Barthelme, the Houstonian

By Susan ChoiMay 22, 2026

“Barthelme died in 1989, at the age of fifty-eight. I was at college and heard the news from a friend who worked at a Kinko’s to which one of the Barthelme brothers had brought Don Jr.’s will.”

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Literature & Essays Culture & Arts

Here are the finalists for this year’s $20,000 DAG Prize for Literature.

Today, the DAG Foundation announced the five finalists for the DAG Prize for Literature, which grants $20,000 to “an early-career prose writer whose work expands the possibilities for American writing.” The prize, now in its second year, is given by musicians

Literary Hub·May 18, 2026

The Conversation

Poet, playwright, spy: Stephen Greenblatt conjures the brilliant life of Christopher Marlowe

Marlowe’s artistic brilliance was arguably more concentrated, his imagination more original and his ideas more daring than Shakespeare’s.

Kate Flaherty, Senior Lecturer (English and Drama), Australian National University·May 20, 2026

Literary Hub

Lit Hub Weekly: May 18 – 22, 2026

“I never imagined reading books and turning them into movies was a job.” It is, and if you can read a book every two days (and write a book report about it), it could be yours… | Lit Hub Film

Lit Hub Daily·May 23, 2026

Public Books

The Novel as Instrument: Sinan Antoon and Michael Allan

Our partner podcast Novel Dialogue invites a novelist and a literary critic to talk about novels from every angle: how we read them, write them, publish them, and remember them. This season’s signature question is: Who was your favorite teacher and why? “I am haunted by history: the history of dictatorship, the history of empire, […] The post The Novel as Instrument: Sinan Antoon and Michael Allan appeared first on Public Books.

Megan Cummins·May 22, 2026

The Paris Review

Theresa Hak Kyung Cha’s “Perte Loss”

“To traverse Cha's archive is to register the force of an artistic imagination that is itself not ‘fixe, mort’ but constantly mutating.”

Katie Kirkland·May 20, 2026

The Conversation

John of John: weaving an island tale of secrets that lie beneath repression and shame

The high drama of Douglas Stuart’s new novel sometimes feels like a soap opera – but his lyrical prose and atmospheric narrative elevate the genre.

Stevie Marsden, Lecturer in Publishing, Edinburgh Napier University·May 22, 2026