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The Hub

News, Notes, Talk

How to evaluate the books in your therapist’s Zoom background.

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 >

By James Folta

"Do it often, do it badly if you must, just keep doing it." Yael van der Wouden on the writer's life.

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 >

By Literary Hub

The tired Millennial's guide to a few of the Cambridge Dictionary's brand new words.

This year, in keeping with its annual word-adding tradition, the top minds behind the standard-setting Cambridge dictionary have opened the doors to Generation Alpha. Among the 6000 words added to this year’s descriptive encyclopedia are notable internet contributions like “skibidi,” Read more >

By Brittany Allen

This week’s news in Venn diagrams.

August is halfway over, can you believe it? It feels like the summer is happening so fast, and if I blink too slowly, the next thing I know I’ll be in the middle of Thanksgiving dinner. Hope you’re able to Read more >

By James Folta

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this week.">Here's what's making us happy this week.

This week, we’re regressing. We’re taking our brains and our palates back in time, to arguably better days. We’re longing for the old internet, and certain familiar characters. Some of us are tripping the light fantastic to bygone epochs entirely.  this week.">Read more >

By Brittany Allen

New Hampshire will soon allow parents to see their children’s library checkouts.

A Granite State minor’s library borrowing records used to be confidential, even to parents, but a recent New Hampshire state law has upended that privacy. Gov. Kelly Ayotte, a Republican, signed House Bill 273 on August 1st, which opens a Read more >

By James Folta

The Associated Press is ending its regular book coverage.

In good news for people who love bad news, the Associated Press is apparently ending its regular literary coverage. Starting September 1st, the national news source and media hub will no longer release their standardized, stand-alone reviews for new books. Read more >

By Brittany Allen

Sex ed! Vintage sapphic tales! Constantine Cavafy! 26 new books out today.

It’s August, and, despite (or because of) the madness of the world, I come bearing new books. Below, you’ll find twenty-six remarkable new options to consider in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. You’ll find fiction on Ukraine, the last zoo in Read more >

By Gabrielle Bellot

Award-winning poet Alice Oswald was arrested for supporting Palestine Action.

Alice Oswald, one of Britain’s most acclaimed poets, was arrested at a mass sit-down demonstration outside the houses of Parliament in London on Saturday for holding up a sign in support of direct action movement Palestine Action. Oswald—a former Oxford Professor Read more >

By Dan Sheehan

Half of the Polari Book Prize’s longlist have withdrawn in protest of John Boyne’s nomination.

The Polari Prize, one of the UK’s premiere awards celebrating LGBTQ+ writing, has sparked controversy by including John Boyne’s Earth as a contender for their annual Book Prize. In protest, at least half of the other longlisted authors and a Read more >

By James Folta

Read the final message sent by murdered Palestinian journalist Anas al-Sharif.

On Sunday night, the Israel Defense Forces bombed a journalists’ tent outside al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City. The strike killed seven people, including Al Jazeera journalists Anas al-Sharif and Mohammed Qreiqeh, and camera operators Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal, and Moamen Read more >

By Dan Sheehan

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nom de plume? ">Can you match the novelist to their nom de plume?

Many of our best writers have played the fake name game. Call it what you will—an alias, a pseudonym. But from Samuel Clemens to She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, we can find a gamut of wily writers determined to evade the postman. Or possibly,  nom de plume? ">Read more >

By Brittany Allen

This week’s news in Venn diagrams.

A cool August week here in New York, and I’ve been obsessing over tomatoes. Peak tomato season is the best, an ecstatic experience, and in my humble opinion a redeeming moment for summer, which is otherwise too hot and sweaty Read more >

By James Folta

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this week.">Here's everything that made us happy this week.

The theme this week is small attention. Whether palpating the perfect nightshade or kneeling at the church of secular folk, we spent time looking and listening close. Small things—good jokes, cupcakes, asides—kept the engines running. Drew Broussard went to a  this week.">Read more >

By Brittany Allen

James Patterson is writing a book about Luigi Mangione.

Is James Patterson writing his own stuff these days? He’s seems to have a very full dance card as a collaborator/brand/the head of a Renaissance-style artist’s guild. He’s co-bylined books with the likes of Bill Clinton, Dolly Parton, and Mr. Read more >

By James Folta

What the defunding of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting means for Viewers Like You.

In fresh hell, Trump signed a law “clawing back $1.1 billion in funding for public broadcasting” this week. This move effectively decimates the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which has conducted federal funds to NPR and PBS for nearly 60 years. Read more >

By Brittany Allen

Please welcome the National Association of Black Bookstores.

Today we mark the launch of a new literary institution: the National Association of Black Bookstores. A nonprofit collective and member-based organization, the NAB2 looks to “amplify Black voices, and preserve Black culture by increasing the visibility, sustainability, and impact Read more >

By Brittany Allen

Get ready for too many books by right-wing Justices.

If you’re curious about what’s going on in the heads of our Supreme Court’s most regressive and Trump-loving minds, publishing has got you covered. Three books by conservative robesters are on the docket: Basic Books has a book slated for Read more >

By James Folta

One small thing to do today: Pressure mainstream media to cover the Gaza famine.

As we’ve covered here, The New York Times has been among the most egregious when it comes to promulgating right-wing Israeli propaganda about the ongoing genocide. As James North reported in Mondoweiss last week, just days after publishing its first Read more >

By Brittany Allen

Jamaica Kincaid! The invention of a Brontë! Bruce Springsteen! 27 new books out today!

August is here, and with this new month comes new books to look forward to—and we certainly need things to look forward to. Below, you’ll find a whopping twenty-seven new books to consider in fiction, poetry, and nonfiction, spanning everything Read more >

By Gabrielle Bellot