August 12, 2025

Today, we’re examining the complicated legacy of Dr. Seuss, confronting the influence of data on our day to day lives, remembering Nikki Giovanni, and more!

On Lit Hub dot com:

On 65 years of Green Eggs and Ham and how we handle the complex legacy of Theodor Geisel. | Lit Hub Criticism
Noah Giansiracusa on how data dominates every facet of our lives (and how we can reclaim our humanity). | Lit Hub Technology
Nick Fuller Googins embraces analog research methods at the library: “If anyone is going to resist AI for the writing process, it should be us writers.” | Lit Hub Craft
On the artistic transformations of Constantine Cavafy, the most influential poetic voice in modern Greek literature. | Lit Hub Biography
The 26 new books out today include an anthology of reimagined lesbian pulp, essays by trans and gender non-conforming writers of color, and a history of the fight for sex ed! | Lit Hub Reading Lists
Is it fate or coincidence? Jessica Francis Kane on Penelope Fitzgerald, Hermione Lee, and authorial happenstance. | Lit Hub Craft
“Depending on the context, ‘fun’ has the potential to break my heart.” Peter Orner, Morgan Richter, Kate Riley and more authors take the Lit Hub questionnaire. | Lit Hub In Conversation
“There was no bride. There was no groom. No seating chart with my name in calligraphy—dot next to Julia indicating a preference for fish.” Read from Aisha Muharrar’s debut novel, Loved One. | Lit Hub Fiction

From around the internet:

Mary Gaitskill meditates on the nature of violence. | The Point
Public schools in Florida will be forced to remove 55 books without review by the state’s Board of Education. | Book Riot
“Research, writing, and, above all, thinking have always meant more than simply producing an answer.” Dan Rockmore on what it’s like to brainstorm with A.I. | The New Yorker
Jennifer Zacharia reports on the murder of Anas al-Sharif, and Israel’s war on Palestinian journalists. | Boston Review
“Her work moves between the ongoing catastrophe of American poverty and a sense of unabashed astonishment, an unrelenting obsession with the stars.” Joshua Bennett writes an elegy to Nikki Giovanni. | Poetry
From Beat Poets to Happenings, Ben Arthur revisits New York’s downtown avant-garde scene. | Los Angeles Review of Books

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July 31, 2025

Today, we’re rounding up our favorite cover designs from July, previewing August’s literary film and TV, looking at the best reviewed books of the month, and more!

On Lit Hub dot com:

Peepholes, drips, and bold colors: these are July’s best book covers. | Lit Hub Design
The literary film and TV coming to a streaming service near you in August includes an Outlander prequel, classic 90s teen flicks, and more! | Lit Hub Film
“There is something about comedy that just makes for good fiction because it’s about there being a disconnect between expectation and actuality.” Jessie Gaynor interviews Eric Puchner. | Lit Hub In Conversation
Gary Shteyngart’s Vera, or Faith, Sophie Elmhirst’s A Marriage at Sea, Michael Clune’s Pan, and Tim Weiner’s The Mission all feature among July’s best reviewed books. | Book Marks
Our friends at AudioFile Magazine share their most anticipated audiobooks in August. | Lit Hub Reading Lists
“Did you ever hear about the woman who jumped onto the subway tracks in New York, after a little boy who’d fallen in?” Read from Samsun Knight’s new novel, Likeness. | Lit Hub Fiction

From around the internet:

Philip Luke Johnson looks at two recent novels that “uncover the overlooked intervals” of Mexican history. | Public Books
Zhang Yueran and Wei Hui discuss censorship, artificial autobiography, and tradition. | Granta
The construction of a Robert Soros frankenmansion is killing the vibe at Left Bank Books. | Curbed
Today in “books no one asked for”: John Fetterman will publish a “raw and visceral” memoir this fall. | The New York Times
Daniel Felsenthal considers a new collection of Essex Hemphill’s poetry and his “liberationist spirit.” | The Nation
“Despite their differences in practice and philosophy, these authors all shared something—a desire for self-sufficiency, yes, but also their yearning.” On Jean Craighead George and Thoreau. | Orion

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July 18, 2025

Today, we’re scratching our heads at the Defense Department’s book ban list, considering diaspora and healing, and more!

On Lit Hub dot com:

The Defense Department wants to ban hundreds of books. Here are the weirdest titles. | The Hub
“Gaza has become the world’s conscience—which is not something anybody asked for.” Hala Alyan discusses diaspora, healing, and her memoir, I’ll Tell You When I’m Home. | Lit Hub In Conversation
Why Rachel Carson’s relationship with Dorothy Freeman and her environmental writing are deeply entwined. | Lit Hub Politics
Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s The Bewitching, Laurie Gwen Shapiro’s The Aviator and the Showman, and Vivek Shanbhag’s Sakina’s Kiss all feature among the best reviewed books of the week. | Book Marks
Matthew Clark Davison and Alice LaPlante on the power of writing into beauty. | Lit Hub Craft
Emily Buchanan rethinks climate grief through the lens of magical realism. | Lit Hub Criticism
“My favorite novels are those that leave you thinking.” Chloe Michelle Howarth considers how pieces of writing should end. | Lit Hub Craft
“The first time I went shooting in America I hit a tree.” Read from Tehila Hakimi’s novel Hunting in America, translated by Joanna Chen. | Lit Hub Fiction

From around the internet:

“It is one of these really interesting and very unusual situations where we have a legend that was widely known and hugely popular throughout the Middle Ages, and then very suddenly in the middle of the 16th century, in the High Renaissance, it’s just completely lost.” Researchers have finally solved a centuries-old literary cold case. | 404 Media
Tori McCandless examines the queer joy of BBC Three’s I Kissed a Girl. | Public Books
Gaby Del Valle investigates how ICE hit lists compiled by right wing groups endanger student protesters. | The Verge
Alexander Chee writes about going to Denny’s: “I will feel a little more alone after that night in some way I will never understand and always try to forget.” | Los Angeles Review of Books
Holly Beddingfield explores what it means to navigate the present media landscape as a Zillennial. | Dirt
“Somewhere between lies the truth, that adult and child may as well be two different species for their mutual incomprehensibility.” Barry Petchesky on the otherworldly snowmen of Calvin and Hobbes. | Defector