The Hub

News, Notes, Talk

Libraries are reeling after a major distributor shutdown.

This Thursday brings bad news for book lovers. Baker & Taylor, one of the largest distributors for print library books in America, is closing down—and throwing the distribution pipeline into (at least) short term chaos as a result. As 404Media Read more >

By Brittany Allen

Paradise Lost! R.E.M.! The Village Voice! 21 books out in paperback this November.

It’s November, and I’m happy to be back with a new slew of book recommendations. I’ll be taking a step back from my weekly round-ups for the moment, but I’ll still be here at the end of each month to Read more >

By Gabrielle Bellot

The U.S. has revoked the visa of Nobel winner Wole Soyinka.

The American government has revoked the visa of Wole Soyinka, the Nigerian author who won the 1986 Nobel Prize in literature, according to Al Jazeera. The writer received what he called a “rather curious love letter” from the American authorities, Read more >

By James Folta

Attention, Lorax fans: we're getting a new Dr. Seuss book.

Ted Geisel, the doctor best known for spreading the gospel of green eggs and ham, has a deep bench of classic kid’s books. Dr. Seuss gave us cats in hats and star-bellied sneetches. He gave some of us our first Read more >

By Brittany Allen

Good news! A new fund will distribute $50 million to literary nonprofits.

Several charitable groups—among them the Ford, Hawthornden, Lannan, MacArthur, Mellon, and Poetry foundations—are teaming up to launch the Literary Arts Fund, an effort to give the “essential yet critically underfunded” lit world a much-needed boost. The program, which earmarks funds Read more >

By Brittany Allen

Zadie Smith, Catherine Newman, Cameron Crowe, and more: 23 new books out today!

The speed at which a New York fall flies by will never cease to astound me. Here we are, already in the last week of October, midway through a cherished, idyllic time in the city. And by that I mean, Read more >

By Julia Hass

300+ pledge to boycott the New York Times’ op-ed page over their anti-Palestinian bias.

Over 300 writers, scholars, and public intellectuals have pledged to not contribute to the New York Times’ Opinion section until three demands have been met. The demands address the anti-Palestinian bias in the paper’s op-ed pages, which have been a Read more >

By James Folta

This week's news in Venn diagrams.

One week before Halloween folks, so it’s getting to be crunch time for sorting out your costume. I tend to default to wearing a ye-olden-tymes powdered wig and my old rocker vest and going as “Old School Punk,” but I’ve Read more >

By James Folta

Jane Schoenbrun is adapting Charles Burns’ Black Hole for TV.

Netflix will be releasing a series from Jane Schoenbrun based on Charles Burns’ comic Black Hole, according to Deadline. The series doesn’t have a release date yet, but it’s hard to think of anyone better able to translate Burns’ vision Read more >

By James Folta

The Booker Foundation is adding a children's prize.

The Booker Prize Foundation is adding to its roster of rarefied literary recognitions. A new prize will recognize excellent fiction written for young readers—specifically, children ages eight to 12. As The Guardian reported this morning, the baby Booker will launch Read more >

By Brittany Allen

Fall of Freedom, “a nationwide wave of creative resistance,” starts next month.

Artists around the country are organizing events, making zines, and planning performances for next month’s Fall of Freedom, a “wave of creative resistance” in defiance of authoritarianism. And you’re invited to participate. The “decentralized, open-source initiative” is envisioned as a Read more >

By James Folta

Rooting for the Louvre thieves? Here are seven books to read if you love art crime.

Heists are in the air. Paris is in a tizzy over recent smash and grabs at the Louvre and elsewhere. Stateside, Kelly Reichardt’s The Mastermind, featuring the people’s boyfriend Josh O’Connor as a bumbling local art thief, is hitting theaters. Read more >

By Brittany Allen

Here's the shortlist for the 2025 John Dos Passos prize.

The annual John Dos Passos Prize for Literature honors the country’s most talented fiction writers for career-long contributions to the genre. First launched in 1980, the prize is the oldest literary award given by a Virginia college or university. And Read more >

By Brittany Allen

Vajra Chandrasekera has won the 2025 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction.

Today, the Ursula K. Le Guin Foundation announced Vajra Chandrasekera’s Rakesfall as the winner of the 2025 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction, which seeks to reward books that represent the legendary writer’s literary, moral, and aesthetic ideals: “realists Read more >

By Literary Hub

A federal judge just dismissed an Ohio teacher’s fight against book bans.

In (more) bad civil rights news, an Ohio third grade teacher lost a battle with the state last week when a district court dismissed her book ban lawsuit. Karen Cahall, who’s taught in the New Richmond Exempted Village School District Read more >

By Brittany Allen

Claire-Louise Bennett, Erin Somers, John Grisham, and more: 23 new books out today!

Another Tuesday, another great haul. Today we have a ton of hotly anticipated titles, such as Big Kiss, Bye-Bye by Claire-Louise Bennett, as well as The Ten Year Affair by Erin Somers (check out the epic back cover of that Read more >

By Julia Hass

How Oscar Wilde finally got his library card back.

This weekend, the British Library issued a century-late apology to Oscar Wilde in the form of a brand new library card. The Irish poet-novelist-playwright was the toast of 19th-century Anglo letters. But in 1895, a ruthless public smear campaign hinging Read more >

By Brittany Allen

Here’s what’s making us happy this week.

Spooky season is upon us again. (At least if you’re in the Northeast corridor.) So this week, Lit Hubbers enjoyed autumnal fare. I’m talking leaf-peeping, and freaky Fridays. We’ve got reflection and hibernation on the brain. Whether that means hunkering Read more >

By Brittany Allen

Everything you need to know about Axl Rose's graphic novel.

What a time to be alive, for starters! Axl Rose, the notorious Guns N’ Roses frontman, is turning his talents to the graphic novel. In a new collaboration with Sumerian Comics, a Tennessee publisher with Simon & Schuster distribution, Mr. Read more >

By Brittany Allen

The Body Keeps The Score sequel just got an eight figure deal.

I’ll save you the counting on your fingers: that’s a minimum of $10 million. It’s a boggling amount of money, enough to make you crack a filling. This mondo deal was announced yesterday, and includes a new book by Bessel Read more >

By James Folta

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