Literature

I live in a small college town in central Vermont, where during a normal academic year, the college provides ample opportunities for cultural enrichment: concerts, plays, films, lectures, and so on. But then came the pandemic: the students had been sent home, the library was closed (books could still be fetched for faculty, but there

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) Not many 1980s pop songs have inspired a world-famous meme, but ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ by Rick Astley certainly has that claim to fame. The song – one of the catchiest of tunes released through the powerhouse that was Stock Aitken and Waterman – is often derided and

This first appeared in Lit Hub’s Craft of Writing newsletter—sign up here. If character is the aspect of a story readers consciously cling to—the one they most clearly remember—then structure has a more subtle effect, yet it is key to what makes the experience of reading a novel satisfying. Do you need to use flashbacks, or separate

TODAY: In 1959, Ernest Hemingway’s 60th birthday party sets a palm tree on fire. (Read more about it here.)    Michael R. Kratz outlines the unique challenges of translating The Brothers Karamazov into English. | Lit Hub Translation “If your subject matter is very dark, you might want to allow some light in.” Paula Hawkins

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) The list of synonyms for the word ‘boring’ is not, ironically, an exhaustive or monotonously long list. There are relatively few common synonyms to denote the idea of something being boring, but there are some handy ones. Below, we introduce some of the best boring synonyms – and antonyms

TODAY: In 1967, three-time Pulitzer Prize winner Carl Sandburg dies at 89.    Twenty years after Roberto Bolaño’s death, Aaron Shulman unpacks the extraordinary literary afterlife of the Chilean poet and novelist. | Lit Hub Criticism “Once I can’t rely on sight to write anymore, will I, like Borges, no longer be quite sure who is

Do you remember the scene in Singin’ in the Rain where Gene Kelly and Cyd Charisse dance a romantic, longing modernist-ballet number? That scene is a dream sequence within a dream sequence. Gene Kelly’s character, a actor in late 20s Hollywood, is pitching a movie to a studio head and the film allows the viewer

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘Everything and Nothing’ is a short story by the Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986), although it is usually classified as a ‘parable’ rather than a ‘short story’ per se. Over the course of just a couple of pages, Borges gives us the life of a man who had

July 21, 2023, 10:06am When Ken (Ryan Gosling) leaves Barbieland in the movie Barbie, he finds that he is not at all prepared for what he’ll find in The Real World, where men rule all. So, the character, whose main concern in life has thus far been Beach, heads to the Los Angeles public library

July 20, 2023, 2:02pm Do you like this sentence?: How surely are the dead beyond death. Death is what the living carry with them. A state of dread, like some uncanny foretaste of a bitter memory. But the dead do not remember and nothingness is not a curse. Far from it. How about this one?:

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘Beyond the Door’ is an early story by Philip K. Dick (1928-82), and by no means one of his most famous or most sophisticated tales. But it’s an intriguing little story which is worthy of more analysis than it has generally received. It’s included in the second volume of

July 20, 2023, 10:00am Literary Hub is pleased to reveal the cover for Memory Piece, the latest novel from Lisa Ko, author of The Leavers, which will be published by Riverhead Books in March 2024. Here’s a bit about the book from the publisher: In the early 1980s, Giselle Chin, Jackie Ong, and Ellen Ng are three

July 19, 2023, 3:03pm An April report by the UK-based publishing site, The Bookseller, showed that more than half of the debut authors they surveyed said the experience of publishing a book adversely affected their mental health. Further reporting from The Guardian reveals that (some) publishers have quickly responded: This month, Anna Frame, communications director

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) The expression to give up has two complementary but distinct meanings. Indeed, in one sense, the two meanings stand in opposition to each other: one might give up oneself to a vice or weakness (by surrendering to one’s desire for a drink or a bar of chocolate), or one

July 19, 2023, 10:00am Literary Hub is pleased to reveal the cover for Grief is for People, a first memoir from the sharp-eyed essayist and novelist Sloane Crosley, which will be published by MCD/FSG on February 27, 2024. Here’s a bit about the book from the publisher: For most of her adult life, Sloane and Russell

July 18, 2023, 11:46am Famous writers: they’re just like us. At least in the sense that they too were children once. And some of them even endured the ritual of a childhood nickname, whether cruel or adoring or somewhere in between. But can you guess which famous writers belong to these childhood nicknames? Take a

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) Two extremely popular musical acts who emerged in Britain in the 1980s owed their names to the work of the American psychologist Arthur Janov (1924-2017). Janov’s 1970 book The Primal Scream gave its name to a Glasgow band formed in 1982, while a band formed down in Bath in

Illustration by Krishna Bala Shenoi. Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso is a weekly series of intimate conversations with artists, authors, and politicians. It’s a podcast where people sound like people. New episodes air every Sunday, distributed by Pushkin Industries.  * This week, we revisit our conversation from last August with Joyce Carol Oates. We begin