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August 22, 2025

Today, the Lit Hub Podcast gets nice, a grifter does fascist yoga, we round up the best reviewed books of the week, and more!

On Lit Hub dot com:

This week, the Lit Hub Podcast features Brittany Allen, Drew Broussard, Fiction/Non/Fiction, and a phone call from Maggie Smith! | Lit Hub Radio

Ginny Hogan on retro tech novels for “those of us who feel like digital natives, but still remember a time before the internet.” | Lit Hub Criticism

Stewart Home on Major J. F. C. Fuller, the occultist grifter who infused yoga with fascism. | Lit Hub Politics

“I’ve been writing stories for a younger version of myself who didn’t see any trace of that Persian part of me reflected anywhere.” Ryan Bani Tahmaseb considers Persian stories, identity, and the US-Iran divide. | Lit Hub History

Nicholas Boggs’ Baldwin: A Love Story, Elaine Hsieh Chou’s Where Are You Really From, and Bench Ansfield’s Born in Flames all feature among the best reviewed books of the week. | Book Marks

Nancy Reddy explains how to trace the plot of your own life: “The most moving memoirs are the ones in which you see someone transformed.” | Lit Hub Craft

How America’s frontier mythology contributed to the development of a national identity. | Lit Hub History

From around the internet:

“I saw what I saw and / I smelled pomegranates from the next street over / but it was only my imagination”. Read work by three Palestinian student poets. | n+1

Maria Papadouris traces the evolution of the library. | JSTOR Daily

In an attempt to fight a growing “reading crisis,” Denmark will remove the 25 percent VAT tax on books. | The New York Times

Harley Rustad attempts to get to the bottom of a mysterious fast food whodunnit. | Toronto Life

“There is not a great verb to describe what we were doing on the overcast beach just as high tide began to lap against the shore.” Grace Byron explores her obsession with horseshoe crabs. | The Paris Review

Wikipedia editors are going head-to-head with the site’s founder over the use of AI. | 404 Media

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August 21, 2025

Today, we’re dishing out some literary advice, looking back on 20 years of Beasts of No Nation, exploring the history of lesbian pulp novels, and more!

On Lit Hub dot com:

Katie Kitamura revisits Beasts of No Nation after 20 years: “There is never the benefit of hindsight, the reassurance of a given outcome, or anything other than the rapidly fading innocence of a child.” | Lit Hub Craft

Trish Bendix explores the history of lesbian pulp, and how queer writers and readers carry its legacy into the present. | Lit Hub Criticism

Is it wrong to cheat on your literary novel with a secret (and fun) fantasy project? Kristen Arnett answers this and other burning questions. | Lit Hub

Yet even though she shared Eleni’s name, it wasn’t until Eleni’s smiling face appeared on the presentation screen that I comprehended that this scholar was my aunt.” Natalie Bakapoulos shares lessons from discovering her family’s place in queer Greek literature and activism. | Lit Hub Memoir

But the women themselves lovingly called the bags in which they carried their uniforms “‘freedom bags.’” How Black women used purses at the service of civil rights. | Lit Hub History

“These and 11 other pieces ventriloquize a chorus of white American grotesques across the sociopolitical spectrum.” 5 book reviews you need to read this week. | Book Marks

Khadijah Queen’s TBR features Linda Hogan, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Sinclair Lewis, and more! | Lit Hub Reading Lists

“By the end of her climb her thighs cramped, her left foot ached, and Grandma Blue was an angry bull.” Read from Antonio Michael Downing’s debut novel, Black Cherokee. | Lit Hub Fiction

From around the internet:

Elissa Altman looks back on her lifelong love affair with guitars. | The Bitter Southerner

“The ur-loneliness is at the heart of Airless Spaces. Mental illness is the metaphor of choice, but the author has something more encompassing on her mind.” Vivian Gornick considers Shulamith Firestone’s life and work. | Boston Review

Rebecca Mead explores the reemergence of Sally Carson’s 1934 novel, Crooked Cross, and its relevance alongside the rise of global fascism. | The New Yorker

“Accusations of terrorism are automatically serious because our capacity for terror is intrinsic.” On Palestine Action and how governments weaponize proscription against activists. | The Baffler

Why typos have become “a reassuring sign of human authorship.” | Slate

Rhoda Kwan examines two newly translated novels that document grief and pain in China’s past. | Los Angeles Review of Books

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You’ve heard of hot girl summer, but are you ready for reissued classics autumn?

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August 20, 2025

Today, Ilya Kaminsky remembers how he discovered poetry, we uncover the origins of Drew Barrymore’s iconic scream in Scream, the history of a certain marmalade-loving bear from “darkest Peru” is revealed, and more!

On Lit Hub dot com:

Ilya Kaminsky remembers discovering poetry as deaf child in Ukraine: “The language of poetry speaks to all our senses… It can speak, privately, to all of us. It is visceral.” | Lit Hub Memoir

“When a movie catches you by surprise the way the opening sequence of Scream does, it leaves a mark.” The real tears (and hyperventilating) behind the first scene in Wes Craven’s iconic slasher flick. | Lit Hub Film

Garrett M. Graff chronicles an oral history of what the United States tried to cover up after Hiroshima and Nagasaki. | Lit Hub History

“London will not have forgotten how to treat a stranger.” A history of Paddington Bear, the fluffiest refugee in children’s lit. | Lit Hub Criticism

How transcendental style in Paul Schrader’s First Reformed helps us imagine an unimaginable future in the face of climate catastrophe. | Lit Hub Film

On crossing the Atlantic aboard the RMS Scythia and the beginning of America’s preparations for entering World War II. | Lit Hub History

Ellen Wohl explores how measuring “flood fingerprints” can help us get ready for future flood disasters. | Lit Hub Climate Change

“The last thing I did after every cleaning was dust my kids’ baby pictures.” Read from Addie E. Citchens’ new novel, Dominion. | Lit Hub Fiction

From around the internet:

“I watch the innumerable ways I can continue to move through something as deceptively simple as a rectangle divided into equal parts.” Diana Arterian describes the pleasures of lap-swimming at a bargain gym in East LA. | Poetry

Karim Kattan discusses Palestinian literature and explores the “recurring nightmare” of occupation through the genre of horror. | The Dial

“The sense of conversation between artists, the sense of traditions and ongoing dialogue, has become central to how I think of literature and a source of inspiration for my own work.” Lincoln Michel puts forth the “Grand Ballroom Theory of Literature.” | Counter Craft

“Then she asked me if I’d ever heard about the space-time worm. I had not.” Hua Hsu profiles R.F. Kuang. | The New Yorker

The adult children of right wing parents want to deradicalize their loved ones through the power of book clubs. | Wired

Alex Dueben and others remember underground comix pioneer Hurricane Nancy. | The Comics Journal

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“Since its foundation in 2020, Palestine Action has primarily organised direct-action protests against weapons manufacturers: defacing buildings, breaking windows and occupying factories. This summer, as the UK continued to offer material and diplomatic support for the ongoing genocide in Gaza, activists broke into an RAF airbase and used spray-paint to vandalise two aircraft. The Government responded by proscribing Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation, placing the group on the same legal footing as al-Qaeda and Islamic State. The group’s cofounder, Huda Ammori, is now rightly fighting this designation in the courts, but in the meantime, any expression of support for Palestine Action, even a simple placard or T-shirt, constitutes a serious terror offence under UK law.”

Sally Rooney could be “arrested without a warrant as a ‘terrorist’” in the UK for her support of Palestine Action. This follows the arrest of poet Alice Oswald after she held a sign in support of the movement at a sit-down demonstration.

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August 19, 2025

Today, we’re going dark academia, reading early Octavia Butler, contemplating careers in clowning, and more!

On Lit Hub dot com:

“She became fascinated with how human beings—especially those who didn’t have much power—could empower themselves and others and change the world.” What Octavia Butler’s early writings reveal about her trajectory as a literary icon. | Lit Hub Biography

Charlie Jane Anders explains just how much dark academia owes to A.S. Byatt’s Possession. | Lit Hub Criticism

The 20 new books out today include titles about Octavia Butler, James Baldwin, and more! | Lit Hub Reading Lists

“Are poets useful?” Raymond Antrobus on deafness, writing, and finding a purpose. | Lit Hub Memoir

River Selby talks to Jane Ciabattari about fighting fires, sending messages to her past self, and writing trauma in memoir. | Lit Hub In Conversation

“Horses were a part of the daily fabric of life for many enslaved Black people.” On the importance of the horse in escaping slavery. | Lit Hub History

Zhang Yueran on how her family’s nanny inspired her novel, Women, Seated: “I knew that Jiao might leave us someday.” | Lit Hub Craft

“The mass of all Ruth knew was a dot in the void.” Read from Kate Riley’s new novel, Ruth. | Lit Hub Fiction

From around the internet:

Vivian Gornick considers “the solipsism of low self-esteem… So inexplicable is its grip, so binding its influence, it can feel almost mythic.” | The New Yorker

Angelina Mazza makes the case for the unexpected pleasures of a “merciless hellscape overrun by petty, perpetually aggrieved readers,” Goodreads. | Slate

“When Richard and I hit the Play button on Kanopy, I didn’t know we were in store for a work of art as tender as it is beautiful.” Laurie Stone rewatches Paper Moon. | The Paris Review

Han Zhang on exposing American readers to Chinese literary fiction and challenging fixed perceptions of Chinese books. | NPR

April White explores efforts to archive the life and career of Lulu Adams, clown extraordinaire. | JSTOR Daily 

How a group of Michigan parents fought back against right-wing activists in their school district. | The New Republic

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August 18, 2025

Today, we’re looking at Israel’s attack on Tehran, the impact of nuclear war on art and literature, translating iconic Indian fiction, and more.

On Lit Hub dot com:

“I am searching for that state just before individual languages are dismantled—freed from their meanings and finally annihilated.” Yoko Tawada considers language as a destabilizing force. | Lit Hub Memoir

Neda Maghbouleh responds to living amid deportations, ICE seizures, and Israel’s attack on Tehran. | Lit Hub Politics

Ed Simon on Hiroshima at 80 and the enduring impact of the atomic bomb on creative production. | Lit Hub History

Priyamvada Ramkumar on the significance of dialect, Tamil literature, and bringing Jeyamohan’s Stories of the True to English-speaking readers. | Lit Hub On Translation

“Most writers need day jobs. But I fled to mine when I believed I could never be a writer at all.” Nalini Jones on how working in music helped her write a novel. | Lit Hub Craft

Akwaeke Emezi considers the making of beauty (and the beauty of nothing). | Lit Hub Memoir

What can Aztec philosophy teach us about finding happiness? “With the pursuit of happiness comes the pursuit of its opposite.” | Lit Hub History

“Should you wish to witness man’s depravity, like a daily slap in the face, you must come to the forest.” Read from Jeyamohan’s collection, Stories of the True. | Lit Hub Fiction

From around the internet:

Matt McManus tries to make sense of Cormac McCarthy’s politics. | Jacobin

Chris Smalls talks to Ella Fanger about solidarity between Palestine and American labor movements, the Freedom Flotilla, and his experience in Israeli prison. | The Nation

“Those people are doing something completely different than you are trying to do.” Lincoln Michel reminds us of the power of working on your work, even in a sea of AI slop. | Counter Craft

Jiménez Enoa tells the story of La Bolita, Cuba’s wildly popular—and illegal—daily lottery, and its cartel-like underground administration  (translated by Lily Meyer). | Words Without Borders

Angelina Eimannsberger asks if the internet has delivered us into a golden age of reading. | Public Books

“Igno-fiction does not lionize human civilization in our present moment. It understands how small a field of vision this offers, and rejects that self-imposed limitation on prose.” Greta Rainbow speculates about the next great literary movement. | Dirt

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August 15, 2025

Today, we’re burning it down on the Lit Hub Podcast, getting scandalized by art world drama, wondering why everyone’s suddenly scouring the internet for 4K Blu-Ray copies of Master and Commander, and more!

On Lit Hub dot com:

This week on the Lit Hub Podcast: Publishers Marketplace 101, Maris Kreizman burns it down, and more! | Lit Hub Radio

“Everybody says they care and want to help. Does anybody really care?” Carole Hinojosa on addiction, motherhood, and advocating for people whose experiences she understands intimately. | Lit Hub Memoir

Orlando Whitfield recounts a tale of friendship, deceit, and the seedy lows of high art. | Lit Hub Art

Olia Hercules remembers the sacred legacies of family, ghosts, and sour cherries in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. | Lit Hub Memoir

Peter Orner’s The Gossip Columnist’s Daughter, Caleb Gayle’s Black Moses, and Emily Adrian’s Seduction Theory all feature among the best reviewed books of the week. | Book Marks

“Touching grass” isn’t just a comment section cliché—we should all probably go outside. | Lit Hub Nature

Read “Old Song,” a poem by Nima Hasan with translator’s notes by Huda Fakhreddine: “A real poem is never only of the moment. A real poem defeats time, every time.” | Lit Hub Poetry

“Often, readers noted how the novel leaned into the interiority of my characters via other senses…” Yiming Ma explains the benefits of writing blind.| Lit Hub Craft

“Let’s start at the urinal.” Read from David Levithan and Jens Lekman’s new novel, Songs for Other People’s Weddings. | Lit Hub Fiction

From around the internet:

Eighty years after the atomic bomb, Rachel Greenley contemplates narrative, omission, and the ethics of turning life into art. | Orion

“Freedom is neither a fixed idea nor a story of progress toward a predetermined goal.” Eric Foner reflects on his education as a historian. | The Nation

Laura Miller explores how Timothy Snyder’s On Tyranny took over TikTok (and the bestseller list). | Slate

On the tragedy of Jumbo the Elephant, Yoko Tawada’s Memoirs of a Polar Bear, and Chris Marker’s Sans Soleil. | The Paris Review

Nolan Kelly watches two cinematic adaptations of Sigrid Nunez novels: “Of course, you have to cast someone.”  | Los Angeles Review of Books

People are scrambling to buy 4K Blu-Ray copies of Master and Commander. | 404 Media

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August 14, 2025

Today, we’re reliving James Schuyler’s first public reading, rolling our eyes at those Supreme Court book deals, remembering Anas Al-Sharif, and more.

On Lit Hub dot com:

How James Schuyler’s first public reading brought out poets from every corner of New York for an unforgettable night. | Lit Hub Biography

Maris Kreizman wonders: If everyone on the Supreme Court is getting seven-figure book deals, who will be left to judge publishing-related cases? | Lit Hub

“One common thread among stories of islanders, both voluntary and coerced, is this: good luck getting free of them.” Emma Sloley considers the dark allure of writing about islands. | Lit Hub Craft

Michael Thomas explores family legacies, Black fatherhood, and the dreams and fears of parenting. | Lit Hub Memoir

“The author is a professional contrarian, which pretty much means she can bounce off others to naysay whenever so moved.” 5 book reviews you need to read this week. | Book Marks

Jason Mott Navigates the demands of fiction and nonfiction while searching for the best way to tell the story of America. | Lit Hub Craft

Joanna Pocock retraces her journey traversing the physical and memory landscape of North America. | Lit Hub Travel

“Is this the longest or shortest century? Look into your human detonation.” Read “Blood Moon,” a prose poem by Anne Waldman from the collection Mesopotopia. | Lit Hub Poetry

“The nursing home on Waukegan Road, next to the old Sara Lee cake factory. The place is called Sunshine or Sunrise. I can’t keep it straight.” Read from Peter Orner’s new novel, The Gossip Columnist’s Daughter. | Lit Hub Fiction

From around the internet:

“A chasm that those who have crossed must spend the rest of their lives coming to terms with”: Aaron Labaree considers the genre of class transition in books by Claire Baglin, Annie Ernaux, and Éduoard Louis. | Public Books

Anne Lamott talks to Pamela Alma Weymouth about hope, the pain that leads to change, and “action as a verb.” | The Nation

Rose B. Simpson writes against the potential defunding of the Institute of American Indian Arts, a “precious and influential resource.” | Hyperallergic

Ali Ghanim, a pseudonymous Palestinian journalist living in the US, remembers Anas Al-Sharif as a friend. | The Intercept

“If we are to reimagine the literary world beyond treating otherness as trend, beyond commodifying Black pain and trauma, we must refuse to mistake representation and visibility for liberation and power.” Why African literary ecosystems should reclaim the idea of local writing. | Semafor

Devon Brody on writing books in The Sims. | The Paris Review

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Many of our best writers have played the fake name game. Call it what you will—an alias, a pseudonym. But from Samuel Clemens to She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, we can find a gamut of wily writers determined to evade the postman. Or possibly, the IRS.

Can you match the writer to their pseudonym? How well do you know your heroes?

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“This is my will and my final message. If these words reach you, know that Israel has succeeded in killing me and silencing my voice.”

The Israel Defense Forces bombed a journalists’ tent outside al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City. The strike killed seven people, including Al Jazeera journalists Anas al-Sharif and Mohammed Qreiqeh, and camera operators Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal, and Moamen Aliwa.

This is Anas al-Sharif’s final message.

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“For years, Boyne has made himself unpopular over his comments about the trans community. Most egregiously, he published an article in the Irish Independent this year wishing J.K. Rowling a happy birthday, saying ‘as a fellow Terf, I stand four-square behind her.’”

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August 13, 2025

Today, we’re reading about the real whale behind Moby-Dick, seeing what history can teach us about fighting dictators, examining how sex ed emerged from the AIDS epidemic, and more!

On Lit Hub dot com:

Margaret Grace Myers examines the grim legacy of Ronald Reagan and how the AIDS epidemic laid the foundations for sex ed in America. | Lit Hub Politics

“Hunger now governs time. It becomes the unrelenting measure by which each hour is known.” Alaa Alqaisi on life in Gaza through the lens of WB Yeats’s “The Second Coming.” | Lit Hub Criticism

Sam Wachman on the challenges of writing a novel about the war in Ukraine and literature as “a force for peace and solidarity.” | Lit Hub Craft

Tobias Wolff reflects back on 30 years of Adrienne Salinger’s Teenagers in Their Bedrooms: “The humanity of these young faces implies a depth of feeling and experience that their histories confirm.” | Lit Hub Photography

Tim Queeney explores ropemaking, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Mocha Dick, the real life inspiration behind Herman Melville’s iconic white whale. | Lit Hub History

“How are free people supposed to stay free? One short answer: don’t trust anyone over thirty.” On Thomas Paine’s guide to fighting dictatorship. | Lit Hub Politics

Jane Ciabattari talks to Jessica Francis Kane about exploring the life of Penelope Fitzgerald through fiction. | Lit Hub In Conversation

“What had gone wrong with me didn’t start out with the car. It didn’t end with the car, but the car played a serious part.” Read from C. Mallon’s new novel, Dogs. | Lit Hub Fiction

From around the internet:

On the existential horrors of storytelling through AI companionship. | Wired

“The scenes of prison break from Khiam to Sednaya offer us a glimpse into a possible, yet precarious freedom.” The trajectory of prison liberation and abolition across the Middle East. | The Baffler

Riley MacLeod plays Tiny Bookshop, a bookstore management simulation game. | Aftermath

“After the disastrous meeting, he began asking around about where an original golden ticket from the 1971 Willy Wonka movie, a highly valuable collector’s item, could be pawned.” What do crypto bros have to do with Ronald Dahl? It’s a (really) wild story. | New York Magazine

Take a look at some of Mary Ruefle’s erasure texts, which she’s been making “almost daily” since 1998. | The Paris Review

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Alice Oswald, one of Britain’s most acclaimed poets, was arrested at a mass sit-down demonstration outside the houses of Parliament in London on Saturday for holding up a sign in support of direct action movement Palestine Action.

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Starting September 1st, the Associated Press will no longer release standardized, stand-alone reviews for new books.

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August 12, 2025

Today, we’re examining the complicated legacy of Dr. Seuss, confronting the influence of data on our day to day lives, remembering Nikki Giovanni, and more!

On Lit Hub dot com:

On 65 years of Green Eggs and Ham and how we handle the complex legacy of Theodor Geisel. | Lit Hub Criticism

Noah Giansiracusa on how data dominates every facet of our lives (and how we can reclaim our humanity). | Lit Hub Technology

Nick Fuller Googins embraces analog research methods at the library: “If anyone is going to resist AI for the writing process, it should be us writers.” | Lit Hub Craft

On the artistic transformations of Constantine Cavafy, the most influential poetic voice in modern Greek literature. | Lit Hub Biography

The 26 new books out today include an anthology of reimagined lesbian pulp, essays by trans and gender non-conforming writers of color, and a history of the fight for sex ed! | Lit Hub Reading Lists

Is it fate or coincidence? Jessica Francis Kane on Penelope Fitzgerald, Hermione Lee, and authorial happenstance. | Lit Hub Craft

“Depending on the context, ‘fun’ has the potential to break my heart.” Peter Orner, Morgan Richter, Kate Riley and more authors take the Lit Hub questionnaire. | Lit Hub In Conversation

“There was no bride. There was no groom. No seating chart with my name in calligraphy—dot next to Julia indicating a preference for fish.” Read from Aisha Muharrar’s debut novel, Loved One. | Lit Hub Fiction

From around the internet:

Mary Gaitskill meditates on the nature of violence. | The Point

Public schools in Florida will be forced to remove 55 books without review by the state’s Board of Education. | Book Riot

“Research, writing, and, above all, thinking have always meant more than simply producing an answer.” Dan Rockmore on what it’s like to brainstorm with A.I. | The New Yorker 

Jennifer Zacharia reports on the murder of Anas al-Sharif, and Israel’s war on Palestinian journalists. | Boston Review

“Her work moves between the ongoing catastrophe of American poverty and a sense of unabashed astonishment, an unrelenting obsession with the stars.” Joshua Bennett writes an elegy to Nikki Giovanni. | Poetry

From Beat Poets to Happenings, Ben Arthur revisits New York’s downtown avant-garde scene. | Los Angeles Review of Books

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August 11, 2025

Today, we’re exploring the complexities of trying to become a parent, how working at a grocery store can help your writing, Charlotte Brontë’s shyness, and more!

On Lit Hub dot com:

Chloé Caldwell recounts the humor and tragedy in trying (and failing) to conceive. | Lit Hub Memoir

“Am I a writer first, or a grocer?” Karleigh Frisbie Brogan explains how working a non-literary day job helped her writing. | Lit Hub Craft

The influence of friendship, community, and shyness on Charlotte Brontë’s storytelling. | Lit Hub Biography

Madeleine Beekman traces the mysterious evolution of language from early humans on. | Lit Hub History

How abortion bans escalate risks of life-threatening violence: “For some people, you’re basically risking your life to try to make an appointment.” | Lit Hub Politics

Ellyn Gaydos explains the contentment of reading books about babies as a new mother, including titles by William Carlos Williams, Annie Ernaux, and more. | Lit Hub Criticism

“The hearse is parked in the driveway, back doors wide open. A few of us wait around for the body to be brought out.”  Read from Beverly Gologorsky’s new novel, The Angle of Falling Light. | Lit Hub Fiction

From around the internet:

André Aciman recommends some of his favorite “psychological” novels. | The New Yorker

“I found in their poetics an understanding of the “outside”: the gender outside, the class outside of mainstream culture and mainstream writing.” Roberto Bedoya on Norma Cole and the poetics of place. | Poetry

Beloved bother: Hannah Engler considers her connection to her great-uncle, and the unexpected power of a typo. | Longreads

Elad Uzan explains why AI will never understand human morality. | Aeon

“Fascists will not stop us from drawing what must be drawn, from expressing what we believe in.” Look inside an iconic comics and zine festival in Rome. | The Comics Journal

In 1795, Samuel Taylor Coleridge almost “bid farewell forever” to writing. | The Guardian

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