someone tells me something nice, great, but otherwise, I’ve done my part. I made you a thing, world. I gave you a piece of myself.”

A Far-Flung Life When Sneaky Snook in his mail truck happened upon the wreckage near the boundary of Meredith Downs, sheep were scattered along the roadside and the fence, bleating, dazed. Anyone approaching the sc…

“When Sneaky Snook in his mail truck happened upon the wreckage near the boundary of Meredith Downs, sheep were scattered along the roadside and the fence, bleating, dazed.” Read from M.L. Stedman’s new novel, A Far-flung Life.

“The Terrible Years.” A Poem by Carolina Ebeid January wears two faces— you will call one future, the other history, both are elsewhere: the elsewhere of photographs, in which memory turns angular, deckle-edged: here in the gold film light of B…

“January wears two faces— / you will call one future, the other / history, both are elsewhere.” Read Carolina Ebeid’s poem “The Terrible Years.” from the collection, Hide.