December 9, 2022, 11:27am Yes, it’s true, Markus Dohle is leaving his position as CEO of Penguin Random House, in what is clear fallout from the failed attempt to acquire Simon & Schuster. Dohle, who pushed hard for the attempted merger, said in his letter of resignation that: Following the antitrust decision in the U.S.
Literature
December 8, 2022, 10:42am Back in August I wrote about Pavel Filatyev, an active-duty Russian soldier who posted online his 141-page account of the lead up to and taking of Kherson by Russian forces. With the help of Vladimir Osechkin, who runs Gulagu.net (an anti-corruption website whose name translates as “No to the Gulag”), Filatyev
December 8, 2022, 12:19pm Amid all the stories of shitbag Proud Boys shutting down drag queen story hours at libraries, here’s a nice bit of news about libraries saying a very polite “fuck off” to Kirk Cameron, former Growing Pains star and current Christian film mogul whose latest effort was the anti-abortion film Lifemark. According Brave Books,
TODAY: In 1975, Pulitzer Prize-winner Thornton Wilder dies at 78. “She writes her way to hope.” Jesmyn Ward on the optimistic work of Octavia Butler. | Lit Hub Criticism Sara B. Franklin on the children’s books that got us through the year. | Lit Hub Darcey Steinke on the long, complicated life of painter
The story of Narcissus is one of the most enduringly popular, and instantly recognisable, from classical myth. The very name of Narcissus has become a kind of shorthand for self-love and self-regard. But the actual facts of the Narcissus story are a little more complex than they first appear. Who fell in love with Narcissus,
December 7, 2022, 11:28am I didn’t know I needed it this morning, but here is a previously unpublished poem by the late and truly great CD Wright (gone too soon). The poem, called “Abandon Yourself to That Which is Inevitable,” appears in the Spring 2022 of Conjunctions (which, thankfully, survived its run-in with funding cuts)
The following is from Jane Smiley’s A Dangerous Business. Smiley is the author of numerous novels, including A Thousand Acres, which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, and the Last Hundred Years Trilogy: Some Luck, Early Warning, and Golden Age. She is the author as well of several works of nonfiction and books for young adults.
December 6, 2022, 9:30am Let this be a warning to any and all holiday revelers, particularly those standing near my window while I’m desperately hoping the baby stays asleep: turns out you can laugh yourself to death. And let this be a warning to everyone with spare time this holiday season: you can read yourself to
December 5, 2022, 11:10am Photo by Rye White. As we enter what’s basically the last serious working week for corporate publishing (for some, anyway), it’s important to note that as of now, HarperCollins has yet to meet with any of its 250 or so striking contractors who are seeking better wages and benefits, along with
‘And of Clay We Are Created’ is a short story by the Chilean writer Isabel Allende (born 1942), included in her 1989 collection The Stories of Eva Luna. In the story, a mountain avalanche causes a cataclysm which leads to thousands of deaths. The story follows the attempts of a newscaster who tries to save
December 5, 2022, 12:24pm A few weeks ago, the Oxford English Dictionary people did something unprecedented: they let the public vote on the Word of the Year. The finalists were: #IStandWith, metaverse, and goblin mode. As you may recall, Lit Hub stood firmly behind one of those options and put out a call to action
The following is from Constance Debré’s Love Me Tender. Debré left her career as a lawyer to become a writer. She has written three other novels, Play Boy (Prix de la Coupole 2018), Un peu là, beaucoup ailleurs (winner of the 2005 Prix Contrepoint), and Manuel pratique de l’idéal Abécédaire de survie.. They tell me
The following first appeared in Lit Hub’s The Craft of Writing newsletter—sign up here. This summer, I didn’t want to write. When I happened to have childcare and all pressing domestic matters were satisfied enough, I’d open my novel-in-progress, stare at it, scroll around, and add nothing. One day in July, it was beautiful and cool,
TODAY: In 1948, T.C. Boyle is born. The long-awaited White Noise, the longer-awaited Kindred, and more of the literary film and TV you need to stream in December. | Lit Hub Film & TV Step right up and get your recipe for cricket biscuits. | Lit Hub Food Yusef Komunyakaa on Etheridge Knight: “Here’s
‘Girl’ is a short story by the Antigua-born writer Jamaica Kincaid (born 1949). In this very short story, which runs to just a couple of pages, a mother offers advice to her teenage daughter about how to behave like a proper woman. ‘Girl’ was originally published in the New Yorker in 1978 before being reprinted
December 2, 2022, 11:04am I love the Milwaukee Public Library Instagram and you should too: somehow they’ve achieved the perfect mix of try-hard theater kid, unhinged meme lord, and zen boomer TikTok savant. Head over here to see for yourself, but below are a few of my favorites. In what stands as their current magnum
TODAY: In 1857, Joseph Conrad is born. Mary Gordon considers the “insufficiently treasured” short fiction of Jean Stafford. | Lit Hub Criticism “There is no normal, there is no feminine.” Wisdom from the world’s foremost purveyors of hip and butt pads. | Lit Hub How dogs explore the world through smell. | Lit Hub Science Bob Dylan’s The Philosophy
December 1, 2022, 10:00pm Tonight, in a ceremony at the Windsor Ballrooms in Montreal, Tiya Miles was awarded the $75,000 Cundill History Prize, which recognizes the best history writing in English, for All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake. “All That She Carried is a history that reminds us