In a bit of good news, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is now expanding to serve more states and countries. Since 1995, the free book service has catered to young readers all over the Unit…

If you love or have ever loved a literary magazine, I bring glad tidings. This week heralds a new appreciation rite for the discerning reader. Happy #LitMagWeek, everyone! #LitMagWeek is the brainc…

In a recent interview with Interview magazine, influencer Alix Earle admitted that she has never read a book. Speaking for myself and the collective reaction in the Lit Hub Slack, this was shocking…

On September 25, The New York Times reported that Russian drones hit a plant on the edge of Kyiv. That plant was home to a printing press, and millions of children’s books. This attack is but…

This week, your friendly neighborhood Lit Hub staff is feasting on a narrative diet—but not in the stacks you’d expect. October brings fresh appreciation for the time-bound object. I’m …

Ever wanted to crack the creme bruleé of Mr. Darcy’s stoicism? Or give Humbert Humbert a piece of your mind? If so, you’re in luck. This Thursday, Audible announced a series of features…

Laura didn’t remember moving to Platte, Nebraska. She had only been three when her father took the job of planning commissioner for the county. Nor did she remember a moment when Carrie wasn’t her …

My daughter turned four this summer, and it’s been a strangely riveting experience watching her grapple with the morality of secrets at this developmental milestone. I repeatedly remind my daughter…

George Bailey is more Christmas than Santa Claus. And yes, they are in competition with each other. Whenever one TV station is playing It’s a Wonderful Life, you can bet that our country’s other bl…

This first appeared in Lit Hub’s Craft of Writing newsletter—sign up here. The novel has always been obsessed with technology. You can trace realist fiction’s evolution along advances in religion, …

While the story of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s is well known by all Americans, the decades preceding it remain a mystery to many. And while Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, …

Below is the cover for All This Beauty, a new anthology of literary Florida edited by Kristen Arnett and P. Scott Cunningham, forthcoming from University Press of Florida in early March 2027. The c…

The Coral Coast Highway, considered one of the world’s greatest road trips, starts in Perth, Australia, and follows the coastline north to Exmouth. Halfway along this epic tour of red sand meeting …

Like Sylvie, the protagonist of my new novel, Wayfarers, I grew up in downstate cornfield Illinois, where I was an odd duck in a small pond. I was always reading, always writing. Poetry, and storie…

Below is the cover for All This Beauty, a new anthology of literary Florida edited by Kristen Arnett and P. Scott Cunningham, forthcoming from University Press of Florida in early March 2027. The c…

For years, mainstream media have parroted the language of their own governments, and that of lsrael, with little critical coverage of or challenge to the dominant political narrative in the West. P…

After Cora’s death I had a recurring dream. A heavy black cloud would pass over me. The cloud was evil. I don’t mean that evil was among the incidental properties of the cloud, like its color or it…

On September 25, The New York Times reported that Russian drones hit a plant on the edge of Kyiv. That plant was home to a printing press, and millions of children’s books. This attack is but…

Our five-alarm fire of fabulous reviews this week includes Andrew Martin on Patrick deWitt’s Dodge City, Zito Madu on Chuck Klosterman’s Football, A.O. Scott on Ayad Akhtar’s The Radiance, Emma Hager…

Yesterday, the Cercador Prize, which recognizes works of literature in translation, selected by independent booksellers across the US, announced its 2026 finalists. This year’s committee incl…

In a recent interview with Interview magazine, influencer Alix Earle admitted that she has never read a book. Speaking for myself and the collective reaction in the Lit Hub Slack, this was shocking…

Every month, all the major streaming services add a host of newly acquired (or just plain new) shows, movies, and documentaries into their ever-rotating libraries. So what’s a dedicated reader to w…

Caro Claire Burke, the bestselling novelist behind the most-talked-about-book of 2026, is asking all her followers to see a movie. That movie is NAZA, an award-winning documentary that explores Isr…

In a bit of good news, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is now expanding to serve more states and countries. Since 1995, the free book service has catered to young readers all over the Unit…

The present moment is brief and sudden, and it’s really all we have: the feel of our feet on the ground, the endless stream of thoughts in our heads, and the visions before our eyes.  We live…

The Center for Fiction has announced the shortlist for their annual First Novel Prize, which was judged this year by R. O. Kwon, Kiese Laymon, Jordy Rosenberg, and Danzy Senna. The shortlisted auth…

Lula Patterson was feeling rebellious. It was the summer of 1963, and Lula, a reporter for the Baltimore Afro-American, had received a story assignment that was as intriguing as it was insulting: S…

If you love or have ever loved a literary magazine, I bring glad tidings. This week heralds a new appreciation rite for the discerning reader. Happy #LitMagWeek, everyone! #LitMagWeek is the brainc…

I recently decided to sort through my overstuffed shelves in search of books to give away: the ones I’m not likely to read again, the ones my kids aren’t interested in reading, the ones I was never…

It being spooky season, there’s some undeniable horror crossover in these books: haunted dolls, angels that drive you mad, impossible pregnancies as invasive body horror, a nostalgic television dim…

It’s awards nominations announcement season, which means it’s also snarky opinions about awards nominations season. I love a hot take as much as anyone, but the truth is I have been and remain flag…

The week after we ransacked my grandmother’s house for bounty, we drove back to Maple Falls to attend as guests my grandmother’s memorial at the Northwest Hills Community Church. One thing my mothe…

Featuring Marlon James, Jon Ronson, Emily St. John Mandel, Emily Wilson, and more

Another month of books, another month of book covers. In September, the month of Big Books, it was all about the art selection. Here are some of my favorites from the month. Dorfman does all of Ron…

Jenan Matari and Nora Lester Murad are award-winning authors with children’s books featuring Palestinians. They have filed a lawsuit against the City of Los Angeles after their invited author talk …

When I first started seeing coverage of what seemed like a deranged plan from the Trump administration to take over Greenland, I felt like I was losing my mind. Not because I didn’t understand the …

“Territorial male flies toward intruder, erects crown feathers, puffs chest, and sings loudly.” –“White-crowned Sparrow,” Birds of the World * March 15, 1944—the southeast coast of Italy Colonel Fl…

In August 1991, in a review of a new anthology of sixteenth-century poetry, Thom Gunn noted two poems by Sir Thomas Wyatt. These were poems that dealt directly with the execution of friends and ass…

For as long as people have had children, some groups and individuals have had their procreation encouraged, subsidized, even prized—think of queens celebrated for bearing male heirs to their royal …

This first appeared in Lit Hub’s Literary History newsletter—sign up here. Today is International Translation Day. The date was chosen by the United Nations to coincide with the feast of St. Jerome…

October is here, and, with it, the thrills and chills of Spooky Season, a month of masks, madness, merriment, magic, and, of course, marvelous things to read (whether they be spooky or not). It has…

After a decade of Donald Trump’s chaos and cruelty, we might ask how literary fiction is responding. Readers, for their part, flocked to journalistic and historical explainers in Trump 1.0, t…

The narrator of The Radiance shares Akhtar’s name and much of his life. After leaving New York for a small Hudson Valley town, he ends up getting hit by a pickup truck during a bike ride. Whe…

There are a number of heavyweight fiction titles coming out this week: Min Jin Lee, Hernan Diaz, and Ayad Akhtar all have long awaited novels emerging, each one its own piece of monumental fiction.…

ANTIBLACKNESS (noun) 1. that which engulfs Blackness with inescapable violence 2. a set of relations that mark and position Blackness as the nadir of sub-human or non-human qualities 3. Structural.…

The winner of the 2026 Nobel Prize in Literature will be announced next week, on Thursday, October 8. Said winner will take home 12.0 million Swedish kronor (SEK), or a little over 1.2 million doll…

Nina Schuyler, the award-winning climate fiction author, grew up surrounded by bodies of water in Washington State. She spent most of her summers as a girl in or on Gravelly Lake, which was carved …

Robert Kolker’s new book, The Vanishing Family, is available now from Doubleday, so we asked him a few questions about writer’s block, favorite books, writing practice, and more. * Who do you…

I got into librarianship kind of like how a barfly gets into tending bar: you sit in the place for hours on end, day after day, appreciating the hell out of the person on the other side of the coun…