Lit Hub
@literaryhub.bsky.social
A daily literary website highlighting the best in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and criticism.
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https://linktr.ee/lithub_
“Somewhere within the murky snowfall and frost, evening is falling, and the April darkness squeezes between snowflakes that pile up on the man and the two horses.” Read from Jón Kalman Stefánsson’s novel The Sorrow of Angels, translated by Philip Roughton.
The Sorrow of Angels
Somewhere within the murky snowfall and frost, evening is falling, and the April darkness squeezes between snowflakes that pile up on the man and the two horses. Everything is white with snow and i…
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November 10, 2025 at 9:30 PM
“Somewhere within the murky snowfall and frost, evening is falling, and the April darkness squeezes between snowflakes that pile up on the man and the two horses.” Read from Jón Kalman Stefánsson’s novel The Sorrow of Angels, translated by Philip Roughton.
@hannahmatthews.bsky.social considers the biases and blind spots behind American Girl’s most iconic products.
Navigating Preteendom in the Shadow of the American Girl Doll
On September 1, 1998, my girlhood abruptly changed its shape. Two things happened on that blustery back-to-school morning that fell exactly a month after my eleventh birthday. I got my first period…
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November 10, 2025 at 8:30 PM
@hannahmatthews.bsky.social considers the biases and blind spots behind American Girl’s most iconic products.
Leslie Cohen on writing a romance novel with former NHL player Sean Avery: “I knew the feeling of victory—upbeat, alive with chatter. And the dull disappointment of loss—silence.”
Hockey Players Are Tough, But Novelists Are Tougher
Long before writing a hockey romance novel, long before I’d written any novel of any kind, I was just a girl, sitting on my parents’ couch, watching a hockey game. I remember my father walked into …
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November 10, 2025 at 7:30 PM
Leslie Cohen on writing a romance novel with former NHL player Sean Avery: “I knew the feeling of victory—upbeat, alive with chatter. And the dull disappointment of loss—silence.”
@muhammadshehada.bsky.social chronicles the history of the decades-long siege on the people of Gaza.
The History of the Relentless, Decades-Long Siege on the People of Gaza
My first memory of Gaza is an airstrike. My second is an Israeli checkpoint. My third is of frequent demonstrations. And my fourth is of my overcrowded UNRWA school for Palestinian refugees. Gaza i…
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November 10, 2025 at 6:30 PM
@muhammadshehada.bsky.social chronicles the history of the decades-long siege on the people of Gaza.
These titles in translation from university presses include works originally written in Uzbek, French, Arabic and more!
Reading Around the World: 17 Great Books in Translation From University Presses
Want to travel around the world without leaving your house? Just pick up a book that was translated from another language. Whether you are reading a novel originally written in French, a memoir ori…
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November 10, 2025 at 5:30 PM
These titles in translation from university presses include works originally written in Uzbek, French, Arabic and more!
“This week they’ll drill through her walls / to look for the crack.” Read “Closed Season,” a poem by Monika Herceg from the collection Closed Season.
“Closed Season,” a Poem by Monika Herceg
After climbing two hundred and twenty stairs hips come loose like hinges and a child’s hiccup echoes through the pelvis as if the belly button ate the hypocenter My downstairs neighbor spent months…
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November 10, 2025 at 5:01 PM
“This week they’ll drill through her walls / to look for the crack.” Read “Closed Season,” a poem by Monika Herceg from the collection Closed Season.
Why did Sarah Hall stamp her new novel with a “human-written” maker’s mark? On AI and “creative larceny.”
“Human Written.” Why Sarah Hall Put a Maker’s Mark on Her New Novel
Helm is my tenth work of fiction, and the front jacket of the novel will feature a Human-Written maker’s mark—one of the first in the book trade. I’m not exaggerating when I say this novel took dec…
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November 10, 2025 at 4:30 PM
Why did Sarah Hall stamp her new novel with a “human-written” maker’s mark? On AI and “creative larceny.”
@spacedolphin93.bsky.social examines the power of female friendships forged among roommates.
“It Was Home…” On Friends, Flatshares and Creating Fiction
In the latter half of my twenties, I lived with a fellow postgrad I met through a mutual friend. We got on well from the beginning, and five years of living together (plus the crucible of various l…
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November 10, 2025 at 4:00 PM
@spacedolphin93.bsky.social examines the power of female friendships forged among roommates.
Reposted by Lit Hub
"What Trump's Isolationism Means For America - and the World". Free excerpt from my new book published this week by @literaryhub.bsky.social
What Donald Trump’s Isolationism Means For America—and the World
After the Soviet Union collapsed, the US-anchored international system—the “liberal international order”—had no serious competitors. The Warsaw Pact was gone, and so was the Soviet economic bloc. F…
lithub.com
November 9, 2025 at 4:00 PM
"What Trump's Isolationism Means For America - and the World". Free excerpt from my new book published this week by @literaryhub.bsky.social
Reposted by Lit Hub
Thanks for the #UPWeek love, @literaryhub.bsky.social! Many university presses are dedicated to Teaming UP with translators to advance knowledge & understanding. Discover 17 outstanding examples to #ReadUP in “ Reading Around the World” https://bit.ly/43S4pf8 ...
Reading Around the World: 17 Great Books in Translation From University Presses
Want to travel around the world without leaving your house? Just pick up a book that was translated from another language. Whether you are reading a novel originally written in French, a memoir ori…
bit.ly
November 10, 2025 at 3:00 PM
Thanks for the #UPWeek love, @literaryhub.bsky.social! Many university presses are dedicated to Teaming UP with translators to advance knowledge & understanding. Discover 17 outstanding examples to #ReadUP in “ Reading Around the World” https://bit.ly/43S4pf8 ...
“Automation is wonderful as a technique; the problem is who controls the technology.” Noam Chomsky, José Mujica, and Saúl Alvídrez discuss the potential and pitfalls of automation.
Noam Chomsky and José Mujica on the Double Edged Sword of Automation
In Surviving the Twenty-First Century, two world-renowned figures of contemporary politics come together to discuss timeless topics and debate alternatives for the future: José “Pepe” Mujica, forme…
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November 10, 2025 at 3:30 PM
“Automation is wonderful as a technique; the problem is who controls the technology.” Noam Chomsky, José Mujica, and Saúl Alvídrez discuss the potential and pitfalls of automation.
No need to credit us.
Free IP! Ideal candidates for the next Richard Linklater biopic.
The Texas filmmaker Richard Linklater has built much of his legacy on homage. His love runs deep, but narrow. He cares especially for the layabouts, the cranks, and the iconoclasts. From masqueradi…
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November 9, 2025 at 8:00 PM
No need to credit us.
NYC mayors love to write a crime thriller.
The NYC Mayor Fiction Canon (or why Adams should probably write a crime thriller).
I’m excited to be writing to you from here in Mayor-elect Mamdani’s New York City. After years of bad news and then worse news, and a lifetime of disappointing mayors, it’s a strange and pleasant f…
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November 9, 2025 at 4:01 PM
NYC mayors love to write a crime thriller.
How did New Yorkers elect a democratic socialist as their mayor? We have a reading list for that.
Want to understand the Zohran phenomenon? Here’s a mini reading list.
Have you thanked a bodega cat today? Remember, they won’t be getting raises under the new administration. For 51% of New York City bipeds, however, it’s a pretty great week. Zohran Mamd…
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November 8, 2025 at 8:00 PM
How did New Yorkers elect a democratic socialist as their mayor? We have a reading list for that.
This week’s news was big, but these Venn diagrams are small enough to catch you up.
This week’s news in Venn diagrams.
I’ve been a very stereotypical New Yorker this week in that I can’t stop thinking, saying, or texting “Greatest city in the world, baby!” Zohran’s win is validating an…
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November 8, 2025 at 6:00 PM
This week’s news was big, but these Venn diagrams are small enough to catch you up.
What made our staff happy this week? “As your proud neighborhood clearinghouse for leftie literary sentiment, most of us here at the Hub were elated by Zohran Mamdani’s big win.”
Here’s what’s making us happy this week.
As your proud neighborhood clearinghouse for leftie literary sentiment, most of us here at the Hub were elated by Zohran Mamdani’s big win. But we all drew different inspiration from the new …
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November 8, 2025 at 4:00 PM
What made our staff happy this week? “As your proud neighborhood clearinghouse for leftie literary sentiment, most of us here at the Hub were elated by Zohran Mamdani’s big win.”
“I was mute when I spoke and once it was quiet I never stopped talking.” Read from Carlos Manuel Álvarez’s novel False War, translated by Natasha Wimmer.
False War
False War I was mute when I spoke and once it was quiet I never stopped talking. That was the truth underlying everything. People asked me how I felt and I said fine, but clearly I wasn’t fine. In …
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November 7, 2025 at 9:30 PM
“I was mute when I spoke and once it was quiet I never stopped talking.” Read from Carlos Manuel Álvarez’s novel False War, translated by Natasha Wimmer.
Den@dnnsfnk.bsky.social explores what you might miss by listening to podcasts on 1.5x speed.
So… What is a Podcast, Anyway?
A few weeks ago there was a video that kept popping up on my social media feeds. Two guys sat on New York public transit, talking into little mics attached to their Metro cards. You’ve seen this se…
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November 7, 2025 at 8:30 PM
Den@dnnsfnk.bsky.social explores what you might miss by listening to podcasts on 1.5x speed.
Lynn Hershman Leeson remembers breaking the law to create art: “Christo and Jeanne-Claude became ever more insistent that the vision of Running Fence would not be complete unless it disappeared into the water.”
A Dedication to Vision: On Successfully Breaking the Law to Create Art
“Art is the language of the soul, the universal bridge that connects us all.” –Christo * Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s passion, humor, and obsession were contagious. The Christos effortlessly burrowe…
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November 7, 2025 at 7:30 PM
Lynn Hershman Leeson remembers breaking the law to create art: “Christo and Jeanne-Claude became ever more insistent that the vision of Running Fence would not be complete unless it disappeared into the water.”
Margaret Atwood’s Book of Lives, Sarah Hall’s Helm, and Anthony Hopkins’ We Did Ok, Kid all feature among the best reviewed books of the week.
The Best Reviewed Books of the Week
Featuring Margaret Atwood, Sarah Hall, Anthony Hopkins, and more
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November 7, 2025 at 6:30 PM
Margaret Atwood’s Book of Lives, Sarah Hall’s Helm, and Anthony Hopkins’ We Did Ok, Kid all feature among the best reviewed books of the week.
@jonawils.bsky.social explores the political and personal upheavals at the center of the 1938 FIFA World Cup.
How the Rise of Fascism Impacted the 1938 FIFA World Cup
In late March 1938, around ten weeks before the World Cup was due to begin, the Austrian soccer federation sent a telegram to FIFA. “Sorry to cancel World Cup enrolment,” it read. “Austrian footbal…
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November 7, 2025 at 5:30 PM
@jonawils.bsky.social explores the political and personal upheavals at the center of the 1938 FIFA World Cup.
“Mostly I just walk right on by. / Today’s tour is for little details: / Careful looks in quick time.” Read two poems by MaKshya Tolbert from the collection, Shade is a place.
Two Poems by MaKshya Tolbert
“Ways to Measure Trees” Level I, Limited Visual Assessment Mostly I just walk right on by. Today’s tour is for little details: Careful looks in quick time. I don’t have to know a tree To take it at…
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November 7, 2025 at 5:02 PM
“Mostly I just walk right on by. / Today’s tour is for little details: / Careful looks in quick time.” Read two poems by MaKshya Tolbert from the collection, Shade is a place.
@emmadonoghue.bsky.social explains why fact-based historical fiction still must negotiate with the truth.
Emma Donoghue on Populating Historical Fiction
This first appeared in Lit Hub’s Craft of Writing newsletter—sign up here. It began with a photograph. I’d searched for “history Montparnasse” because that was the neighborhood where we…
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November 7, 2025 at 4:30 PM
@emmadonoghue.bsky.social explains why fact-based historical fiction still must negotiate with the truth.
Reposted by Lit Hub
I read as much fiction written by NYC mayors as I could, and my conclusion is that Eric Adams should write a crime thriller (for @literaryhub.bsky.social)
The NYC Mayor Fiction Canon (or why Adams should probably write a crime thriller).
I’m excited to be writing to you from here in Mayor-elect Mamdani’s New York City. After years of bad news and then worse news, and a lifetime of disappointing mayors, it’s a strange and pleasant f…
lithub.com
November 6, 2025 at 7:43 PM
I read as much fiction written by NYC mayors as I could, and my conclusion is that Eric Adams should write a crime thriller (for @literaryhub.bsky.social)
Reposted by Lit Hub
Persian is Atash Yaghmaian’s first language. But she wrote MY NAME MEANS FIRE in English because English was a buffer, a soft curtain between herself and the memories that threatened to undo her. @literaryhub.bsky.social
A Different Side of the Self: On Finding Freedom By Telling My Story in English
When it came time to write my memoir, My Name Means Fire, I chose to write it in English. There’s irony in that, of course. I wrote in English, but my name, “Atash”—which means “fire” in Persian—is…
lithub.com
November 7, 2025 at 2:19 PM
Persian is Atash Yaghmaian’s first language. But she wrote MY NAME MEANS FIRE in English because English was a buffer, a soft curtain between herself and the memories that threatened to undo her. @literaryhub.bsky.social