Spellbound: why ‘witch lit’ is the hottest new genre on our bookshelves

Vampires and ghosts have long haunted popular fiction, but now a string of new releases is focusing on marginalised women with hidden powersSomeone, or something, shadowy has put a strong spell on popular literature aimed at women, once cheekily labelled “chick lit”. This perky genre, packaged in bright covers, jauntily titled and so long a mainstay of the publishing industry, has been slowly transforming into something darker and rich with sorcery, with 2023 set to be a new high point in a growing “witch lit” trend.“Witches are definitely a big thing, which is exciting and fun,” said Phoebe Morgan, a publisher at Hodder Fiction, “but it also has something to do with a sense that women’s rights are in danger of being stripped away again, with things like the overturning of Roe v Wade in America. These books are often concerned with pregnancy, abortion and abuse, as well as magic.” Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2023-01-08 12:00:47 UTC ]
News tagged with: #publishing industry #high point #big thing #hodder

Other Publishing stories related to: 'Spellbound: why ‘witch lit’ is the hottest new genre on our bookshelves'


Read these great books published by Lit Hub staff members in 2023.

As you probably know, Literary Hub is produced by a small staff; most of us are writers, and/or moonlight as editors on other projects. This year, four of our number—that would be 36% percent of full time Literary Hub staffers, not too shabby—published books, which is certainly worthy of... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-12-11 17:52:31 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #literary hub #small staff


Lit Hub Daily: December 8, 2023

Monty Python, blasphemers: When the culture wars came for a little film called Life of Brian. | Lit Hub Film & TV “Moderation did not win the public’s favor.” How hot beverages became all the rage in 18th-century Britain. | Lit Hub History Debbie Urbanski urges novelists to think about AI... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-12-08 11:30:19 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #culture wars #novelists


The big idea: should we abolish literary genres?

Categorising fiction may help to sell books, but it says little about how writers write or readers readIn her Reith lecture of 2017, recently published for the first time in a posthumous collection of nonfiction, A Memoir of My Former Self, Hilary Mantel recalled the beginnings of her career as... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2023-11-27 12:30:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #big idea #sell books #posthumous collection #interesting thing #historical fiction #memoir


Lit Hub Daily: November 2, 2023

Hannah Lillith Assadi on losing home, identity, and her father: “I wonder what it is I have inherited from him more profoundly: his Palestinian-ness or his propensity to fall?” | Lit Hub Memoir At the Refocus Film Festival, Kristen Roupenian and director Susanna Fogel talk about adapting “Cat... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-11-02 10:30:44 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #kristen roupenian #memoir


Dancing with the Goddess and Drawing Down the Moon: A Reading List for Modern Witches

When I encounter the question “are you a Witch?” my first response is always, “who is asking, and why?” Perhaps there never has been a more loaded noun in the English language. Depending on who is asking, it can be a compliment. Or preamble to torture. Despite its crowded dictionary entry,... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-10-31 08:50:56 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #english language


Lit Hub Daily: October 17, 2023

“They are closing out the space for a Palestinian voice.” An open letter to the Frankfurt Book Fair in support of Adania Shibli, from more than 350 writers, editors, and publishers. | Lit Hub “I don’t have time to write about the soul. / There are bodies to count.” Read a poem by Hala Alyan. […] Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-10-17 10:30:08 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #open letter #adania shibli #lit hub #frankfurt book fair


Why Genre Fiction Is So Effective in Tackling Social Issues

Novelist Cindy Fazzi says authors interested in addressing the great issues of the day should avoid preaching and focus on telling a good story. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-10-06 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Children need to see themselves in books. Enter Young, Black & Lit.

What if you went to the bookstore and saw no one on the shelves who looked like you? One couple is addressing that deficit for young Black children, supporting literacy and identity. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor

[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2023-09-29 13:58:26 UTC ]
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Lit Hub Daily: September 29, 2023

The art of adaptation in Iowa City: Hannah Bonner introduces the (second annual) Refocus Film Festival. | Lit Hub Film “Desire is always silly, and self-serious, and enormous, and and and and and and.” Isle McElroy on the art of the sex scene. | Lit Hub Craft Trick or treat: 23 new books in... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-09-29 10:30:46 UTC ]
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Lit Agent Landscape Diversifies Some as Anxieties over Book Business Grow

The results of this year's Association of American Literary Agents biannual membership survey indicate that the agency sector of the book business is diversifying, but is still predominantly white, and issues including burnout and unequal pay remain. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-09-28 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #predominantly white #literary agents #book business


The Rules of the Game: How Genre Can Illuminate Theme

Writing literary fiction is a freeing thing—there are no rules, there is just a story waiting to be told. When I started writing my first novel, The Theory of Flight, I knew that I wanted it be a character-driven story that explored difficult social and political terrain in order to reveal... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-09-27 08:45:38 UTC ]
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Booksellers Stock Up on Genre Fiction

Genre fiction by such authors as Colleen Hoover, N.K. Jemisin, and Rebecca Roanhorse remains extremely popular with readers. As publishers increase their output to meet demand, booksellers are making more and more room on their shelves for the titles. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-09-22 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Lit Hub Daily: September 19, 2023

Kate Roberts considers the latest wave of chronic illness memoirs, which entwine the personal with the sociopolitical. | Lit Hub Memoir It’s a banger week for new books: Here are 28 out today. | The Hub 38 literary movies and TV shows to watch this fall (brought to you by writers who deserve... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-09-19 10:30:38 UTC ]
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Lit Hub Daily: September 15, 2023

Terrell Tannen recalls trying to adapt Jim Harrison’s novels for Hollywood—and making a friend in Harrison along the way. | Lit Hub Memoir “I can’t approve of this movie, and by all rights, I could hate it. But I am enthralled.” Annie Berke revisits The Notebook adaptation, (nearly) 20 years... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-09-15 10:30:28 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #memoir


The Changeling Brings a Genre-Bending Fable of Family to the Screen

Victor LaValle’s 2017 literary horror novel, The Changeling, contains another book at its center: Maurice Sendak’s children’s tale Outside Over There. In Sendak’s story, goblins steal a neglected baby while “Papa is away at sea,” replacing her with a child made of ice. In LaValle’s novel, rare... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-09-07 08:37:37 UTC ]
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Lit Hub Daily: September 6, 2023

25 new novels we think you should read this fall. | Lit Hub Reading Lists Yiyun Li muses on class, money, joy, and luxury—for writers and their characters. | Lit Hub Memoir Where creatives went to play: Jonathan Miles captures the “potent cultural cocktail” of the French Riviera. | Lit Hub... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-09-06 10:30:23 UTC ]
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Lit Hub Weekly: August 21-25, 2023

“Whatever has been invented, Le Guin teaches us, can be reinvented.” John Plotz revisits Earthsea. | Lit Hub Criticism Moeen Farrokhi on writing and humiliation under Iranian censorship: “I began to question the very act of writing itself.” | Lit Hub Memoir “No one needs my opinion about books.”... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-08-26 10:30:54 UTC ]
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Lit Hub Daily: August 23, 2023

“No one needs my opinion about books.” Longtime indie bookseller Josh Cook against the cultural authoritarianism of “good taste.” | Lit Hub Criticism When folk went mainstream: On Harry Everett Smith and the cultural paradigm shift that his Anthology of American Folk Music. | Lit Hub Music... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-08-23 10:30:23 UTC ]
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Lit Hub Daily: August 11, 2023

Jess deCourcy Hinds hopefully predicts a new trend in book publishing: the librarian memoir. | Lit Hub Libraries “It’s like someone hitting you on the side of the head. It’s marvelous.” Former Velvet Underground frontman Lou Reed talks to Allan Jones about making an unlistenable album. | Lit Hub... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-08-11 10:30:06 UTC ]
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