Illustration by Krishna Bala Shenoi. Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso is a weekly series of intimate conversations with artists, authors, and politicians. It’s a podcast where people sound like people. New episodes air every Sunday, distributed by Pushkin Industries.  * In just under a decade, comedian, writer, and actor Jerrod Carmichael has had a remarkably...

According to the powers that be (er, apparently according to Dan Wickett of the Emerging Writers Network), May is Short Story Month. To celebrate, for the second year in a row, the Literary Hub staff will be recommending a single short story, free* to read online, every (work) day of the month. Why not read along with us? Today, we recommend: “Hansa...

A few weeks back, The Washington Post ran a piece spotlighting “super readers,” a self-selecting class of book nerds who pride themselves on reading very, very fast. I clicked on this article even as my hackles rose, and some pre-programmed scorn settled in the back of my throat. Why, I asked the author, who could not hear me in Washington—Why pedestal...

TODAY: In 1968, Mercedes de Acosta dies.  What’s Wendy Chen reading now and next? Diana Arterian annotates the poet’s nightstand. | Lit Hub Criticism Maris Kreizman on PEN America and what happens when “some free speech is more privileged than others.” | Lit Hub Craft “Even where Audubon’s original was complete, Havell sometimes made improvements.”...

“Harry got into an altercation with the New Yorker fiction writer Jamacia Kincaid, who came over to Gayfryd and with an air of hoity-toity bemusement said, ‘I am puzzled by this event. Why are there so many rich people here?’ (Because writers are the cheapest people in the world and don’t care about other writers, so PEN has to be funded by rich people...

Our feast of fabulous reviews this week includes Sam Sacks on Colm Tóibín’s Long Island, Maggie Shipstead on Elizabeth O’Connor’s Whale Fall, Lara Feigel on Maggie Nelson’s Like Love, Jennifer Wilson on This Strange Eventful History, and Lauren LeBlanc on Kaliane Bradley’s The Ministry of Time. Brought to you by Book Marks, Lit Hub’s home for book...