Can't see this email? Open in your browser

Lit Hub Daily

November 13, 2025

TODAY: In 1975, Soviet poet, writer, playwright and journalist Olga Fyodorovna Bergholz dies.

We need your help to continue our essential coverage of the literary world. Lit Hub Members get an ad-free reading experience, exclusive newsletters, editors’ recommendations, early book giveaways, and our classic Joan Didion tote. | Support Lit Hub today.

“The sickness that once detached him from life had now made him greedy for experience.” How Robert Louis Stevenson navigated a lifetime of chronic illness. | Lit Hub Biography

Why choosing the word of the year is such an intense process. | Lit Hub

George Packer talks to Andy Hunter about apocalypse, the deep divisions in American society, and his new novel, The Emergency. | Lit Hub In Conversation

“October 9, 2025, will forever remain etched in my memory as a day of fragile hope.” On the first moments of ceasefire in Gaza. | Lit Hub Memoir

Am I the asshole for accusing my friend of plagiarizing a TV show? Kristen Arnett answers this question and more. | Lit Hub Advice

“Here is a writer of such intimate and insightful prose that stealing away with him for a few hours in another world feels closer to trespassing than reading.” 5 book reviews you need to read this week. | Book Marks

Tiffany Graham Charkosky wants to know why film and literature often can’t tell the truth about losing a parent. | Lit Hub Memoir

Eve Dunbar on Alice Childress and the creative, professional, and manual labor performed by Black women in America. | Lit Hub Biography

“Suddenly it felt like so much was going on, even though nothing was going on. But actually, something was going on.” Read from Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore’s new novel, Terry Dactyl. | Lit Hub Fiction

WRITE YOUR STORY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF
NEW HAMPSHIRE

Our MFA program is small and emphasizes individual attention within a supportive community where cross-genre exploration is encouraged. The stunning campus is surrounded by nature and culture.

Learn More

“The science backing up the idea that race can make someone a good or bad scientist or airline pilot is as solid as the logic behind ‘orcs can’t be wizards’ or ‘a hobbit can never become a great fighter.’” Adam Serwer on perpetual misinterpretations of Tolkien, and why Elon Musk needs Dungeons and Dragons to be racist. | The Atlantic

Jonathan Agin considers William Blake’s “radically anti-imperialist, counter-enlightenment spirit.” | Jacobin

“It’s of course unreasonable to compare my mother’s texting quirks to Virginia Woolf’s prose.” Madeline Cash considers uses of ellipses. | Granta

Janus Rose explains why AI is the ultimate forced meme. | Aftermath

Greg Hunter applies a late-style reading to the comics of Gilbert Hernandez. | The Comics Journal

KEN FOLLETT’S INSTANT GLOBAL BESTSELLER IS
THE PERFECT HOLIDAY GIFT

An epic and ambitious new historical novel from the legendary #1 New York Times bestselling author Ken Follett that explores the deeply human story of one of the world’s greatest mysteries: the building of Stonehenge.

Available Now