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Lit Hub Daily

August 14, 2025

TODAY: In 1969, Leonard Woolf dies from a stroke at the age of 88.

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How James Schuyler’s first public reading brought out poets from every corner of New York for an unforgettable night. | Lit Hub Biography

Maris Kreizman wonders: If everyone on the Supreme Court is getting seven-figure book deals, who will be left to judge publishing-related cases? | Lit Hub

“One common thread among stories of islanders, both voluntary and coerced, is this: good luck getting free of them.” Emma Sloley considers the dark allure of writing about islands. | Lit Hub Craft

Michael Thomas explores family legacies, Black fatherhood, and the dreams and fears of parenting. | Lit Hub Memoir

“The author is a professional contrarian, which pretty much means she can bounce off others to naysay whenever so moved.” 5 book reviews you need to read this week. | Book Marks

Jason Mott Navigates the demands of fiction and nonfiction while searching for the best way to tell the story of America. | Lit Hub Craft

Joanna Pocock retraces her journey traversing the landscapes of North America (alongside her own memories). | Lit Hub Travel

“Is this the longest or shortest century? Look into your human detonation.” Read “Blood Moon,” a prose poem by Anne Waldman from the collection Mesopotopia. | Lit Hub Poetry

“The nursing home on Waukegan Road, next to the old Sara Lee cake factory. The place is called Sunshine or Sunrise. I can’t keep it straight.” Read from Peter Orner’s new novel, The Gossip Columnist’s Daughter. | Lit Hub Fiction

THE NEW NOVEL FROM ESTHER FREUD

The story of two sisters who couldn’t be more different and the great love that holds them together throughout a tumultuous youth.

Available Now

“A chasm that those who have crossed must spend the rest of their lives coming to terms with.” Aaron Labaree considers the genre of class transition in books by Claire Baglin, Annie Ernaux, and Éduoard Louis. | Public Books

Anne Lamott talks to Pamela Alma Weymouth about hope, the pain that leads to change, and “action as a verb.” | The Nation

Rose B. Simpson writes against the potential defunding of the Institute of American Indian Arts, a “precious and influential resource.” | Hyperallergic

Ali Ghanim, a pseudonymous Palestinian journalist living in the US, remembers Anas Al-Sharif as a friend. | The Intercept

“If we are to reimagine the literary world beyond treating otherness as trend, beyond commodifying Black pain and trauma, we must refuse to mistake representation and visibility for liberation and power.” Why African literary ecosystems should reclaim the idea of local writing. | Semafor

Devon Brody on writing books in The Sims. | The Paris Review

BOSTON GLOBE BEST BOOK OF SUMMER

On a spring evening in Montana, Brian Buckbee finds an injured pigeon. Grieving and increasingly isolated by a mysterious illness after a trek through Asia, he names the bird Two-Step—unaware it will transform his life in unexpected ways.

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