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9 Unexpected Mother’s Day Gifts
Our friends at Brazos Bookstore in Houston will be valiantly handselling the following books this week, ahead of Mother’s Day. These titles are ideally read by mothers, mothers-to-be, friends of...
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A Field Trip Uptown the American Academy of Arts and Letters
When one thinks of the American Academy of Arts and Letters (AAAL)—or, indeed, if one thinks of any such similarly august institution, the British Academy, say, or France’s Order of Arts and Letters—a...
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Ben Marcus: Writer’s Block Happens When I’m Boring
Ben Marcus’s Notes From the Fog is out now. * How do you tackle writer’s block? Writer’s block, if that’s the name for it, happens when I am boring, when my mind is flat, when I have nothing to add to...
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Lit Hub Recommends
This week, I’d like to recommend campus novels. There is some disagreement in the Literary Hub office over whether campus novels are any good, and I am here to say: Dan is wrong, and they are good....
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Joy Williams’ Ecological Call to Arms Is As Urgent As Ever
Every day I receive a dozen or more mass emails about the devastating effects of climate change. These are accompanied by photographs that bring on what the poet Mark Doty called “soul-honing grief.”...
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Why I Had to Grow Up Before I Could Appreciate Alice Munro
My roommate was uncharacteristically blunt. “Your life’s been pretty easy so far,” she said. “And now, you’re getting your ass kicked all over the place.” I had just turned 30 months before, and the...
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40 Writer’s Writers Whomst Readers Should Read
Earlier this week, National Book Foundation Executive Director Lisa Lucas asked Twitter: “Who do you think is widely considered a writer’s writer?” The question inspired no little discussion online, as...
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Joy Williams on the Troubling Grace and Strange Assurances of Brad Watson’s Work
Brad Watson died suddenly of a heart attack in the ranch house he and his wife Nell built on the beautiful prairie outside Laramie, Wyoming. It was the morning of July 8, 16 days before his 65th...
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Joy Williams’ first novel in 20 years is coming this fall.
While we don’t know what the state of the our pandemic society will be come September, we can at least be sure that we’ll all be getting a little Joy Williams, as a treat. Specifically, a new novel—her...
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Joy Williams has won the 2021 Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction.
Today, Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden announced that Joy Williams will receive the 2021 Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction, which honors an American writer whose body of work is...
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22 Novels You Need to Read This Fall
As you may have already noticed, fall is a big season for books—particularly novels. This year, we’ve got a TBR full of blockbusters, indie darlings, debuts, and yes: Sally Rooney. So where’s an eager...
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The Astrology Book Club: What to Read This Month, Based on Your Sign
With all the good books that come out each month, it can be hard to decide what to read (or, if you’re anything like the people erstwhile of the Literary Hub office, now of our homes and Slack, what to...
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Here are the finalists for the 2021 Kirkus Prize.
This morning, Kirkus announced its 18 finalists for the 2021 Kirkus Prize, which each year celebrates the best in fiction, nonfiction, and young readers’ literature. The winner in each category will be...
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“Maybe More People Should Have Writer’s Block.” In Which Joy Williams...
Joy Williams’s new book, Harrow, is out today. When asked if she would answer a few questions in honor of its publication, she asked if she could send her answers to us by snail mail. She had recently...
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15 new books to get from your local indie this week.
Raise your hand if your TBR pile is getting precariously tall and might just crush you at any given moment? * Colson Whitehead, Harlem Shuffle (Doubleday) “In his eminently enjoyable new novel, Mr....
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Harrow
It was time for reflection, Honey reflected. She would maneuver around Gordon’s assessment somehow, keep her spirits high. Their deaths would matter. They would effect, what did he call it, a paradigm...
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Here are the 2021 Kirkus Prize winners.
This evening, at a virtual ceremony hosted from the Austin Central Library, Kirkus Reviews announced the winners of its eighth annual Kirkus Prizes in the categories of fiction, nonfiction, and young...
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5 mystical transformations in literature.
Hallow’s Eve is nearly upon us. The leaves have died off. The pumpkins have been carved, the jack-o’-lanterns lit. The candy has been bought (and eaten, oops, and re-bought for distribution to the...
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Our Favorite Lit Hub Stories From 2021
From essays to interviews, excerpts, blog posts, and reading lists, we publish around 500 features a month. And while we are proud of all the 6,000+ pieces we’ve shared in 2021, we do have our personal...
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In the Resurgence of Folk Horror, We Are the Villains
I didn’t mean to watch the documentary Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror. Not all of it, anyway. To begin with, it’s a monstrous 3 hours and 15 minutes long. And while I’m...
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