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“Dodging cars that didn’t even attempt to slow down, I made my way across the four-lane highway, along which Pig-licker and I had been running, coughing, and about to die in all kinds of ways.” Read from Will Cathcart’s new novel, This is How People Die.
This is How People DieScoot, Exhibit 06, Two-Handed Gogi Dodging cars that didn’t even attempt to slow down, I made my way across the four-lane highway, along which Pig-licker and I had been running, coughing, and about…buff.ly“The Little Prince will shine upon children with a sidewise gleam.” Read the first reviews of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s most famous work (on the 82nd anniversary of his disappearance).
Read the First Reviews of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince.Today marks the 82nd anniversary of the disappearance of French writer, journalist, and aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. On July 31, 1944, Saint-Exupéry took off in an unarmed P-38 on his ninth re…buff.lyFrom debuts to modern classics, these are the pieces of literary film and TV you need to stream in August.
The Literary Film & TV You Need to Stream in AugustEvery month, all the major streaming services add a host of newly acquired (or just plain new) shows, movies, and documentaries into their ever-rotating libraries. So what’s a dedicated reader to w…buff.lyColson Whitehead’s Cool Machine, Rachel Aviv’s You Won’t Get Free of It, Sigrid Nunez’s It Will Come Back to You, and David Thompson’s A Sudden Flicker of Light all feature among July’s best reviewed books.
The Best Reviewed Books of the MonthFeaturing Colson Whitehead, Rachel Aviv, Sigrid Nunez, David Thompson, and morebuff.lyBooks by Jamaica Kincaid, Samanta Schwebelin, Eimear McBride and more are arriving in paperback this August.
Jamaica Kincaid! Eimear McBride! 19 books out in paperback this August.August, amazingly, approaches, the final month in a summer that has at once felt slow and like it has slipped by with the curious swiftness of a half-remembered dream. Still, the summer is not over…buff.lyYou can watch the Children of Blood and Bone trailer (but you can also read the book).
The Children of Blood and Bone trailer is here. (But you might want to buy the book instead.)This morning, Paramount released the first trailer for Children of Blood and Bone, their buzzy adaptation of Tomi Adeyemi’s bestselling young adult novel. Set to a Beyoncé soundtrack and teas…buff.lyLessons learned from failure (in both research and poetry).
Chelsea Rathburn on the Unexpected Beauty of the “Research Dead-End”This first appeared in Lit Hub’s Craft of Writing newsletter—sign up here. Earlier this summer, our geriatric air conditioner stopped working, bringing an abrupt end to a few years of never-quite-c…buff.lyAt the age of twenty-one, when I was a senior in college majoring in music composition, my friends took to calling me “The Youngest Spy in the World.” Read from David K. Israel’s new novel, The Last Mozart.
The Last MozartAt the age of twenty-one, when I was a senior in college majoring in music composition, my friends took to calling me “The Youngest Spy in the World.” I let them. More than that, I leaned into it, …buff.lyAm I the asshole for wanting to switch writers’ groups? @kristenarnett.bsky.social answers this and more of your questions.
Am I the Asshole For Wanting to Switch Writers’ Groups?Hello everyone! Welcome back to Am I the Literary Asshole?, an advice column that wants to be more than friends. I’m your host, Kristen Arnett, and I’m currently trying to figure out how to talk my…buff.lyThe pivotal role of small and unrecognized states on the edge of Europe’s new Cold War.
Preventing WWIII in Europe’s New Cold WarThe cross of the Church of All Saviors is black against a pale winter sky. Inside, between pink stone walls, a young priest swings frankincense in a silver thurible. Fragrant curls of smoke rise th…buff.lyApparently, teaching an Ottessa Moshfegh story is enough to get a professor fired in Florida.
An English professor in Florida was just fired for teaching an Ottessa Moshfegh story.Vinita Prabhakar, an instructor at South Florida State College, was suspended from her post when admin got wind she was teaching an Ottessa Moshfegh short story in her intro to fiction course. (Thi…buff.lyThese are this week’s Independent Press Top 40 Bestsellers for nonfiction.
The Independent Press Top 40 Bestsellers: NonfictionHere are this week’s Independent Press Top 40 Bestsellers for nonfiction, based on sales in hundreds of independent bookstores nationwide, generously provided by the American Booksellers Associatio…buff.ly“I gazed at the shipwrecks and bloodbaths without any agony of emotion. My eyes stayed dry, even for Argos the dog…” Read Emily Wilson’s most scathing critiques of Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey.
The ten sickest burns in Emily Wilson’s Odyssey review, ranked.Emily Wilson, the classicist behind the buzziest Odyssey translation of my generation, has finally weighed in on the film adaptation of her favorite poem. And so dark was the shade that Wilson̵…buff.lyThese are this week’s Independent Press Top 40 Bestsellers for fiction.
The Independent Press Top 40 Bestsellers: FictionHere are this week’s Independent Press Top 40 Bestsellers for fiction, based on sales in hundreds of independent bookstores nationwide, generously provided by the American Booksellers Association. …buff.lyWhy an unrealized 1958 proposal to drain a lake and establish a new country allows us to see history from a different perspective.
One Man’s Crazy Scheme to Create a New County in Northern IrelandRarely am I able to pinpoint precisely where a novel comes from. Patricia Highsmith once wrote, “ideas come to me like birds in the corner of my eye.” Until very recently this felt like an apt syno…buff.lyHow medieval European Christians came to understand what lurks in the forest.
How Christian Europe Learned to Fear the Forest—and the Beasts WithinEurope is not a continent of deserts, but in the early Middle Ages, Europeans began to assimilate biblical notions of the wilderness by applying the same philosophy to a regionally appropriate cont…buff.ly“Dog Days lends itself to exactly this kind of paranoid reading, not only describing but enacting the magical thinking of trauma survivors.” 5 book reviews you need to read this week.
5 Reviews You Need to Read This WeekOur feast of fabulous reviews this week includes Niela Orr on Colson Whitehead’s Cool Machine, Lily Meyer on Valeria Luiselli’s Beginning Middle End, Jonathan Derbyshire on Emily Eakin’s The…buff.lyOn writing about not being able to go home when “exiles belong to a world of smaller numbers.”
What Is the Difference Between Exile and Exiles?Close to forty years ago, Derek Walcott wrote something scathing about V.S. Naipaul. The two writers—both from the Caribbean, both Nobel laureates—were still alive then. Walcott wrote the following…buff.ly“They are running again. Deep into the seam of the Wisconsin woods, through the gaps in the spruces and pines. Along the golden jog of the creek.” Read from Thao Thai’s new novel, The Seekers of Deer Creek.
The Seekers of Deer Creek1998 They are running again. Deep into the seam of the Wisconsin woods, through the gaps in the spruces and pines. Along the golden jog of the creek. They fly past the yowling of dogs, the hiss of …buff.ly