Lit Hub Weekly: August 31 – September 4, 2026

THE BEST OF THE LITERARY INTERNET

TODAY: In 1859, Harriet E. Wilson, often considered the first African American woman novelist, publishes her book Our Nig anonymously.

• Marlon James tells Eric Olson about (finally!) writing a novel that draws from his life. | Lit Hub In Conversation
• “Terror wasn’t the only weapon the Nazis used against the American prisoners. Sometimes, they used propagandistic persuasion as well.” On Vonnegut’s Dresden in Slaughterhouse-Five. | Lit Hub Biography
• “Cormac asks what we think of the home so far, already knowing our answers.” Photographer Beowulf Sheehan remembers capturing Cormac McCarthy through a lens. | Lit Hub Photography
• Maris Kreizman recommends books that take weird girl lit to the next level. | Lit Hub Criticism
• Hanif Abdurraqib writes an ode to the group chat, “that has, in a way, become its own neighborhood, its own universe.” | The New Yorker
• Robert Kiyosaki, Trump crony and author of Rich Dad Poor Dad, is apparently $1.2 billion in debt. | Vanity Fair
• Cal Biruk looks at recent books on birding and explores the hobby’s  “future oriented” nature. | Public Books
• In a time of crisis for American universities, Hannah Gais examines the rise and fall of Hampshire College. | The Baffler
• Matthew Wills explores the legacy of the “secular, socialist, and ‘uncompromisingly anti-Zionist’” Jewish Labor Bund. | JSTOR Daily
• “At the height of the surge, Minneapolis resembled a place hit by a hurricane: donated groceries piled in driveways and church parking lots, waiting to be distributed to people afraid to leave their houses; citizens wearing safety vests and whistles standing in groups outside local businesses and schools.” Emily Witt reports on Operation Metro Surge. | The New Yorker
• Do booksellers think this is the end of reading? Joel Pinckney investigates. | Defector
• Why humanity should choose play over gamification. | Aeon
• “There is no reason whatsoever for there to be so many megalomaniacal comic book writers in this world. One is a problem, two is a trend, and friend: there are more than two.” Tegan O’Neil examines the past, present, and future of Vertigo. | The Comics Journal
• Anne Carson writes about having a “Rosalía hangover.” | London Review of Books
• New York City is placing limits on the use of AI in classrooms. | The Verge
• Robert Rubsam considers the poetic journeys of Matsuo Bashō. | The Baffler
• Nick Ripatrazone reports from the high school where he teaches, at the dawn of the phone ban era. | Slate
• How Ray Reipen launched an iconic rock club and fostered Boston’s sonic counterculture. | The MIT Press Reader
• That time Hans Christian Andersen crashed out on Charles Dickens’s lawn. | Aeon

Also on Lit Hub:

In defense of the frivolous • The thrilling adventures of an undercover spy • On iconic Beatles film A Hard Days Night • 10 great children’s books out this month • August’s best book covers • September’s new poetry releases • This month’s best new sci-fi and fantasy titles • Abdelrahman ElGendy tells Samaa Khullar about writing from inside a cell • Visiting Helen Keller’s birthplace while deaf • Literary film and TV you need to stream in September • Books about writerly rivalries • When Billy Graham visited Pyongyang • What literature gets right (and wrong) about horses • Creating “mortal, modern counterparts” to the Three Graces • How J.P. Donleavy‘s The Ginger Man clawed its way to press • Nick Offerman and Gary Lovely on aspiring to Wendell Berry • The tumultuous private life of Pakistan’s founder • The carbon footprint of a rock show • 5 book reviews you need to read this week • Searching Himalayan habitats for the elusive snow leopard • A literary scam that might think you’re George Orwell • This week’s Independent Press Top 40 Bestsellers for fiction and nonfiction • The power and personalities of trees • Advice for writing about sex • How does time actually work? • Latin American novels from the 1920s chronicling an era of agriculture • Edmond Albius, the enslaved man who pioneered cultivating vanilla plants • Literary sci-fi and fantasy novels that offer hope • The best reviewed books of the week • The stories of girls sent to work in Ireland’s Magdalene laundries