This April marks the 30th iteration of National Poetry Month, which was launched by the Academy of American Poets in April 1996. To celebrate, the Literary Hub staff will be recommending one great poem to read every (work) day of
We’ve turned a corner in our seasons, in warmth, in attitude, in literature. It’s a great time for fiction lovers, as we welcome in a new Ben Lerner, Emma Straub, and Rachel Khong all in one day. Lest we forget
Concerning the Flaming-Fucking-Fury, a Foreshadowing of Something Yet to Come In a market square with church towers rising high above the roofs of magnificent houses and a huge, ornately decorated town hall, people were strolling about, dressed in…
In 2002, a friend asked if I would join him for a San Francisco Symphony concert with David Robinson as guest conductor. They were to play Olivier Messiaen’s Turangalîla Symphonie. I was a bit ambivalent. I knew Messiaen’s work, but
There are two kinds of writers—I learned implicitly in graduate school—the kind who repeats themselves over and over, in form, subject, or even beginnings or endings, and the kind who, miraculously to me, does not. I’ve heard the theory that
High above this snowy field we spot a shadow hovering. When I turn to you and ask, What is it: a vulture or a hawk? your hand drops mine to shade your narrowed eyes from the brilliant winter light. Let
When I was 16 years old, my beloved college counselor told me that it was a good thing I wanted to be a physicist because I wasn’t much of a writer. We were close—I had her home phone number for
Another year, another April, another National Poetry Month—a phrase that many poetry fans, myself included, can utter only with forced cheer. A whole month dedicated to poetry is a nice idea, I’ll admit. But doesn’t poetry deserve more than that?
Stories of diagnoses are not clean and tidy, even if the diagnosis itself is profoundly meaningful. Diagnosis is an answer, but it’s not always a comforting one. And the meaning it has for different people, even different members of the
This month, I’ve been thinking about the joys of interactive books, those books that welcome readers in and treat them as active participants in the world of the story.…
André Alexis has won the 2025 Story Prize, an annual award for short fiction, for his collection Other Worlds (FSG Originals). Other Worlds was selected from the Story Prize shortlist (which also included Lydia Millet’s Atavists and Ayşegül Savaş’s Long
This April marks the 30th iteration of National Poetry Month, which was launched by the Academy of American Poets in April 1996. To celebrate, the Literary Hub staff will be recommending one great poem to read every (work) day of
The Newberry Library in Chicago is scouting transcribers to demystify its handwritten collection. As Dan Kelly wrote in yesterday’s Chicago, the archive’s hunt for “living Rosetta stones” first kicked off in 2013, when the Newberry launched a campaign to…
