When I first wrote about my experience in the Marines as a college student, the work was unreadable. The fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction I produced for my undergraduate workshops scarcely transcended the angry thoughts in my head to amount to more than angry rants on the page. I was upset about my experience in […]
Editor and literary critic Oscar Villalon joins V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to celebrate the life and legacy of the novelist Cormac McCarthy, who died last month. The hosts and Villalon reflect on McCarthy’s vast vocabulary and cinematic descriptions, in which he juxtaposed lyrical prose with graphic violence. Villalon considers McCarthy’s use of regionally accurate […]
IN THE SUMMER of 2016, novelist Hannah Pittard made a painful, world-altering discovery—that her then-husband was having an affair with her best friend. As a human being, she reeled; as a writer, she began to process the experience in the only way she knew how: by translating it onto the page. What she ultimately wrote, […]
AMID THE accelerated pace of our contemporary lives, did we forget how to socialize along the way, particularly in the wake of COVID-19? In her new book, Hanging Out: The Radical Power of Killing Time , Sheila Liming makes the case for putting our phones down and seeking out open-ended, in-person social interaction. The book […]
CONNIE CONVERSE is remembered now, if at all, as a rediscovered relic of blog-era music oddity. Like Rodriguez, Donnie and Joe Emerson, Sibylle Baier, Lavender Country, or Converse’s near-contemporary and kindred spirit, Molly Drake, the cracks she slipped through became her calling card. Converse was notable for preserving a greater level of obscurity more extreme […]
“It fucks you up,” one of my writing students said to me. They meant all the no’s from agents and editors in response to their submitted work. And it can. Zero question. Still, I had to remind them that you can’t personalize it. Rejection in the writing business is inevitable; but I qualified with, “or […]
The Lit Hub Author Questionnaire is a monthly interview featuring seven questions for five authors with new books. This month we talk to: * Javier Fuentes ( Countries of Origin ) Derek Owusu ( That Reminds Me ) Helen Schulman ( Lucky Dogs ) Keziah Weir ( The Mythmakers ) Jenny Xie ( Holding Pattern […]
In her essay collection “Wannabe,” Aisha Harris argues that Black critics can both appreciate, and demand more from, shifts in popular culture. Among the pop culture subjects discussed in “Wannabe” (clockwise from top left): Lamorne Morris, at left, in “New Girl”; Will Smith in “King Richard”; John Legend; Gabrielle Union, at right, in “She’s All […]
Lately, I’ve been getting this question a lot: As a screenwriter, am I worried about the increasing use of artificial intelligence in the entertainment business? Will AI put writers out of work? I have two answers to this question. The first one is a little flippant. “No,” I say. “I’m not worried. Intelligence in Hollywood […]
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “YOU’VE LOST THAT LOVIN’ FEELIN’”) THE RIGHTEOUS BROTHERS: (Singing) You’ve lost that loving feeling. ARI SHAPIRO, HOST: “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’” was one of the most played songs of the 20th century. It was written by Cynthia Weil with her husband and songwriting partner Barry Mann and producer Phil Spector. Alongside […]
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