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Lit Hub Daily

May 8, 2025

TODAY: In 1899, The Irish Literary Theater in Dublin produces The Countess Cathleen by W.B. Yeats, its first ever production.

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“We need indie presses and literary magazines for a thriving literary ecosystem.” Maris Kreizman wants to know what can be done in the face of Trump’s devastating NEA cuts. | Lit Hub Politics

“Rivers are the veins of our mother, the earth; they are the visual mapping of a watery network.” Leanne Betasamosake Simpson on rivers as teachers. | Lit Hub Nature

Shelly Sanders tells the story of the women snipers of the Red Army, who were silenced by the country they fought to protect. | Lit Hub History

Mo Ogrodnik on fusing research and filmmaking techniques to write a novel that depicts violence against women from multiple perspectives. | Lit Hub Craft

“In this artful and sad novel, forbearance is courage.” 5 book reviews you need to read this week. | Book Marks

Becky Aikman on the “Atta-Girls,” the women pilots who chased adventure during World War II. | Lit Hub History

Michele Filgate on navigating loss alongside her father: “Is this my family’s thing? The need to pin memories down, preserve them in a drawer, put a frame around them?” | Lit Hub Memoir

Natasha Lester recommends globe-spanning books on World War II by Ariel Lawhon, Emma Pei Yin, Anne Sebba, and more! | Lit Hub Reading Lists

Books by Ross Gay, Isabella Hammad, Chet’la Sebree, and more authors are in Jennifer Hope Choi’s TBR pile. | Lit Hub Reading Lists

Paul Vidich looks back on the influence of Len Deighton’s spy novels as the first Bernard Samson trilogy turns 40. | CrimeReads

“There are certain things that happen in the world, certain big events that make everyone ask afterwards: Where were you when . . . ?” Read from Graham Swift’s new story collection, Twelve Post-War Tales. | Lit Hub Fiction

CONTEMPORARY WRITERS ON THE FILMS
OF JOHN HUGHES

Fondly nostalgic, filled with wit and surprising insights, don't you forget about me contains original essays from a skillfully chosen crop of novelists and essayists on the films’ far-reaching effects on their own lives; an irresistible read for anyone who came of age in the 1980s (or just wishes they did).

Buy Now

“Would we get a different view of translation, one that is both more illuminating and more appreciative, if we turned to translators themselves?” Lawrence Venuti on why critics can do better when discussing translation. | Public Books

Joe Sacco explains why he returned to comics journalism about Palestine: “I know the cities they’re bombing. I have friends there. I’ve written about the history of those places I’ve walked in.” | The Comics Journal

“No satirist arrived at our dystopian moment better prepared than Carl Hiaasen. The bad guys in Hiaasen’s books have always been dangerous and mockable.” Dan Kois on “the bard of Florida’s fever swamps.” | Slate

Read a letter by the National Endowment for the Arts’ literary arts staff about their decision to resign from the agency. | n+1

“In a state of despair.” How college professors are coping with the ubiquity of A.I. | New York Magazine

Richard Brody rediscovers Andre Sennwald, whose short tenure as a New York Times film critic captured a distinct perspective of Hollywood’s golden age. | The New Yorker

NEWTONVILLE BOOKS ANNOTATED PAGES PROMOTION

Newtonville Books, an independent bookstore in Boston, asked some of its favorite writers to annotate their books and is offering a pdf of select pages from all the books to anyone who orders from their Bookshop page. For bibliophiles and casual readers alike! Promotion ends June 1.

Learn More