The Lit Hub Podcast

Oh summer colds, you might be the worst kind of cold. But that won't stop The Lit Hub Podcast!  This week, as we celebrate the dog days of summer, Brittany Allen drops by to tell Drew about curating Lit Hub's ongoing, weekly list of nice things . Then, an intro (for those who don't already know them!) to Lit Hub Radio stalwarts  Fiction/Non/Fiction with an excerpt from their recent inter...

Drew's been working on (gasp) a novel and it seems to be going well (because saying so certainly won't jinx it) so this week is a bit of writer-work-focused! Kicking off with a shout to Ursula K. Le Guin's Steering the Craft , we are then joined by Erin Somers (author of Stay Up with Hugo Best and the forthcoming The Ten Year Affair but also a reporter & editor at Publishers Lunch) to exp...

Summer, to me, means long days and hanging out in nature and Shakespeare — specifically Shakespeare in the Park. After James Folta wrote about NYC Comptroller Brad Lander's sonnet for the ribbon cutting at the revamped Delacorte Theater in Central Park, his office reached out to remind us that the Comptroller has done this multiple times now... and so obviously, Drew had to talk to him about divin...

We're back from our lil summer break and shaking off the rust! It's been hot, but getting maybe better—and we're trying to take the slow pace and the long view before we truly roll into the fall. Speaking of: what are you reading for the rest of the summer? Perhaps try the Sealey Challenge (all funds this year going to the Sameer Project )! Or start reading the Booker Prize longlist ! Also, you co...

Halfway through the year means it's time to anticipate again! That's right: the Lit Hub staff has compiled a list (multiple lists, actually) of books you should be looking forward to for the rest of the calendar year—and now we bring you a bunch of staff members talking about some (some!) of the books they're most excited for. Featuring (in order of appearance): Drew Broussard, Jonny Diamond, Juli...

"...that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from this earth." No, Lincoln didn't say that on July 4th—but Jefferson was a racist and Adams wasn't all that inspiring a speaker ("sit down, John!") and we certainly aren't going to quote Hamilton (the guy or the show). Anyway, not a real episode this week—just a little holiday note and an acknowledgement that afte...

We're riding the high of something going right in the world (see: NYC's mayoral primary) and leaning mostly into hijinks and happiness this week—but not before we remind you all of the very real stakes facing artists of all stripes right now, the frankly-existential threat that is generative AI. First up, Brittany Cavallaro drops by to introduce the "Against AI" open letter that Lit Hub just publi...

Community. Community, community, community, now more than ever. We kick things off this week with a special guest: Leila Green Little, lead plaintiff in the ongoing Little v. Llano County book-banning case, chats with both Drew and Anthony Aycock, whose piece about the case ran this week on the site. Then, Drew talks to Benjamin Davis of Chill Subs about their Lit Mag Incubator Program that's goin...

Oh another bad week in the world, and what's a book podcast to do but... talk about Hamlet! Seriously, though: theater belongs in the literary conversation and there's something about the confluence of text and audio that we obviously take very seriously here at Literary Hub or else we wouldn't be doing this podcast! So, this episode is primarily Make Believe Association's Jeremy McCarter sitting...

Do you have one of the ~iconic~ Joan Didion Lit Hub totes? ( You can still get one, ps. ) Were you also interested, and then maybe confused, by the 'new' Joan Didion book? Don't worry, we've got you covered this week. We've also got some writer-beware tips for those hoping to get their work out into the world while avoiding a mess like the one at Unbound/Boundless—and also there's a bit of meta/tw...

How do you solve a problem like romantasy? What is it like to have written the most banned book in the country? Jenny Hamilton chats about her Reactor essay "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Romantasy?" and George M. Johnson talks banned books, being banned, and their new podcast Fighting Words . * "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Romantasy?" * "Natalie's Theory of Urban Fantasy" * Fighting Words *...

Memorial Day Weekend is upon us and that means: summer reading! Yes, it's true, you can wear white and it's officially summer. Even if it's already been summer where you live, temperature-wise or white-clothing-wise. Drew kicks us off with a bit of a tear about the AI-generated summer reading lists that got syndicated to papers this week (and mentions his own ongoing summer-reading-rec Bluesky off...

Mrs. Dalloway turns 100 this week and it has Drew thinking about old books—and, more specifically, discovering old books. After a lightly eerie reverie, he chats with Nathan Connolly of Dead Ink Books about the pleasures of running a small press and creating a real-life, real-time literary hoax with the Eden Book Society. (If you aren't backing the 1993 collection on Kickstarter , do you even like...

This week saw the announcement of the 2025 Pulitzer Prizes—which, if you've been following along at home, I had some questions regarding ! Unsurprisingly, that's also where we start the show this week. Then, Marie-Helene Bertino ( Exit Zero ) drops by to talk about vampires, Sinners , and the pitfalls of immortality and Meg Reid of Hub City Writers wraps up with a helpful explainer of just what it...

Yesterday was May Day and it was a big one for us: Lit Hub finally got to add to the canon of " Why I'm Leaving Twitter " posts! Jonny Diamond kicks us off to explain the rationale behind why and why now. Then, we wrap up our National Poetry Month coverage with a small-press interview: Eric Amling and Sarah Jean Grimm of After Hours Editions tell Drew about running a small poetry press and looking...

April is, as it turns out, a great month for book lovers: the first big wave of pre-summer titles arrives, St. Jordi Day (and Shakespeare's birth/death-day) is April 23rd, and of course Independent Bookstore Day is the last Saturday of the month. And while every day can and should be Indie Bookstore Day, we're getting into the spirit of the holiday this week—just in time for you to hit up your loc...

We're continuing our celebration of National Poetry Month this week with special guest Lisa Willis, executive director of Cave Canem! She's here to tell Drew about the wide-reaching, first-of-its-kind field study Magnitude and Bond: A Field Study on Black Literary Arts Organizations —it's a must-read for anybody interested in any part of the literary arts ecosystem. Plus, Brittany Allen on some or...

If you didn't hear the song earlier this week, it's Lit Hub's 10th birthday! Double-digits, y'all! It's exciting stuff and so obviously Jonny Diamond had to drop by to tell us a bit about the occasion as well as some site-lore. (PS it's always a great time to become a Lit Hub member ...) Then, Traci Thomas comes on to chat about her podcast TheStacks and the amazing STACK THE SHELVES event she's p...

Well books are about to get a lot more expensive, as is everything else, and there's no hiding from the fact that these tariffs really suck! But we're going to talk (mostly) about other things this week—like the trailer drop for the new season of The Cosmic Library , like some upcoming weird books you should pre-order as suggested by Molly Odintz, and the first in a run of Lit Hub staffers reading...

You might be mistaken in thinking that it's a real high-culture/low-culture episode this week, but really it's an all-joy-culture episode. Drew kicks things off with a quick nod to National Short Story Month before talking to Michael Kelleher about the 2025 Windham-Campbell Prizes and what makes the prize so special. Then, he chats with Sammy Loren about the new literary tabloid On the Rag and why...

This week, we embrace (surprise surprise) the power of books!! But seriously, Drew is in a tizzy about the latest AI-scraping news (tldr they got ALL of the books), Brittany Allen talks about the joys of learning about how they pick the books on The White Lotus, Sophie Gee & Jonty Claypole tell Drew about the joys of discovering (and hosting! the Secret Life of Books ( listen now !), and Josh...

It's a big one this week, kicking off with a quick exhortation to (metaphorically) tell Meta/Facebook/Zuckerberg to pound sand by buying a copy of Careless People ! Then, Drew talks with Masie Cochran of Tin House and Molly Stern of Zando about the exciting news of the Voltron-esque team-up that is Zando's acquisition of Tin House. Next, James Folta and Oliver Scialdone drop in to discuss the past...

There's an Amazon boycott on, from today until the 14th! But really, publishing should stop linking to Amazon now and forever . Drew explains why! Then, Brad Johnson from East Bay Booksellers drops by to talk about his essay "The Things We Learned in the Fire: On the Destruction (and Rebirth) of a Bookstore" and then Emily Temple and James Folta chat with Drew about kicking off the Best Villain in...

First up this week: Dan Sheehan recently had the chance to chat with Omar El Akkad about One Day Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This and we're thrilled to bring you an audio excerpt from that conversation. Then, Calvin Kasulke drops in to grill Drew on his apparent disdain for the recent wave of Lady Macbeth novels. And finally, Olivia Rutigliano brings us more "Culture Schlock"—this time,...

Drew finished re-watching The Lord of the Rings over the weekend and it has probably influenced a bit of the episode. But he also chats with bookseller-libromancer Josh Cook about how the publishing world can respond to the second Trump presidency and why we could all do with a bit more doing what actually energizes us, and with Jordan Kisner about the return of Thresholds in collaboration with th...