April 25, 2022, 4:05pm The American Academy in Rome, America’s oldest overseas center for independent studies in advanced research in the arts and humanities, has announced the winners of the Rome Prize. Winners receive a stipend, workspace, and room and board at the Academy’s campus in Rome. Rome Prize winners in eleven disciplines—ancient studies, architecture,
Literature
The English writer Hector Hugh Munro (1870-1916), who is better known under his pen name Saki, was a master of the short comic story and, in some ways, a missing link between Oscar Wilde and P. G. Wodehouse. What’s more, Saki was that rare writer who could write humorously, for an adult audience, about both
‘The Fog Horn’ is a 1951 short story by Ray Bradbury (1920-2012), republished in 1953 as the opening story in his collection The Golden Apples of the Sun. The story, which is about a lighthouse whose foghorn emits a noise which attracts the attention of a primeval dinosaur living miles below the ocean, contains a
‘His Excellency General Washington’ is a poem written by Phillis Wheatley (c. 1753-84) about General George Washington, who would later serve as the first President of the United States. Wheatley was the first African-American woman to publish a book of poetry: Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral appeared in 1773 when she was probably
April 21, 2022, 10:21am I can’t watch a feel-good rom-com or cute TV show without someone working in our industry. If they’re not writers, they vaguely work in book publishing. Or there’s a meet-cute at a bookstore. Or they work at a magazine/website. And as we all know, behind every magazine/website, there is a real character
‘Rules of the Game’ is one of the most popular stories which form part of Amy Tan’s 1989 book The Joy Luck Club. The story is about an eight-year-old Chinese American girl who teaches herself chess and becomes a child prodigy, winning many national tournaments. But ‘Rules of the Game’ is also, like many stories
April 21, 2022, 2:52pm A non-terrible piece of news coming in from the bookish corner of TikTok also known as #BookTok: it’s selling books, and a lot of them. The Publishers Association in the United Kingdom said today that total book sales were up by 5 percent to a total of £6.7bn last year, and
April 20, 2022, 1:26pm In today’s “why do we have to share a country with these jackasses” news, the board of the public library of Enid and Garfield County in Enid, Oklahoma, voted 3-2 to ban “book displays and library programs that focus on sexual content”—which resulted in the library cancelling not only an adult
The Bible contains many well-known stories, but how much do we know about them? And what are the best Bible stories everyone should know? Many people, even those raised in countries where Sunday school and religious assemblies are a mainstay of many children’s education, may find they’ve misremembered, or got the wrong impression about, some
April 20, 2022, 3:51pm I live in the lovely state of Montana, where every day is 4/20 if you want it to be. But if you’re celebrating today in particular, here’s a very non-exhaustive list of adaptations and literary-adjacent films I’d recommend, based on my own highly specific preferences, which tend toward goofy practical effects
TODAY: In 1927, Mae West is sentenced to ten days in jail for obscenity in her play Sex. [/caption] Thou detestable maw, thou womb of death: On the many (many) ways to die in Shakespeare’s day. | Lit Hub History Emily St. John Mandel talks to Jane Ciabattari about the narrative possibilities of time travel
‘I Bought a Little City’ is a short story by the American writer Donald Barthelme (1931-89), included in his 1976 collection Amateurs. In the story, the narrator relates how he bought a city in Texas and began making changes to it, although he soon lets the power go to his head. Barthelme’s stories frequently incorporate
April 19, 2022, 8:57am Christos Ikonomou will be the first recipient of the Chowdhury Prize in Literature, a new, annual international mid-career award for exceptional writers. Ikonomou was born in 1970 in Athens, and is the author of four collections of short fiction: The Woman on the Rails (2003), Something Will Happen, You’ll See (2010), Good Will Come
TODAY: In 1896, pioneering Korean feminist writer and painter Na Hye-Sok is born. “If there is to be a livable and shared future on our planet, it will be a future offline.” Jonathan Crary on technology amid late capitalism. | Lit Hub Tech A reprieve from all ghastly things: Howard Norman reads Kathryn Davis’ Aurelia,
‘The Moving Finger’ is a 1901 short story by the American writer Edith Wharton (1862-1937). The story is about an artist who paints a portrait of a friend’s wife; when the wife dies, the husband asks the artist to alter the portrait so it reflects how his wife would look as an older woman, if
April 18, 2022, 12:28pm Some sad news coming out of the Boston area today: the Children’s Book Shop in Brookline Village, Mass., will close its doors after 45 years. Dear Customers: We are sad to report that The Children’s Book Shop will close its doors on April 30, 2022. We have provided good books, great
The law enforcement officials and terrorism experts interviewed on cable news in the hours after the attack oozed authority. The marathon bombers, they said, could be halfway down the eastern seaboard by nightfall. At my wife’s workplace the next day—a research lab on an Air Force base outside Boston—talk turned to 9/11 and how the
‘The Leader of the People’ is a short story by John Steinbeck (1902-68), the final instalment in the longer work The Red Pony. The story is about the son of a ranch owner who looks forward to a visit from his grandfather, the titular ‘leader of the people’ who enjoys regaling people with tales of