April 11, 2022, 12:36pm The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation recently announced the recipients of its 2022 fellowships, chosen through a peer-review process from nearly 2,500 applicants. Of the 180 recipients—“these successful applicants were appointed on the basis of prior achievement and exceptional promise”—25 were awarded to fiction writers, nonfiction writers, and poets. Congratulations to
Literature
‘The Hollow Men’ is a poem which succeeds in part because of its suggestive symbolism. T. S. Eliot uses a tight and interrelated group of symbols, including deserts, rats, twilight, fading stars, and the hollow/stuffed men themselves, to summon a decaying civilisation, usually interpreted as representing Europe after the end of the First World War.
April 11, 2022, 10:24am Does the following really sound like contemporary American conservatism to you? Dawn of the Brave, which is aimed at children age 6 to 10, helps readers recognize that everyone has strengths and weakness, but teamwork allows people to come together for the greater good. I am… confused. Dawn of the Brave,
As told to Lit Hub senior editor Corinne Segal. This interview has been edited and condensed. The following first appeared in Lit Hub’s The Craft of Writing newsletter—sign up here. * The Japanese have this idea of the color of a poem. Bashō talks often about the colors of poems. I think what he means by that is
‘Razor’ by Vladimir Nabokov is a short tale – a short, sharp one, we might say. First published in the Russian emigré newspaper Rul’ in Berlin in 1926, the story is set in Berlin and features a title character who works in a barbershop. This man, a Russian, is working in the shop on his
TODAY: In 2015, Literary Hub is born (and with it, an iconic tote). “To love in a time of war is / to wear earrings in spite of everything.” New poetry from Ukraine by Kateryna Kalytko, translated by Yuliya Ilchuk and Amelia Glaser. | Lit Hub Ukraine Hitting it on the nose: How mystery writers
James Baldwin’s landmark essay “Negroes Are Anti-Semitic Because They’re Anti-White” is alternatively nuanced and strident, exacting and scattershot, hopeful and fatalistic. It’s fairly prophetic too. As we mark the 55th anniversary of its publication let us acknowledge that, in spite of all the outrage (and confusion) the piece created, it was prescient in many ways.
The fiction of the Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986) often returns to the same prominent symbols, with Borges finding new ways to inflect the mirror, the book, and the labyrinth, among others. But Borges uses these key symbols in different ways in his fiction, so they resonate with new meaning and significance. Borges was
TODAY: In 1805, Hans Christian Andersen is born. Revisiting James Baldwin’s groundbreaking 1967 essay “Negroes Are Antisemitic.” | Lit Hub Does being sad make us better artists? Susan Cain explores melancholy and creativity. | Lit Hub Psychology Writer on the verge of a nervous breakdown: Barbara Shulgasser-Parker on her very strange interview with Phillip Roth. | Lit Hub
April 8, 2022, 10:41am Seven years ago today, Literary Hub launched during AWP Minneapolis. If you’d told any of us we’d be around and thriving seven years on (outside and beyond being a purveyor of desirable tote bags)… well, we’d believe you (because why not?)—but we’d also worry it was a horrible trick. The last
‘A Pair of Silk Stockings’ is a short story by the American writer Kate Chopin (1850-1904), written in 1896 and published in Vogue the following year. The story is about a married woman who comes into possession of fifteen dollars and ends up treating herself to new clothes, a meal in a restaurant, and a
April 8, 2022, 11:54am Because we can never resist adding another line item to the eternal ledger of what we owe libraries: Californians can now use their library cards to get free entry into state parks! The three-year pilot program will give libraries (including mobile libraries) at least three passes to California state parks, which
April 7, 2022, 9:29am The International Booker Prize just announced its shortlist for this year’s award, which goes to “the finest fiction from around the world” to be published in English translation and grants a £50,000 prize (split between an author and translator). Judges read 135 books to select the six titles, which were originally
‘Chickamauga’ is an 1891 short story by the American author Ambrose Bierce, who is also remembered for his witty The Devil’s Dictionary and for his mysterious disappearance in around 1914. ‘Chickamauga’ is a war story, but is unusual in focusing on a young child who is a bystander to the carnage that unfolds. The story’s
April 7, 2022, 9:48am Good morning! I have amazing news. It turns out that author, actor, esteemed Sherlockian, NBA-all-time-leading scorer, NAACP Image Award-nominee, Presidential Medal of Freedom-recipient, and all-around Renaissance man Kareem Abdul-Jabbar wrote an episode of Veronica Mars. From the new season! It is going to be a wonderful day, folks. This fact was
April 6, 2022, 10:00am Lit Hub is pleased to reveal the cover for Silas House’s latest novel Lark Ascending, which will be published by Algonquin in September. Algonquin describes Lark Ascending as “a riveting story of survival and hope” for readers of Station Eleven, Migrations, and The Dog Stars. The novel follows a young man forced to
What are the best poems about progress – whether they celebrate progress, call for things to improve in the world, or focus on specific examples of social change and reform? Below, we introduce ten of the best poems which deal with social and political progress of various kinds. These poems belong to different literary periods
April 6, 2022, 11:14am In exhibit #3,767 of ginned-up cancel culture panic, The Daily Mail is reporting that Stirling University in Scotland… …has removed Jane Austen [from a literature course] to help “decolonise the curriculum” and “contribute increased diversity” on the syllabus. Stirling University’s English Literature programme has replaced the famous author of Pride and