Striking screen writers and WGA members walk the picket line at Fox Studios in Los Angeles on Monday, May 8, 2023. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer) For the past few weeks the Writer’s Guild of America has been on strike, and one category of their demands stands out among the rest: barring AI from […]
In her memoir “A Matter of Appearance,” Emily Wells isn’t selling silver linings or looking away from hard truths Jean-Martin Charcot demonstrating hysteria in a hypnotized patient at the Salpêtrière. Etching by A. Lurat, 1888, after P.A.A. Brouillet, 1887. In a cultural milieu that is increasingly recognizing the value of narratives that describe the experience […]
This summer’s Official Online Brand may be up in the air (may I suggest “Long Nap Summer”?), but one thing is for sure: there are many, many books coming out. Which one deserves space in your beach bag or air-conditioned brain? We at Literary Hub have our opinions , but perhaps you simply want to […]
Edith Wharton’s house, The Mount, Lenox, Massachusetts. Margaret Helminska, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. I work in a blue-chip gallery, and it’s not unusual that I’m asked if I grew up in Newport when I say that I’m from Rhode Island. It often feels like a loaded question, more social barometer than casual inquiry, […]
This year marks the 125th anniversary of one of the most influential ghost stories ever written. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James is a novella of shadows, lurking dread and psychological menace. The story is deceptively simple: a vulnerable, highly sensitive young woman takes the position of governess at Bly, a remote manor […]
“THE FIRST RULE of in vitro fertilization is to never talk about in vitro fertilization,” writes Isabel Zapata in her memoir, In Vitro: On Longing and Transformation . In a defiant disavowal of this and other cultural norms surrounding fertility, pregnancy, and birth, the Mexican poet chronicles her experiences—both the visceral and the corporeal—in frank […]
A memoir that celebrates as much as it grieves, rages and broods, Jane Wong’s “ Meet Me Tonight in Atlantic City ” charts its author’s progress from the casinos of New Jersey to the college dorms of Upstate New York, to Hong Kong and Iowa and finally Bellingham, Wash., where she now teaches creative writing […]
Editors note: Some comments were edited for length and clarity. When the Writers Guild of America went on strike on Tuesday, May 2nd, authors were right there with them. Some joined the picket lines as card-carrying Guild members; some put projects they’d had in development with major studios on indefinite hold; some jumped into their […]
The Bluest Crab at Grandpa’s Funeral The following story was chosen by Anthony Doerr as the winner of the 2023 Stella Kupferberg Memorial Short Story Prize. The prize is awarded annually by Selected Shorts and a guest author judge. Subscribe to Selected Shorts wherever you get your podcasts to hear this story performed by an […]
Photo courtesy of Ava Burzycki To the Victorians, tuberculosis was a deeply romantic ailment to be consumed by. To be rosy-cheeked, sweaty, pale and deteriorated to the point of extreme slenderness from tuberculosis was to be tragically beautiful — especially to artists, writers and other creative intellectuals. There was no greater sign of aestheticism and […]
