Literary Hub » families

Skeletons in the Literary Closet: Five Novels That Dangle Family Secrets Before the Reader

Skeletons in the Literary Closet: Five Novels That Dangle Family Secrets Before the Reader

Susan Walter Recommends Celest Ng, Lisa Jewell, Taylor Jenkins Reid, and More

By Susan Walter | June 6, 2025

Pádraig Ó Tuama on Patricia Smith, Poems as Acts of Noticing, and the Power of Good Teachers

Pádraig Ó Tuama on Patricia Smith, Poems as Acts of Noticing, and the Power of Good Teachers

From the Introduction to “44 Poems on Being with Each Other”

By Pádraig Ó' Tuama | February 6, 2025

Orphans, Institutions, and Adventures Out West: Five Books Featuring Unconventional Families

Orphans, Institutions, and Adventures Out West: Five Books Featuring Unconventional Families

Tom Lamont Reflects on Novels by Kazuo Ishiguro, Elizabeth Bowen, Hilary Mantel, and More

By Tom Lamont | February 3, 2025

The Joys and Fears of Trans Motherhood

The Joys and Fears of Trans Motherhood

Gabrielle Bellot Wonders What Kind of America She’s Starting a Family In

By Gabrielle Bellot | August 19, 2024

Climate Change, AI, and Technological Surveillance: Reading About the Very Near Future

Climate Change, AI, and Technological Surveillance: Reading About the Very Near Future

Helen Phillips Recommends Octavia Butler, Jessamine Chan, Arthur I. Miller, and More

By Helen Phillips | August 7, 2024

Finding Hope, Meaning, and Purpose in a Jenny Zhang Story

Finding Hope, Meaning, and Purpose in a Jenny Zhang Story

Channler Twyman on the Fragility of Belonging to Someone Else

By Channler Twyman | December 8, 2023

Best Reviewed
Books of the Week

As Seen on TV: Charlotte Gill on Adjusting to American Life

By Charlotte Gill | June 2, 2023

“This Boy is Going to Be a Writer.” Remembering Paul La Farge’s Childhood

By Wendy Walker | March 15, 2023

Our Family Secret Was Embedded in My Writing Before I Knew the Truth

By Dani Shapiro | March 13, 2023

Why Family Isn’t Everything—And How We Can Create More Liberatory Alternatives

Why Family Isn’t Everything—And How We Can Create More Liberatory Alternatives

Sophie Lewis on the Capitalist and Patriarchal Underpinnings of Traditional Family Structures

By Sophie Lewis | October 19, 2022

A Name on a Line: Chrysta Bilton Tells the Story of Her Birth

A Name on a Line: Chrysta Bilton Tells the Story of Her Birth

With an Extremely Brief Appearance by Her Father

By Chrysta Bilton | August 5, 2022

On Stealing Time to Make Art in an Overcrowded Life

On Stealing Time to Make Art in an Overcrowded Life

The Unwinding, Breaks Down Her Process">Jackie Morris, the Artist and Author Behind The Unwinding, Breaks Down Her Process

By Jackie Morris | November 3, 2021

Translating at the Blurred Edge of Memoir and Fiction

Translating at the Blurred Edge of Memoir and Fiction

Lone Star">K.E. Semmel on Mathilde Walter Clark’s Lone Star

By K. E. Semmel | July 23, 2021

On Deciding to Tell My Story in a Novel Instead of a Memoir

On Deciding to Tell My Story in a Novel Instead of a Memoir

Brittany Ackerman on the Craft of Truth and Memory

By Brittany Ackerman | June 15, 2021

Character-Building: On Past Traumas and a Future for the Stage

Character-Building: On Past Traumas and a Future for the Stage

Dan O'Brien Knows That Every Family is Unhappy in Its Own Way

By Dan O'Brien | September 18, 2020

How to Write Autofiction About Your Family Without Losing Your Mind

How to Write Autofiction About Your Family Without Losing Your Mind

"It wasn’t my job to save anyone."

By Eleanor Anstruther | February 3, 2020

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