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.
August 5’s Lit Hub digest runs from Fiona Mozley’s new novel to Karen Rinaldi on Bourdain, Baldwin and Freud, and Emily Wilson on the Trojan horse.
Apple TV acquires Colson Whitehead’s Harlem trilogy. Barry Jenkins exec produces. Graham Yost and Aric Avelino write scripts.
Rachel Cusk’s new novel *Life of M* features a famous actress who looks a lot like Natalie Portman. Portman’s camp is not pleased.
From Solnit on Homer to a 30-year sentence for zines, the week’s literary news collided canon, silence, and AI in uncomfortable ways.
Colson Whitehead’s Cool Machine leads with 14 raves. Claire Vaye Watkins, Keith Ridgway, and two nonfiction titles round out a strong week.
July 20 in books: O. Henry’s prison release, Margaret Avison’s unpublishable biography, Foer’s soccer book revisited, and a strange story from Michigan Quarterly Review.
From AI authorship scandals to Stalinist censorship parallels, the week of July 6-10, 2026 produced some of the year’s sharpest literary arguments.
A new Kino Lorber documentary on Mary Oliver reveals the poet as a teenage runaway, lifelong smoker, and partner to photographer Molly Malone Cook.
Nella Larsen’s 1923 graduation, Dewey’s sermon epiphany, AI manuscript fraud, and new fiction from Jason Stone and Victoria Chang fill July 8’s reading list.
Lit Hub’s week brings 258 anticipated books, Palestinian poetry in crisis, Patrick Bateman’s skincare legacy, and an argument about what description actually does.