September 23, 2022, 10:57am By the time I read Hilary Mantel’s 1996 review of Kate Atkinson’s debut novel Behind the Scenes at the Museum in the London Review of Books, the novel had been a favorite of mine for over a decade. My mother gave me the book when I was in high school—both of
Literature
TODAY: In 1896, F. Scott Fitzgerald is born. Manil Suri reflects on his pursuit to answer life’s Big Questions—using only math. | Lit Hub “When I look hard at Lisa Frank’s yellow dogs, bright as highlighter pens, I feel unsettled in a way I can’t pinpoint.” How the Trapper Keeper became the most popular school supply of
Queen Elizabeth I’s speech to the troops at Tilbury is among the most famous and iconic speeches in English history. On 9 August 1588, Elizabeth addressed the land forces which had been mobilised at the port of Tilbury in Essex, in preparation for the expected invasion of England by the Spanish Armada. The speech has
I was once told by a friend that the most gutting feedback anyone can receive about a project they’ve created is the phrase “there’s lots of great stuff in here”—the implication being that, for whatever reason, the project on the whole does not work even despite the genuine, creative kernels it might contain. Personally I
September 23, 2022, 8:47am Celebrated British writer Hilary Mantel, best known for her Thomas Cromwell trilogy—Wolf Hall, Bring Up the Bodies, and The Mirror and the Light—for which she won not one but two Booker Prizes, died from a stroke on Thursday at the age of 70, The New York Times reports. “She had so many
TODAY: In 1888, the first issue of National Geographic Magazine is published. It contains no photographs and costs 50 cents. Also on Lit Hub: How much foresight do animals have? • How producers conceive of music • Read from Chelsea Martin’s debut novel, Tell Me I’m An Artist
Friendship is such a universal and central theme to all of our lives, that picking just a small number of the best short stories about such a broad theme is always going to be a challenge. However, the following stories are by some of the finest masters of the short story form, and all of
September 21, 2022, 3:36pm How far have you gone to roast a friend? How about writing a passive-aggressive story that portrays them as a scrappy boxer who thinks they’re stronger than they are and gets beaten up for it? Welcome to literary payback, Hemingway-style: a newly-opened archive of letters, stories, and photos from the author
The following is from Gwendoline Riley’s First Love. Riley was born in London and published her first novel, Cold Water, in 2002. First Love was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Literature, the Dylan Thomas Prize, the Gordon Burn Prize, and won the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize. In 2018, the Times Literary Supplement named her
September 20, 2022, 12:13pm You do? Well, good for you, I guess. The “book” in question is a 21,450-page single volume edition of the long-running manga One Piece by Japanese manga artist Eiichiro Oda, smushed together so as to make it impossible to read. As reported in the Guardian earlier today, the book isn’t actually credited to
TODAY: In 1849, Honoré de Balzac travels to Poland to meet Eveline Hanska, whom he will marry shortly before his death the following year. Tracing Marcella Hazan’s winding journey to culinary stardom. (Plus, her roast chicken recipe!) | Lit Hub Food It’s a banner week for new books—here are 15 dropping today, featuring new titles
‘Witches’ Loaves’ is a short story by the US short-story writer O. Henry, whose real name was William Sydney Porter (1862-1910). His stories are characterised by their irony and by their surprise twist endings. Both of these elements became something of a signature feature, and ‘Witches’ Loaves’ certainly carries a twist ending. The story is
September 19, 2022, 11:46am PEN America has released a new report on book bans in schools during the 2021-22 school year showing a marked increase in efforts to limit what students are reading—and a troubling, coordinated campaign of groups pushing those efforts. From July 1, 2021, to June 30, 2022, more than 2,500 book bans
September 19, 2022, 7:19am Sure, Woody Allen may be a celebrity octogenarian with millions of dollars and a decimated reputation, but he’s also just like you: keeping up with pandemic trends by quitting his job to follow his real passion! On Sunday, Woody Allen, who is currently working on his 50th feature, told Spanish newspaper
Where would we be without translators, that linguistic bridge between countries and cultures? To celebrate National Translation Month, we’ve asked a indie booksellers from A Room of One’s Own (Madison, WI), Seminary Co-Op and 57th Street Books (Chicago, IL), the Center for Fiction (Brooklyn, NY), and Greenlight Bookstore(Brooklyn, NY) to share their favorite works in
The State Hermitage Museum, gem of Saint Petersburg, pride of imperial and Soviet Russia. Founded by Catherine the Great, Russia’s longest ruling woman, and containing one of—if not the—largest art collections in the world. Egyptian antiquities, Italian renaissance, Dutch masters, impressionists, cubists, the canon of the art world housed in six buildings, including the Winter
September 16, 2022, 10:15am Today, the National Book Foundation announced the 10 books on the longlist for the 2022 National Book Award for Fiction. The judges for this year’s award are Ben Fountain (Chair), Brandon Hobson, Pam Houston, Dana Johnson, and Michelle Malonzo. The 10 longlistees were chosen from a total of 463 books submitted
TODAY: In 1883, William Carlos Williams is born. “If you were to read for 16 hours a day at 300 words per minute, you could keep up with a world containing an average population of 100,000 living Harper Lees.” Randall Munroe answers a pressing question: Was it ever possible for one person to read every book