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.
Amazon employees at a Las Vegas warehouse cut book bindings and scan contents for AI training data, destroying originals. Rare books are targeted for their off-internet text.
Five online book clubs this fall tackle Henry James, Samuel Delany, David Foster Wallace, and Mike Davis — ranging from free Discord reads to scholarship-eligible courses.
Aires Loutsaris built Reading Maps, a free interactive atlas charting 1,000+ literary journeys from The Odyssey to Mrs. Dalloway. Here’s what it reveals.
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.