Author: Sarah Mitchell
Sarah Mitchell
Sarah covers fiction with a reader's instincts and a critic's eye. She's interested in what novels ask of us, not just what they offer.
From Fady Joudah’s genocide elegy to a forgotten 1940 Fitzgerald rival, the week of Sept. 21–25, 2026 in books was dense, strange, and necessary.
Kristen Arnett’s Lit Hub column takes on reader-centric writing advice, asking whether chasing audience approval is killing the creative instinct behind literary fiction.
Singapore’s ReadSG program pays citizens 80 cents per 50 reading sessions. Behavioral scientists question whether small rewards build lasting habits.
Ed Park’s debut novel Personal Days — a comic office novel set in Manhattan — belongs among the funniest fiction written in English.
Three rejected pitches for Practical Magic 2 imagine the Owens sisters through ghost plagues, underground clinics, and obsessive love gone wrong.
Mike Bove’s three prose poems in Electric Literature hold grief still through frozen owls, dying friends, and a seal pup on a Maine beach.
The 2026 Hugo Awards were presented at the 84th WorldCon in Los Angeles. Alix E. Harrow, Amal El-Mohtar, and John Scalzi were among the winners.
From Amazon destroying books for AI to Jason Arday’s death at Cambridge, the week of Aug 24, 2026 in books refused to stay comfortable.
Amazon destroys physical books after scanning them for AI training. Plus: biogossip novels, Tommy Orange on identity, and a self-published mystery writer who beat the odds.
Amazon destroys books for AI training, Jason Arday’s memory gets debated, and Le Guin, Thoreau, and Miéville anchor a dense literary week.