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“Becoming a mother, and feeling the ferocity of love that parents hold for their children, and doing the daily work of parenting, helped me find the emotional core of the book.” —Megha Majumdar, author of A Guardian and a Thief
In this 2012 Library of Congress event, László Krasznahorkai reads from his novel Satantango (New Directions, 2013), translated from the Hungarian by George Szirtes, and speaks about the evolution of his writing style and the relationship between author and translator. Krasznahorkai is the winner of the 2025 Nobel Prize for Literature.
The O‘ahu Writers Mini-Retreat was held on November 29 and November 30 at a historic vacation property in the town of Waialua, on the North Shore of O‘ahu, Hawai‘i. The retreat featured generative writing workshops, critiques, and arts and crafts breaks for poets, fiction writers, and creative nonfiction writers. The faculty included poet Tamara Leiokanoe Moan, fiction writer Tom Gammarino, and creative nonfiction writer Constance Hale. Tuition was $120 for one day and $200 for both days; lodging was not included, but lunch was.
O‘ahu Writers Mini-Retreat, 1040 56th Street, Oakland, CA 94608. (617) 909-1439. Constance Hale, Director.
In this video from the Sage-sponsored “Banned Books From the Big Chair” booth at the American Library Association’s 2025 annual conference, authors and attendees respond to the dangers of book banning and the importance of supporting public libraries and the freedom to read.
Known for his postmodern satirical novels filled with secret conspiracies and government plots, Thomas Pynchon’s new novel, Shadow Ticket, out this week from Penguin Press, begins in Depression-era Milwaukee and follows a private detective whose search of a runaway cheese heiress gets him entangled with the Chicago mafia, the Bureau of Investigation, British intelligence, Nazism, and international capitalist conspiracies. This week write a short story that makes use of a current event that might seem absurd or stranger than fiction, spinning off from the actual details of the real event into something weirder. How can you inject humor into a story that gestures to real concerns about paranoia and dysfunctional politics?
“It should be possible to both write good and live good. Go see your friends. Be with your family. Taste something new. Fall in love with the world again and again while you still can.” —Joshua Wheeler, author of The High Heaven
In this video, George Takei, honorary chair of Banned Books Week 2025, talks about how “access to books and knowledge is essential to democracy” and how reading provides a way to see ourselves reflected in stories and to discover the stories of others. To learn more, visit the Banned Books Week website.
A prize of $5,000 and publication by Hub City Press is given biennially for a short story collection. Emerging writers who have not published a story collection or more than one book in any other genre and who currently reside in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, or West Virginia and who have lived there for at least two consecutive years are eligible. Catherine Lacey will judge. Using only the online submission system, submit a manuscript of 140 to 220 pages (no story should exceed 15,000 words) with a $25 entry fee by December 31. Visit the website for complete guidelines.
A prize of $1,000 and publication by Regal House Publishing is given annually for a story collection. Heather Bell Adams will judge. Using only the online submission system, submit a manuscript of 100 to 350 pages with a $25 entry fee by December 1. Visit the website for complete guidelines.
