Literature

‘Down at the Dinghy’ is a short story by J. D. Salinger, originally published in 1949. As in some of Salinger’s other stories, notably ‘A Perfect Day for Bananafish’, ‘Down at the Dinghy’ involves an adult speaking to a child. However, in this case the theme of the story – which remains largely in the

June 14, 2022, 10:41am About four months ago, I had a baby. Certainly this will not be the first time you hear that the experience of becoming a parent can come with a profound erosion of self, particularly if you’re the mother. But the weirdest part of that erosion for me has been my absolute

June 13, 2022, 3:17pm Today, Penguin Press released a book trailer (yes, they still exist!) for Ottessa Moshfegh’s much anticipated upcoming novel, Lapvona, which follows a deformed boy living in a depraved and corrupt medieval village. On the other hand, the trailer, directed by Matthew Lessner, is like a ’90s infomercial for enlightenment created by

Surely the most famous horse in all of classical myth is Pegasus, the flying horse. But who was Pegasus and how did he come about? And what is the significance of this myth? Let’s take a closer look at the story of Pegasus and what it means – from the significance of the flying horse

June 13, 2022, 10:52am America’s sad little homegrown fascist brigade, the Proud Boys (like the Brownshirts, but with less no sex!), have taken their victimhood/insecurity-driven agenda to new depths of idiocy (Proud? See image above.) This past Saturday a group of around ten men interrupted Drag Queen Story Time at the San Lorenzo Library in

As the last days of July 1902 ticked away in Hell Creek, Montana, Barnum Brown found himself torn. The party uncovered a Triceratops skull that was in decent ­condition, though its horns were missing. With enough work, it could be “a fine exhibition specimen,” he wrote to Osborn, knowing that would begin to make up

‘The Sea Change’ is a 1931 short story by the American writer Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961). Like a number of Hemingway’s other short stories, ‘The Sea Change’ deals elliptically with a taboo topic – here, bisexuality – through presenting (without fully explaining the back story) a conversation between a young couple in a café. Since Hemingway’s

TODAY: In 1915, Saul Bellow is born.   Edafe Okporo reflects on life as a gay ex-priest in Nigeria. | Lit Hub Religion “Glory Hallelujah!! A delicious poke in the snoot for Hitler.” Read excerpts from Mary Churchill’s World War II diary. | Lit Hub History When the smoke cleared in Hell Creek, Montana, exposing a

June 10, 2022, 8:11am Congratulations to PEN America‘s staff, who announced yesterday that they won voluntary recognition of their union! This milestone has been a long time coming. After months of organizing, they wrote to management to formally demand recognition last December and will now continue into the negotiation process. In their statement, they wrote:

‘The Book of Sand’ is a late story by the Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986). This 1975 short story is narrated by a book collector who acquires a mysterious book which appears to have an infinite number of pages. ‘The Book of Sand’ contains a number of Borges’ recurring themes, including the infinite, the

TODAY: In 1899, Japanese novelist and short story writer Yasunari Kawabata is born.   “In a perversion of all laws of the universe, I’m about to read my father a story before bedtime.” Séamas O’Reilly on reading his memoir to the man who taught him to love books (and skipping over the hardest bits). | Lit

June 10, 2022, 1:01pm As we’ve noted over and over again, the hottest new book trend sweeping the country is to ban them and/or burn them if they don’t align with your weird, paleoconservative, theocratic prejudices. Not great! But as ever is the case with this strange nation, when one group of Americans starts doing

Genuinely classic and canonical short stories with twist endings are hard to find. For the ‘twist’ to be a true surprise, it needs to appear to come out of nowhere while also being completely credible, so we as readers don’t feel cheated. It should also be a twist in the true sense of the word,

June 10, 2022, 8:34am The Costa Book Awards, which was founded in 1971 and known as the Whitbread Book Awards until 2005, is no more. Today, Costa Coffee announced that the 2021 Costa Book Awards, held in February 2022, would be the last iteration of the prizes. “We are incredibly proud to have played a

June 9, 2022, 11:49am The beloved indie entertainment company A24—creators of Moonlight, Minari, Midsommar, and very cool merch—publishes their first children’s book today. Film buffs may recognize Claire A. Nivola’s Star Child as the book Joaquin Phoenix reads aloud to his nephew in C’mon C’mon (2021). The story follows a star on its journey through Earth, being born

‘The Steadfast Tin Soldier’ is an 1838 fairy tale by the Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen. One of the shortest among Andersen’s well-known tales, ‘The Steadfast Tin Soldier’ is about a toy soldier who falls in love with a paper ballerina, and who undergoes a series of hardships, seemingly as a result. You can read

June 9, 2022, 10:08am Today over at Forbes, Michael T. Nietzel gives a rundown of the books that colleges are assigning to their incoming students as a sort of conversation starter for the year ahead (and a first piece of homework that everyone can try to avoid together). It’s an interesting survey of the topics

Pain can take many forms: it might be acute physical pain, or emotional pain (heartache, for instance, or what Hamlet calls ‘the pangs of despised love’), or a more psychological form of hurting. Poets, never ones to shy away from the grief and torment that love and other things can provoke, have often written powerfully