By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) The Book of Job is one of the famous and yet one of the least understood books of the Old Testament. ‘The patience of Job’ and ‘Job’s comforters’ have become proverbial idioms which emerged from the book’s popularity and ubiquity; and yet how patient was Job, and who were
Literature
May 12, 2023, 12:36pm It’s this little American’s first time watching the Eurovision Song Contest (streaming on Peacock), an activity I never thought would overlap with Lit Hub dot com… until Austria performed at last night’s semi-finals with their (already TikTok famous) song “Who the Hell Is Edgar?”—a banger, according to some (me) about being
Every single mother I’ve ever met is the same. In romance novels, I mean. It’s almost as though the authors are working from a shared set of ideas about how a single mother must look and behave in order to earn the bliss of a new relationship. For starters, she must have just one unplanned
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) Andrew Barton ‘Banjo’ Paterson (1864-1941) was an Australian ‘bush poet’, born near Orange in New South Wales to a Scottish father and Australian-born mother. His poems are best read aloud, as all true ballads are (or even sung, as the most famous Banjo Paterson poem is – and we’ll
May 11, 2023, 3:00pm A couple months off winning the Republic of Consciousness Prize, Arinze Ifeakandu was announced as the winner of the 2023 Dylan Thomas Prize at an event tonight in London for his debut short story collection, God’s Children Are Little Broken Things. Chair of Judges Di Speirs praised the collection: We were
The series adaptation of Garth Risk Hallberg’s bestselling novel, City on Fire, premieres on Apple TV+ today, so we asked Hallberg about the uncanny experience of seeing his book come to life, handing over the creative reins (with “a license to kibitz”), ingenious acts of translation, and more. * How does it feel to see
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) What are the best short stories about painters, artists, and the world of art? From Gothic pioneers like Edgar Allan Poe to realist writers like Edith Wharton, masters of the short story have often touched upon the subject of art and painting, using the short story form to explore
May 10, 2023, 10:00am According to the powers that be (er, apparently according to Dan Wickett of the Emerging Writers Network), May is Short Story Month. To celebrate, the Literary Hub staff will be recommending a single short story, free to read online, every (work) day of the month. Why not read along with us? Today, we recommend: “Who
Shortly after the birth of his sister Virginia in 1951, Springsteen’s family moved in with his paternal grandparents. They would stay there through 1956, but the years spent in that house would remain with Springsteen, a thing to untangle. It was a period of his childhood that, in his telling, would come to the fore
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘Killing Me Softly with His Song’ is a well-known song that has most famously been recorded by Roberta Flack and (under the shorter title ‘Killing Me Softly’) by the Fugees, who gave the song a hip-hop twist and, in doing so, brought the track to the attention of a
May 9, 2023, 10:08am The most thankless characters in literary history are mothers. They’re always birthing important characters and assuming the shape of overplayed metaphors and even, sometimes, marrying the fratricidal brother of their dead spouse, yet somehow they’re secondary characters when it comes to to the billing. This Sunday is the time to remedy
May 9, 2023, 4:55am As May continues, and as the incredible fact that summer is almost here looms, here are some exciting new books to consider picking up today. Below, you’ll find a wide-ranging list, from new releases of classic tales and retellings of others to moving memoirs to provocative arguments about authorship and imperialism,
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) Some of the greatest poets in the English language have penned moving poems to their mothers. Similarly, many great poets who are also mothers in their own right have celebrated and praised their own daughters in their verse, composing heartfelt poems to the women who represent the next generation.
May 8, 2023, 3:33pm Probably not, but it seems likely that he said it. That’s according to an unpublished letter, sent by Fitzgerald to a long-lost cousin back in the spring of 1924, which is going under the hammer this week. In the handwritten note, which Fitzgerald wrote on the eve of a trip to Europe
A desolate moor, haunted by incomprehensible supernatural beings. Chains rattling in a dark castle, ghosts prowling the ramparts. A grisly corpse, hands chopped off and tongue sliced out. For any horror-lovers, whether the Gothic classics or the contemporary greats, these tropes will ring familiar. They come, of course, from Shakespeare. In fact, after more than
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) Is ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’, Nirvana’s best-known song and the anthem of the short-lived grunge movement, a song about revolution, music, or losing one’s virginity? How can we pin down the meaning of this iconic song with its suggestive but rather opaque lyrics? The origins of the song’s title
May 5, 2023, 9:32am When we were but children in a distant former colony, we had a set of cardboard coronation crowns upholstered poorly in imitation velvet so we could play kings and queens. The Queen was on our money, and her portrait hung in our primary school. Now we are on the eve of
May 5, 2023, 9:34am The “richest literary prize in the world for women and non-binary writers,” The Carol Shields Prize for Fiction, announced its first winner over night at an event at Parnassus Books. Please have a glass in hand … Fatimah Asghar, author of When We Were Sisters, published by One World/Random House, takes the