Lit Hub
@literaryhub.bsky.social
A daily literary website highlighting the best in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and criticism.
https://linktr.ee/lithub_
https://linktr.ee/lithub_
The sale of 100,000 books is here for your holiday shopping needs.
Christmas shopping in the tri-state area? Check out the estate sale selling 100,000 books.
The late William Roberts was a Pennsylvania lawyer, philanthropist, and self-identified bibliophile. And as The Philadelphia Inquirer reported in his recent obit, when the bookstore near his home c…
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December 7, 2025 at 4:00 PM
The sale of 100,000 books is here for your holiday shopping needs.
Finally, some good news.
The US will reinstate library grants canceled by Trump.
The Institute of Museum and Library Services issued a short and sweet update on Wednesday announcing the restoration of all grants supporting libraries and museums: Upon further review, the Institu…
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December 6, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Finally, some good news.
Catch up on the news this week (turtles and all) with these Venn diagrams.
This week’s news in Venn diagrams.
We’re currently nestled in the period between Thanksgiving and the winter holidays, when time acts strangely and the calendar never behaves like it’s supposed to. It’s the perfect…
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December 6, 2025 at 6:00 PM
Catch up on the news this week (turtles and all) with these Venn diagrams.
This week, the Lit Hub staff gamed, read, and giggled. A lot.
Here’s what’s making us happy this week.
This week, Lit Hub ate buffet style. We followed individual whims, and satisfied diverse appetites. Literally? We gamed, we read, and we giggled. Emily Temple’s nice thing of the week was mus…
buff.ly
December 6, 2025 at 4:00 PM
This week, the Lit Hub staff gamed, read, and giggled. A lot.
“I preferred to take Boulevard du Trente-Avril, a site of permanent chaos that lengthened my trip, rather than the shortest, most logical route...” Read from Osvalde Lewat’s The Aquatics, translated by @marenbaudetlackner.bsky.social.
The Aquatics
I preferred to take Boulevard du Trente-Avril, a site of permanent chaos that lengthened my trip, rather than the shortest, most logical route, which inevitably led me past the soccer stadium, shop…
buff.ly
December 5, 2025 at 9:30 PM
“I preferred to take Boulevard du Trente-Avril, a site of permanent chaos that lengthened my trip, rather than the shortest, most logical route...” Read from Osvalde Lewat’s The Aquatics, translated by @marenbaudetlackner.bsky.social.
Itoro Bassey examines how we write about Africa and the plurality of African literature.
What Writers in the Diaspora Miss About the Plurality of African Literature
I often talk about the period when I lived in Nigeria for the first time as an adult because it revealed something fundamental about my perspective. Before then, my knowledge of Nigeria came second…
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December 5, 2025 at 8:30 PM
Itoro Bassey examines how we write about Africa and the plurality of African literature.
@missadadoom.bsky.social recommends chilling tales of folk horror in translation by Zuzana Ríhová, John Ajvide Lindqvist, and more!
Chilling Lit: Six Novels in Translation That Blend Folktales and Horror
Togetherness that’s on the side of suffocating, history that won’t stay put or past, and nature that doesn’t just exist, benignly, but watches and waits….Folk horror deals in dissonance, drea…
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December 5, 2025 at 7:30 PM
@missadadoom.bsky.social recommends chilling tales of folk horror in translation by Zuzana Ríhová, John Ajvide Lindqvist, and more!
Edward J. Larson considers 1776, the pivotal year for what would become America.
Give Me Independence: On 1776, the Pivotal Year For What Would Become America
Written during the heady days after the three American victories in West Jersey and published on January 13, 1777, the second installment of Paine’s thirteen numbered “The American Crisis” essays h…
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December 5, 2025 at 7:00 PM
Edward J. Larson considers 1776, the pivotal year for what would become America.
Olga Tokarczuk’s House of Day, House of Night, Sudhir Hazareesingh’s Daring to Be Free, and Matthew Pearl’s The Award all feature among the best reviewed books of the week.
The Best Reviewed Books of the Week
Featuring Olga Tokarczuk, Sudhir Hazareesingh, Matthew Pearl, and more
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December 5, 2025 at 6:30 PM
Olga Tokarczuk’s House of Day, House of Night, Sudhir Hazareesingh’s Daring to Be Free, and Matthew Pearl’s The Award all feature among the best reviewed books of the week.
“It was clear to African populations that self-reliance was the only way to survive predatory imperial states.” How indigenous West African communities fought the European slave trade.
How Indigenous West African Communities Resisted the European Slave Trade
Compelling evidence of massive African resistance to Atlantic slavery can be found from the very onset of the European colonial arrival on the con-tinent. When the Portuguese gained control of the …
buff.ly
December 5, 2025 at 5:30 PM
“It was clear to African populations that self-reliance was the only way to survive predatory imperial states.” How indigenous West African communities fought the European slave trade.
What can watching Survivor teach you about writing? “As a writer, you cannot and should not shield your characters from being seen in all their messy glory.”
Sophie Newman on What You Can Learn About Writing by Watching Survivor
This first appeared in Lit Hub’s Craft of Writing newsletter—sign up here. If the world were suddenly captured by aliens, and I had one hour in which to communicate the dynamics of human behavior o…
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December 5, 2025 at 4:30 PM
What can watching Survivor teach you about writing? “As a writer, you cannot and should not shield your characters from being seen in all their messy glory.”
If you don’t know what to get the writer who has everything, try something from our holiday gift guide.
lithub.com/the-literary...
lithub.com/the-literary...
The Literary Hub Gift Guide: 50 Gifts for Writers
Writers can be hard to shop for. Like everyone, really. Would the writer in your life enjoy a novelty notebook that says “Eat, Pray, Read”? (Probably not, but you know them best, if ind…
lithub.com
December 5, 2025 at 3:30 PM
If you don’t know what to get the writer who has everything, try something from our holiday gift guide.
lithub.com/the-literary...
lithub.com/the-literary...
Reposted by Lit Hub
"Sublime, shocking, witty, tender, crude, candid, and always smart as hell" @vivianblaxell.bsky.social is on @literaryhub.bsky.social 's 100 Notable Small Press Books of 2025!!
Worthy of the Event makes a GREAT FUGGIN' GIFT btw go change someone's life you earned it ➡️ www.littlepuss.net/shop/p/wote
Worthy of the Event makes a GREAT FUGGIN' GIFT btw go change someone's life you earned it ➡️ www.littlepuss.net/shop/p/wote
100 Notable Small Press Books of 2025
The idea of 100 Notable Small Press Books was born November 2024, after The New York Times’s annual 100 Notable Books list featured eighty-two books from the Big Five publishing houses (Pengu…
lithub.com
December 4, 2025 at 7:37 PM
"Sublime, shocking, witty, tender, crude, candid, and always smart as hell" @vivianblaxell.bsky.social is on @literaryhub.bsky.social 's 100 Notable Small Press Books of 2025!!
Worthy of the Event makes a GREAT FUGGIN' GIFT btw go change someone's life you earned it ➡️ www.littlepuss.net/shop/p/wote
Worthy of the Event makes a GREAT FUGGIN' GIFT btw go change someone's life you earned it ➡️ www.littlepuss.net/shop/p/wote
Reposted by Lit Hub
LitHub Daily with a wonderful excerpt from THE AQUATICS! Osvalde's English-language debut is out now, translated by Maren Baudet-Lackner. Thanks as always @literaryhub.bsky.social !
lithub.com/the-aquatics/
lithub.com/the-aquatics/
The Aquatics
I preferred to take Boulevard du Trente-Avril, a site of permanent chaos that lengthened my trip, rather than the shortest, most logical route, which inevitably led me past the soccer stadium, shop…
lithub.com
December 5, 2025 at 3:22 PM
LitHub Daily with a wonderful excerpt from THE AQUATICS! Osvalde's English-language debut is out now, translated by Maren Baudet-Lackner. Thanks as always @literaryhub.bsky.social !
lithub.com/the-aquatics/
lithub.com/the-aquatics/
“They will be rescued. People on the mainland will become worried and someone will ready a ship!” Read from Iida Turpeinen’s novel Beasts of the Sea, translated by David Hackston.
Beasts of the Sea
They will be rescued. People on the mainland will become worried and someone will ready a ship! But one after the other, the men realize that no-one can possibly rescue them on an uncharted island.…
buff.ly
December 4, 2025 at 9:30 PM
“They will be rescued. People on the mainland will become worried and someone will ready a ship!” Read from Iida Turpeinen’s novel Beasts of the Sea, translated by David Hackston.
Marci Vogel’s TBR includes works by Joy Harjo, Myriam Gurba, Hua Hsu, and more.
The Annotated Nightstand: What Marci Vogel is Reading Now, and Next
It’s that time of the year again when authors with titles that came out within the last twelve months hold their breath, bite their nails, look away, then pore over the end-of-the-year “best of” li…
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December 4, 2025 at 8:30 PM
Marci Vogel’s TBR includes works by Joy Harjo, Myriam Gurba, Hua Hsu, and more.
“There is a sense, in this biography, of him tending his own flame while attempting to urinate upon it at the same time.” 5 book reviews you need to read this week.
5 Reviews You Need to Read This Week
Our quintet of quality reviews this week includes Becca Rothfeld on Olivia Nuzzi’s American Canto, Dwight Garner on Ted Geltner’s Flagrant, Self-Destructive Gestures, Laura Miller on Maggie Nelson’s…
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December 4, 2025 at 7:30 PM
“There is a sense, in this biography, of him tending his own flame while attempting to urinate upon it at the same time.” 5 book reviews you need to read this week.
Am I the asshole if my friends won’t let me in their writers’ group? @kristenarnett.bsky.social answers this and more of your awkward questions about literary life.
My Friends Won’t Let Me Into Their Writers’ Group: Am I the Literary Asshole?
Well, well, well. Look what the cat dragged in! That’s right, it’s the squirmy, wriggling, zombie-like corpse of everyone’s favorite “advice” column, Am I the Literary Asshole? (now with 25 percent…
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December 4, 2025 at 6:30 PM
Am I the asshole if my friends won’t let me in their writers’ group? @kristenarnett.bsky.social answers this and more of your awkward questions about literary life.
Is there a Power Broker series in our future? Maybe!
Caro-head Matthew Rhys wants to make a Power Broker show with Netflix.
As Lit Hub’s resident Caro-head, it is my sworn duty to bring you any and all news about Caro, The Power Broker, or any updates on how the latest LBJ volume is going. The latest news for the Broker…
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December 4, 2025 at 6:01 PM
Is there a Power Broker series in our future? Maybe!
Rinaldo Walcott considers Sam Cooke and power, connection and promise in Black music.
A Practice of Speculative Imaginings: On Sam Cooke and the Art of Utopia
Sometimes in a moment of overwhelming emotion you hear a song. You finally hear it. You don’t just get the meaning of the lyrics, or feel the beats and the rhythm, but you hear the unutterable in t…
buff.ly
December 4, 2025 at 5:30 PM
Rinaldo Walcott considers Sam Cooke and power, connection and promise in Black music.
R.F. Kuang, the bestselling novelist behind Katabasis, Yellowface, and Babel, is taking a stand with the BDS movement.
lithub.com/author-r-f-k...
lithub.com/author-r-f-k...
Author R.F. Kuang has dropped out of a UAE literary festival, citing the BDS boycott.
R.F. Kuang, the bestselling novelist behind Katabasis, Yellowface, and Babel, is taking a stand with the BDS movement. Citing a call from the organizers of the Palestinian BDS (or, Boycott, Divest,…
lithub.com
December 4, 2025 at 5:00 PM
R.F. Kuang, the bestselling novelist behind Katabasis, Yellowface, and Babel, is taking a stand with the BDS movement.
lithub.com/author-r-f-k...
lithub.com/author-r-f-k...
Why a library’s “most abundant resource” isn’t books, but time.
On the Infinite Lives of the Library
One might say that a library’s most abundant resource—what it lends most freely—is not books and information but time. Time to think, breathe, be, and become. Last spring, in exchange for my servic…
buff.ly
December 4, 2025 at 4:30 PM
Why a library’s “most abundant resource” isn’t books, but time.
“I don’t have a southern accent. At least, I don’t have one now.” Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza on the sound of her grandparents‘ voices and growing up in North Carolina.
Losing My Southern Accent and Searching for a Link to My Past
The most beautiful accent in the world belonged to my grandmother. Pat was born in 1933 in Thomasville, North Carolina, a town once famous for its furniture industry and now largely unknown. She us…
buff.ly
December 4, 2025 at 4:00 PM
“I don’t have a southern accent. At least, I don’t have one now.” Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza on the sound of her grandparents‘ voices and growing up in North Carolina.
Reposted by Lit Hub
Up now on @literaryhub.bsky.social; an in-depth interview with small press publishers on what they do and how they do it, how they differ from commercial publishing in content & form, on funding, their impact on literary communities, & some excellent book recommends🎄
lithub.com/life-giving-...
lithub.com/life-giving-...
Life-Giving, Imaginative and Underfunded: Small Press Publishers in Crisis
A recent letter co-written and signed by small press publishers has highlighted the significant pressures they face, threatening them with closure and potentially damaging the literary ecosystem ir…
lithub.com
December 4, 2025 at 12:10 PM
Up now on @literaryhub.bsky.social; an in-depth interview with small press publishers on what they do and how they do it, how they differ from commercial publishing in content & form, on funding, their impact on literary communities, & some excellent book recommends🎄
lithub.com/life-giving-...
lithub.com/life-giving-...
Reposted by Lit Hub
Happy to have an essay from my forthcoming collection up @literaryhub.bsky.social today! "The time a library lends, I suspect, is a little like love: the more it gives away, the more comes back to it in kind."
On the Infinite Lives of the Library
One might say that a library’s most abundant resource—what it lends most freely—is not books and information but time. Time to think, breathe, be, and become. Last spring, in exchange for my servic…
lithub.com
December 4, 2025 at 2:25 PM
Happy to have an essay from my forthcoming collection up @literaryhub.bsky.social today! "The time a library lends, I suspect, is a little like love: the more it gives away, the more comes back to it in kind."