Literature

November 17, 2022, 7:00pm Katherine Rundell has won the UK’s £50,000 2022 Baillie Gifford Prize for Nonfiction for Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne, a biography of the poet. Chair of judges Caroline Sanderson said that the decision had been unanimous. “Exquisitely rendered, its passion, playfulness and sparkling prose seduced all of us,” she said.

TODAY: In 1992, Audre Lorde dies at 58.   In the words of Kurt Vonnegut, ecowarrior: “Those who try their best to save the planet will find a loose, cheerful, sexy brass band waiting to honor them right outside the Pearly Gates.” | Lit Hub Climate Change How much is our work suffering without physical

November 16, 2022, 3:37pm Today, the first full-size statue of Virginia Woolf was unveiled by the river at Richmond-upon-Thames, where she lived from 1914-1924. “There are so few women represented in sculpture,” sculptor Laury Dizengremel told The Guardian. “I find it quite remarkable that [Woolf] will be situated where so many people will walk past,

TODAY:  In 1922, José Saramago is born.   On the corrosive, trickle-down effect of the culture wars. | Lit Hub Politics Good news from adaptation land: The new Fleishman Is in Trouble series knows what it’s doing. | Lit Hub Film & TV Against calling nature “wild.” | Lit Hub Nature Examining the working conditions of

November 15, 2022, 11:32am In response to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s new and ongoing sanctions against Russia, the Russian Foreign Ministry has released a list of 100 Canadians citizens who are no longer allowed entry into Russia, including… Margaret Atwood. According to the announcement, everyone on the list has been “directly involved in the

TODAY: In 1887, Marianne Moore is born. Mary Kate Frank wonders why we covet writers’ everyday objects… while coveting Joan Didion’s seashell collection, now at auction. | Lit Hub 12 new books to look forward to this week, featuring Patti Smith, Eileen Myles, Hanif Abdurraqib, and more. | The Hub “From the first day, everything

‘The Locusts’ is a short chapter or tale within The Martian Chronicles, Ray Bradbury’s 1950 science fiction novel which describes human exploration of, and settlement on, the planet Mars at the turn of the century after Earth becomes uninhabitable in the wake of nuclear war. In ‘The Locusts’, ninety thousand Americans from Earth emigrate to

November 14, 2022, 11:07am The BBC and A24 are teaming up to adapt Douglas Stuart’s Booker Prize-winning novel Shuggie Bain as a TV series. Douglas himself will script the show, which will be produced by A24 for BBC One. Shuggie Bain, Douglas’ debut novel, has been something of a critical and commercial phenomenon since its

After Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter became official on October 27, Margaret Atwood tweeted, “Any truly viable alternatives to Twitter yet?” Atwood wasn’t the only writer looking for the next literary water cooler. In recent days, my feed has been flooded with authors lamenting the imminent loss of digital community. One of the more emotional

November 11, 2022, 10:21am Look, it’s easy to dunk on nerd-bro crypto evangelists… So let’s! In a September profile of brand new poor person Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, he makes it pretty clear that books are for beta losers who won’t ever know the rush of losing $16 billion in a

One evening last December I made a visit to London for a gala dinner at the National Gallery on Trafalgar Square. I had recently published a book, Empire of Pain, which was an investigative chronicle of three generations of the wealthy Sackler family. Known for their philanthropy, the Sacklers had become famous for making lavish

November 11, 2022, 11:07am Oh yes. This week, Detroit’s Metro Times highlighted A Ain’t Always for Apple: An Erotic Adult Alphabet Book, which is . . . exactly what it sounds like. The book (which has become a multi-volume series) was written and self-published by Detroit woman Char Jay in the hopes of combat adult illiteracy. “My

TODAY: In 1984, Chester Himes dies at 75.   Get to know this year’s National Book Award finalists. | Lit Hub “Our teeth tell stories about us, about the way that we have lived, about where we come from, about our habits, our health, and status.” Angelique Stevens muses on dentistry, poverty, and inequality. | Lit Hub Memoir Ryan Holiday on using the lessons

‘The Man Who Was Almost a Man’ is a short story by the American author Richard Wright (1908-60), originally published as ‘Almos’ a Man’ in Harper’s Bazaar in 1940 before being revised by Wright later in his life. The final version was published in 1960. In the story, a black youth in the American South

November 11, 2022, 11:17am I guess if you’re a publisher whose stated mission is to disrupt the publishing industry, you have to move fast and break things, no matter how ghoulish that makes you. Such is apparently the case for “hybrid publisher” Ballast Books (“More Than A Publisher, A Brand Builder”), who is capitalizing on

On August 14, 2020 the animal transport Gulf Livestock 1 departed Napier, New Zealand, bound for China. The Panamanian-registered vessel was carrying almost 6,000 live cattle and had a crew of 43: 39 men from the Philippines, including the captain, two from New Zealand and two from Australia. On 2 September, when the ship was southwest

November 10, 2022, 2:23pm As you may have seen on Book Twitter today, the unionized workers of HarperCollins are striking to secure a fair contract, livable wages, and a more equitable publishing industry. Some 250 employees—across the editorial, publicity, sales, marketing, legal and design departments—agreed to go on an indefinite strike after negotiations with the

TODAY: In 1844, Hans Christian Andersen’s New Fairy Tales (Nye Eventyr), including “The Ugly Duckling” (“Den grimme ælling”), is published.  “Our teeth tell stories about us, about the way that we have lived, about where we come from, about our habits, our health, and status.” Angelique Stevens muses on dentistry, poverty, and inequality. | Lit