The Best of the Literary Internet, Every Day
TODAY: In 1756, German writer Benedikte Naubert is born. Considered a pioneer of the genre, she anonymously published more than 50 historical novels.
- What should you read next? Our editors recommend 15 new novels for your fall TBR! | Lit Hub Reading Lists
- Nathaniel Moore reads Patricia Lockwood, Rachel Yoder, and Charlotte Wood while examining the rising phenomenon of conservatism of contemporary literary fiction. | Lit Hub Criticism
- Joanne Harris reflects on writing a sequel to Chocolat after 25 years. | Lit Hub Craft
- On titles by Leonard Cohen, John Williams, Alfred Doblin, and more books you didn’t know were first published by Viking. | Lit Hub Criticism
- “After all, it’s a book about finding yourself at the end of the world.” Carmen Maria Machado meditates on I Who Have Never Known Men and its recent TikTok resurgence. | The New Yorker
- Investigating the connections between publishing, the fossil fuel industry, and the genocide in Gaza. | Tribune Mag
- Mahfud Ikhwan on mangoes, bittersweet nostalgia, and a food culture that no longer exists. | Words Without Borders
- Anthony Lane explores the transgressive legacy of Christopher Marlowe. | The New Yorker
- “It feels like part of this horrible new culture where you can have any truth you want—as if history began and ended yesterday.” John Nichols talks to Rebecca Solnit. | The Nation
- “Indeed, in the years since the Watson games, hating on the computer—or at least hating on its nonsentient claims of victory—has become a favorite cause among Jeopardy! devotees.” On the time AI invaded Jeopardy!. | Slate
- “Perhaps the Post-NAFTA Novel will abandon its predecessor’s sometimes neurotic insistence on transnational legibility”: Nicholás Medina Mora on Mexican fiction, made in America. | The Baffler
- Grace Byron examines how the most toxic marriages between politics and aesthetics are waging a war against trans art. | The New Yorker
- Paisley Rekdal recounts the professional costs of criticizing the Trump administration. | The New York Times
- Camille Tinnin makes the case for the educational power of speculative fiction, which “offers a productive playground in which readers can apply social theory to analyze power structures.” | JSTOR Daily
- Jack Norton and Judah Schept report on the presence of ICE in Harlan County, Kentucky and the American deportation machine. | n+1
- Simon Lewsen considers whether the crisis in the humanities is an existential one. | The Local
- After 26 years, a Henry David Thoreau impersonator is leaving Walden Pond. | The New York Times
- On Empire of the Petal Throne and its creator M.A.R. Barker, a neo-Nazi once hailed as “the forgotten Tolkien.” | The Baffler
- How Elizabeth Inchbald’s play Lovers’ Vows exposes the social boundaries of Regency England through its appearance in Mansfield Park. | JSTOR Daily
Also on Lit Hub:
Searching for synchronicity in life and literature • How we tell the stories of other people’s suicides • The rise of spiritualism after the First World War • An excerpt from Kevin Young’s poem “All Souls,” • How Friedrich Engels predicted modern gentrification • On Kim Gordon and the tenth anniversary of Girl In a Band • Jeannie Vanasco reckons with family and resentment • Lauren Morrow recommends books that celebrate Black performance • Alejandro Varela makes the case for polyamory • Authors take the Lit Hub Questionnaire • The dramatic role of money in the works of Jane Austen • When the agent becomes the author • You (yes, you!) need to join a book club • The art of constructing fiction from facts • Read “Night Terrors,” a poem by Sharon Olds • Adam Zagajewski’s (accidentally) definitive 9/11 poem • The “sensual intention” of Mary Oliver’s language • On the link between trauma and drug use • Read the winners of American Short Fiction’s 2025 Insider Prize • 5 book reviews you need to read this week • The groundbreaking work of Frank S. Matsura • The crushing reality of artistic rejection • Breathing life into Milena Jesenská, Kafka’s first translator • Should you be reading more books about books? • Tom Piazza recounts encounters with folk-country icon John Prine • Unrouting your routines by writing in cemeteries • The best reviewed books of the week • On the integration, past and future, of humans and machines • Why Christian nationalism isn’t actually so Christian
