Today, McGill University announced the shortlist for the 2025 Cundill History Prize, which honors history writing that “demonstrates excellence across the prize’s guiding criteria: craft, communication and consequence.” The winner will take home a prize of $75,000; two runners-up will Read more >
Happy Friday before the long weekend! Always a good feeling. It’s been another busy week, so catch up on some of the news, with a few fun little Venns. And happy early Labor Day! Here’s a reading list to check Read more >
This week, Lit Hubbers are reporting from all over the country. Bracing for the acknowledged end of summer this weekend, we’re resting hard, chasing best selves, and getting the last laugh. James Folta’s nice thing of the week involves a Read more >
Fall is here, a season with a name rather suggestive in the unsettling times we find ourselves in—but art can always help us navigate the strangedark. To that end, I come bearing new books to consider as September rolls around. Read more >
Naoise Dolan, one of Ireland’s most acclaimed young novelists, has announced that she will be boarding the Global Sumud Flotilla to break the siege on Gaza. Dublin writer and activist Dolan—the author of Exciting Times (2020) and The Happy Couple (2023)—has been Read more >
Every year since his inauguration, President Obama has released a reading list spotlighting his favorite books. Like a fireside chat with FDR, this tradition familiarized the man. We got a sense of his taste, his style. And such a high-profile Read more >
Today, Kirkus Reviews announced the 18 finalists for the 2025 Kirkus Prize, in the categories of Fiction, Nonfiction, and Young Readers’ Literature. Finalists are chosen from the pool of writers whose work has been awarded a coveted Kirkus star in Read more >
Here’s my best impression of a late night ad for a law firm: Do you think your book may have been stolen by an AI company? Then you might be entitled to be part of a class action lawsuit! The Read more >
The end of the summer is almost here, and it feels difficult to believe that fall is approaching; 2025 remains a year in which time has consistently seemed too fast and too slow all at once. Still, one thing remains Read more >
In this surging sea of celebrity book clubs, it’s nice to hear of an established brand wading into public letters. Shakes things up, anyway. Today, that brand is C-SPAN, the cable non-profit best known for bringing daytime television viewers straight Read more >
We’ve been gushing about Zach Cregger’s new horror flick Weapons in the Lit Hub Slack (“Lit-lack”? “Lhlack”? “Slub”?) The movie, from a sketch comedian turned horror filmmaker, is scary and funny with just enough formal creativity and snappy writing to Read more >
Another busy week winds down. I spent most of it thinking about bugs, but there was a lot going on outside of my little insect zone. Things feel very dour, to put it very mildly, so I tried to surface Read more >
This week, we’re calling all flâneurs. We’re striding—sometimes jumping—into new worlds, or finding fresh gold in the familiar. We’re probing pole ends of the AM dial, and trawling the archive. It’s an August for discovery. Last week, Calvin Kasulke got Read more >
Literary adaptations are usually a dubious prospect. Yet we readers stay hopeful. Maybe this time, we pray, in the face of fresh announcements. Maybe this time, Hollywood will remember to include that non-essential minor character I loved so on the Read more >
A couple of weeks ago I happened upon a sex hormone named after Mr. Darcy, and it sent me down a rabbit hole, looking for other odd names scientists have bestowed on their discoveries. As a result I’ve spent too Read more >
For this reader, autumn means classics. Nothing gets me through the swiftly souring end of August quite like a vision of myself in this sweater, curled up by a fireplace with an epic that’s been languishing for years on my Read more >
Hi, everyone. Just a brief introduction this week, as I’m dealing with loss, but don’t let that brevity distract or detract from the brilliant new offerings below. You’ll find exciting new biographies of famous figures, powerful debuts, intriguing new novels Read more >
Sally Rooney, the bestselling Irish novelist, has vowed to support Palestine Action despite the group being proscribed as a terrorist organization in the UK. In a piece published by the Irish Times on Saturday, Rooney (who has been one of the Read more >
If you’ve ever done a therapy session over Zoom (or any other video platform), you know how easy it can be to be distracted by what’s going on behind your therapist’s head. Do I recognize their art? What’s going on Read more >
This June, Yael van der Wouden was awarded the 2025 Women’s Prize for Fiction for her debut The Safekeep, a gripping historical novel from a writer who really knows how to craft a sex scene. Recently, Literary Hub caught up Read more >