Lit Hub Weekly: August 18 - 22, 2025

• How transcendental style in Paul Schrader’s First Reformed helps us imagine an unimaginable future in the face of climate catastrophe. | Lit Hub Film
• “She became fascinated with how human beings—especially those who didn’t have much power—could empower themselves and others and change the world.” What Octavia Butler’s early writings reveal about her trajectory as a literary icon. | Lit Hub Biography
• Priyamvada Ramkumar on the significance of dialect, Tamil literature, and bringing Jeyamohan’s Stories of the True to English-speaking readers. | Lit Hub On Translation
• Charlie Jane Anders explains just how much dark academia owes to A.S. Byatt’s Possession. | Lit Hub Criticism
• Chris Smalls talks to Ella Fanger about solidarity between Palestine and American labor movements, the Freedom Flotilla, and his experience in Israeli prison. | The Nation
• “Those people are doing something completely different than you are trying to do.” Lincoln Michel reminds us of the power of working on your work, even in a sea of AI slop. | Counter Craft  
• Jiménez Enoa tells the story of La Bolita, Cuba’s wildly popular—and illegal—daily lottery, and its cartel-like underground administration  (translated by Lily Meyer). | Words Without Borders
• Angelina Mazza makes the case for the unexpected pleasures of a “merciless hellscape overrun by petty, perpetually aggrieved readers,” Goodreads. | Slate 
• Vivian Gornick considers “the solipsism of low self-esteem… So inexplicable is its grip, so binding its influence, it can feel almost mythic.” | The New Yorker
• “When Richard and I hit the Play button on Kanopy, I didn’t know we were in store for a work of art as tender as it is beautiful.” Laurie Stone rewatches Paper Moon. | The Paris Review
• “I watch the innumerable ways I can continue to move through something as deceptively simple as a rectangle divided into equal parts.” Diana Arterian describes the pleasures of lap-swimming at a bargain gym in East LA. | Poetry
• Karim Kattan discusses Palestinian literature and explores the “recurring nightmare” of occupation through the genre of horror. | The Dial
• “Then she asked me if I’d ever heard about the space-time worm. I had not.” Hua Hsu profiles R.F. Kuang. | The New Yorker
• “The ur-loneliness is at the heart of Airless Spaces. Mental illness is the metaphor of choice, but the author has something more encompassing on her mind.” Vivian Gornick considers Shulamith Firestone’s life and work. | Boston Review
• “Accusations of terrorism are automatically serious because our capacity for terror is intrinsic.” On Palestine Action and how governments weaponize proscription against activists. | The Baffler
• Rebecca Mead explores the reemergence of Sally Carson’s 1934 novel, Crooked Cross and its relevance alongside the rise of global fascism. | The New Yorker
• Maria Papadouris traces the evolution of the library. | JSTOR Daily
• Harley Rustad attempts to get to the bottom of a mysterious fast food whodunnit. | Toronto Life
• Wikipedia editors are going head-to-head with the site’s founder over the use of AI. | 404 Media

Also on Lit Hub:

 Language as a destabilizing force • On deportations, ICE seizures, and Israel’s attack on Tehran • Ed Simon on Hiroshima at 80 • How working in music helped write a novel • The beauty of nothing • What can Aztec philosophy teach us about happiness? • Deafness, writing, and finding a purpose • River Selby talks to Jane Ciabattari about fighting fires • The importance of the horse in escaping slavery • Zhang Yueran on how her family’s nanny inspired her novel • Ilya Kaminsky remembers discovering poetry • Behind the first scene of Wes Craven’s Scream • What the United States tried to cover up after Hiroshima and Nagasaki • A history of Paddington Bear, the fluffiest refugee • On an ocean liner and America’s preparations for World War II • How measuring “flood fingerprints” can help prepare for disaster • Katie Kitamura revisits Beasts of No Nation after 20 years • The history of lesbian pulp • Is it wrong to cheat on your literary novel with a fantasy project? • A family’s place in queer Greek literature and activism • How Black women used purses at the service of civil rights • 5 book reviews you need to read this week • Khadijah Queen’s TBR  • This week on the Lit Hub Podcast! • Ginny Hogan on retro tech novels • The occultist grifter who infused yoga with fascism • Persian stories, identity, and the US-Iran divide • The best reviewed books of the week • How to trace the plot of your own life • The development of a national identity through mythology