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Lit Hub Weekly

June 22 - 26, 2026

TODAY: In 1912, E. R. Braithwaite is born.

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Maggie McKinley considers Joan Didion’s “future-oriented” nostalgia. | Lit Hub Criticism

“I would never blame them. But being around Americans while this country is bombing mine is the last thing I can do.” Iranian writer Shohreh Laici on war and her mother. | Lit Hub Memoir

Maris Kreizman recommends 40 great books you might have missed (that you should read instead of JD Vance’s memoir). | Lit Hub Reading Lists

How is queer history “admitted to the historical record?” Demetris Papadimitropoulos on Tennessee Williams, Daniel Ciba’s Blue Roses and the ambiguity of proof. | Lit Hub History

WHAT IS THE VEILED PROPHET SOCIETY?

Following the Veiled Prophet Society from its origins in the wake of the 1877 general strike, through the 1904 World’s Fair, to the Cold War, Devin Thomas O’Shea examines the ways this secret society has shaped the course of history, from the CIA to the Vietnam War to the assassination of Martin Luther King.

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Maria Stepanova looks at Russia’s new generation of political exiles, translated by Sasha Dugdale. | Equator

Ariana Reines and Eileen Myles talk about poetic kinship and life after death. | Broadcast

Some schools are hiring student content creators to make public education look cool. | The Nation

David Denby explores the long history of failed adaptations of The Odyssey (and wonders if Christopher Nolan can break the streak). | The New Yorker

Imogen West-Knights touches down at the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament to investigate our current crossword boom. | Slate

Craft rant: Lincoln Michel on the multiplicity of fictional POVs. | Counter Craft

“You can’t have pie-in-the-sky optimism, but an optimism rooted in fact and history and the politics of change is something all of us, particularly young people, desperately need.” Dave Zirin and Andrew Holter discuss Howard Zinn’s legacy. | Boston Review

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Fewer public libraries are doing Pride displays, for reasons that are unfortunately (politically) obvious. | 404 Media

Should writers read? Should cartoonists be critics? Hagai Palevsky considers these discourses and more while examining Sethphemera, essays and interviews by the cartoonist Seth. | The Comics Journal

“I’ve always assumed that the language’s oral nature has contributed to its concrete, factual diction. There are things you write that you almost never speak aloud.” Eythana Miller on working to preserve Pennsylvania Dutch. | The Dial

PSA: It’s always a great day to break up with Amazon. | Halmail

J.J. Anselmi collects an oral history of opposition to data centers. | The New Republic

“He has deftly escaped these pigeonholes, in part by insuring that each of his books is radically different from the last.” Julian Lucas profiles Colson Whitehead. | The New Yorker

Emily C. Hughes on The Omen, Roe v. Wade,