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

* All Boys Aren't Blue

* The ALA's Top Ten Banned Books List

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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 offer, which has become unmanageable in a great way) before bringing on Molly Odintz to talk about some books that are exciting for summer.

Then, Calvin Kasulke talks to friend and writing buddy Isaac Fellman about their unique writing relationship and how it helped influence both Calvin's Several People Are Typing and Isaac's latest book Notes from a Regicide.

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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 literary joy?) Then, James Folta chats with Shea Dunlop and Sarah Robbins from Abrams about the in-process unionization vote at Abrams, their experience with a weird union-buster, what they're reading, and why unions make us strong.

* Mia Manzulli on teaching Mrs. Dalloway to high schoolers in 2025

* 100 covers of Mrs. Dalloway

* Dead Ink Books

* The Eden Book Society — 1993 on Kickstarter

* James' "The Abrams Union wants a "more equitable, ethical, and transparent” publisher."

* The Abrams Union on Instagram

* "The Persuaders: Workers Wanted A Union. Then The Mysterious Men Showed Up." by Dave Jamieson on HuffPost

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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 means that the NEA has suddenly cancelled funding for non-profit presses and other arts organizations. No Pope stuff, though. Missed the filing deadline by a couple hours.

• "Did the Pulitzer Board just overrule the Jury to give Percival Everett the prize?"
• "Viola in Midwinter" by Marie-Helene Bertino (from our "One great short story..." series this month)
• Sinners
• Hub City Writers
• the NEA Grant Termination Spreadsheet from Annie Dorsen

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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 for the strange pizzas. And finally, we thought we'd add to the "books for men" discourse by getting some guys together to talk about guys and books. Listen closely for a great business idea, because Calvin and James and Drew are waiting by the phone.

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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 local(s) on Saturday 4/26!

Kicking things off, it's Shelf Awareness editor-in-chief John Mutter, here to tell Drew about watching and reporting on the indie bookstore scene for nearly 20 years. Then, another bookseller roundtable, this one featuring bookstore-bar-coffee-shops, including:

* Jennifer Caspar, Village Well Books & Coffee (Culver City, CA)

* Catherine Johnson and Lani Martin, Flyleaf (Grosse Point, MI)

* Amanda and Anthony Stromoski, Rough Draft Bar & Books (Kingston, NY)

Plus, James Folta reads Sappho and Jonny Diamond reads Jonny Diamond for National Poetry Month!

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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 organizations and organizers pushing back against the Trump administration's assault on the historical archive—and new poetry!! Julia Hass reads "Passerine," an unpublished poem by Sophia Stid, and Oliver Scialdone reads one of their own poems, "Help, Am I Watching a Commercial Break or Just Living in One?" plus "The Garden" by H.D.

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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 putting up in LA on May 4th to support those who lost libraries (and more) in the wildfires earlier this year.

Plus, poetry from Olivia Rutigliano (reading Philip Sidney's "Sonnet 1" from Astrophil and Stella) and Dan Sheehan (reading W.B. Yeats's "The Fisherman")!

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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 poetry in celebration of National Poetry Month!

* Listen to The Cosmic Library—new episodes Wednesdays starting April 16!

* Molly's suggested reading/pre-ordering:

- Crafting for Sinners

- Friends of the Museum by Heather McGowan

- Leverage by Amran Gowani

- The Library at Hellebore by Cassandra Khaw

- The Starving Saints by Caitlin Starling

- Murderland by Caroline Frasier

The Lit Hub Podcast is a production of Lit Hub Radio

hosted by Drew Broussard

music by Dani Lencioni

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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 pitching a broader, messier tent is a good idea. Go chase something that makes you (and, ideally, other people too) happy, damn it!

The Lit Hub Podcast is a production of Lit Hub Radio

Hosted by Drew Broussard

Music by Dani Lencioni

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.