The following poems are from Molly Ledbetter’s new collection, Air Ball, available now from After Hours Editions. * “Cabana” The Kinky Prepster is a member of an exclusive beach club. Every afternoon, he has lunch at the beach club before

A grifter is, plainly, someone who lies, cheats, steals, or manipulates their way to a desired end. This archetype has been around as long as storytelling itself, but it’s actually made up of several highly differentiated sub-archetypes. For example, the

I’ve seen the steppe from the window of an airplane. Do you know what it looks like? The steppe looks like a sinewy piece of yellow meat. Dark-orange lines, like heavy serpents, stripe the sands, gray rivers stripe the sands.

A weekly behind-the-scenes dive into everything interesting, dynamic, strange, and wonderful happening in literary culture—featuring Lit Hub staff, columnists, and special guests! Hosted by Drew Broussard. This week, Nick Ripatrazone joins Drew to talk about how generative AI is taking

Starting February 1, Arkansas prisons will ban individuals from receiving books, magazines, and newspapers in the mail.

Tomorrow is ICE Out of Minnesota, a mass protest against ICE and their murder, violence, and oppression of innocent people. The day of collective protest has gotten the backing of unions and politicians, and is a “statewide day of non-violent

Spotify is reportedly working on a feature that allows syncing between audiobooks and physical books, the adaptation Oscar noms, and more.

Patience and Fortitude have a new, freaky playmate. Tom Verlaine, the late livewire best known as frontman for the proto-punk band Television, has left his remaining archive to the NYPL. According to Fine Books & Collections, six decades of Verlaine

Today, the Sundance Film Festival starts in Utah, kicking off the domestic season for indie film. This year’s line-up is (happily!) full of original scripts. And new work from the likes of Rachel Lambert, Stephanie Ahn, and writer-directors Maryam Ataei

A new program called The Unbanned Book Network is stepping in to counter the increased threat of book bans in schools across America. The new initiative was launched this week by the team at We Need Diverse Books, and aims

Ready to fall in love with love? Then you'll want to get these upcoming romance adaptations for 2026 on your radar.

Formalizing Grief: On Victoria Chang’s Obit by Robin Arble The genius in Victoria Chang’s Obit lies in her turning the obituary into a poetic form. All her other feats—her dazzling flashes of language, her similes and images that feel realer than life—flow from this decision. Her first move is finding a form to turn and […] The post Studying Obituaries So I Can Write My Mother’s appeared first on Electric Literature.

Electric Literature is pleased to reveal the cover of A Bad Deal in Mormon Land by T.I.M. Wirkus, which will be published on October 1, 2026 by Type Eighteen Books. You can pre-order your copy here! It’s 1908, and itinerant spirit medium Madame Ilsa von Hoffmann is at the end of her professional rope, facing down two unappealing options: […] The post Exclusive Cover Reveal of “A Bad Deal in Mormon Land” by T.I.M. Wirkus appeared first on Electric Literature.

Children are keen observers of injustice. These picture books give them the tools to stand up for what's right.

January's Latine book releases include historical romantasy set in Renaissance Italy and a deep dive into Bad Bunny's cultural impact.

USA Today, Publishers Weekly, NYT, Amazon, and Indie Booksellers all have their own bestseller lists. Here are the combined results.

There's a new C.L. Polk book on its way! Plus an excerpt from a highly anticipated YA fantasy novel, and more.

A new bookish podcast, the upcoming Emily Henry adaptations, exciting news for fans of HEATED RIVALY, and more book news.

What makes for a good, engaging, and effective retelling in YA? Ryan Douglass offers his insights and highlights some favorites.

On my ninth birthday, Mama took me to an independent bookstore in Atlanta, and I bought my first ever book—Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. If I close my eyes, I can still feel that moment, can

There is something very fitting about the fact that a gay hockey romance has been one of the biggest cultural phenomena to mark the closing of a politically tumultuous year. Jacob Tierney’s season one TV adaptation of Rachel Reid’s romance Heated

Our quintet of quality reviews this week includes Brittany Newell on Jennette McCurdy’s Half His Age, Walton Muyumba on Heather Ann Thompson’s Fear and Fury, Hamilton Cain on Jeanette Winterson’s One Aladdin Two Lamps, Dwight Garner on Julian Barnes’ Departure(s), and James Cahill 0n

Here 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. Compiled, designed, and distributed by The Independent Publishers Caucus. * 1. Heart the

Here 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. Compiled, designed, and distributed by The Independent Publishers Caucus. * 1. The Gales

When the copy came in, I read it with something like dread. Historically, and probably like many writers, I have complicated feelings about copy—that punchy paragraph or two meant to grab the attention of readers and make a book more