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Lit Hub Daily

October 5, 2026

TODAY: In 1713, Denis Diderot is born.

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“In the age of AI, the writer’s soul is the only thing that cannot be replicated, and we haven’t built the necessary infrastructure to tend it.” On the spirituality inherent to human writers. | Lit Hub Craft

Emily Van Duyne remembers the late feminist Robin Morgan and her influence on Sylvia Plath’s legacy. | Lit Hub Biography

Samantha’s all grown up, and American Girl books are entering a new era. | Lit Hub Criticism

How British media legitimized J.K. Rowling’s transphobia: “We are rendered hostile abstractions in a contradictory narrative: Trans people are not real, only our violence is real.” | Lit Hub Politics

Tomas Moniz considers the shifting language of Latinx identity and recommends books by Michael Nava, Tomás Rivera, José Vadi, and more. | Lit Hub Reading Lists

“The pleasure and pain of reading old books is realizing that the past is relatable. With great change comes great stagnancy.” Mabel Capability Taylor on Ettie Stettheimer’s Love Days. | Lit Hub Criticism

Carla Vass recommends nine novels about being the poorest person in the room by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Daphne du Maurier, Patricia Highsmith and more. | Lit Hub Reading Lists

“After a hasty breakfast, of which she remembered nothing but that she had eaten it, Susanna found herself on the street car bound for college.” Read from Ettie Stettheimer’s recently reissued novel, Love Days. | Lit Hub Fiction

THE LIFE OF M. R. JAMES

A man haunted by the changing world around him, M. R. James lived a life every bit as fascinating as the tales that made his name. This revelatory biography explores the man behind the candlelit readings, the scholar behind the specters, and the hidden tensions that shaped both.

Available Now

Is weird girl lit actually weird? It depends on who you ask. | The New York Times

On the renewed relevance of Joan Barfoot’s first novel, Gaining Ground, and the literature of solitude. | The Walrus

Why in the face of AI, we need to “reclaim an economy centered on the interests of working people.” | The Nation

Phoenix Alexander explores the “unexpectedly tragic” environmental disaster parallels in Pokémon Pokopia. | Los Angeles Review of Books

Missing the point of the Heated Rivalry phenomenon, the NHL is releasing audio romance stories starring its players. | Wired

H.M.A. Leow looks at the folk stories that inspired the superheroes of Filipino komiks. | JSTOR Daily

LIVE CLASS: LITERARY METAMORPHOSES

Explore metamorphoses in the writings of Ovid, Kafka, Cortázar, and more. Use code STAYCURIOUS for 20% off enrollment. Class starts October 14th.

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