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 ]
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Announcing the Winner of Electric Lit’s 2021 Book Cover of the Year Tournament

Last week, the Electric Lit team stayed glued to our phone screens as we tasked our social media followers with anointing the best book cover of 2021. The tournament was full of close calls determined by razor-thin margins (Mona at Sea prevailed over Black Girl Call Home by just five votes in... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2021-12-06 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Bad Form Review and PRH's Lit in Colour among FutureBook Award winners

Bad Form Review and Penguin Random House's Lit in Colour scheme have jointly won the Discover award at this year's FutureBook Awards ceremony.  Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2021-11-19 17:09:55 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #colour scheme #jointly won


Witch + Spy = Essayist: The Millions Interviews Randon Billings Noble

Randon Billings Noble discusses her path to essay writing, current reading life, the anthology editing process, and what's next in her career. The post Witch + Spy = Essayist: The Millions Interviews Randon Billings Noble appeared first on The Millions. Continue reading at The Millions

[ The Millions | 2021-11-17 11:00:36 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #anthology


Imoh wins inaugural Lit in Colour Creative Student prize

Student Emmanuella Imoh has won the inaugural Lit in Colour Creative Student prize for her "bold and thought-provoking poem", told visually through a short video. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2021-11-16 11:03:29 UTC ]
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S&S 'spellbound' by Smith's Cold People

Simon & Schuster UK has landed Tom Rob Smith’s "utterly gripping" novel Cold People in a two-book deal.  Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2021-11-06 04:14:54 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #cold people


A few ideas for how TV shows about book publishing could include more Lit Hub.

I’ve recently been enjoying season two of the HBO Max series Love Life. I enjoyed season one because it felt like a combination of an extended rom-com and listening to someone talk about their first dates, two genres I enjoy. Season two is even better, because it stars William Jackson Harper... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2021-11-05 19:27:36 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #tv shows #lit hub #book publishing


What inspired ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’? One novel explores the possibilities.

In Patti Callahan’s “Once Upon a Wardrobe,” a logic-minded teenager learns the power of stories during afternoons with C.S. Lewis. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2021-10-26 14:36:00 UTC ]
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Lit Hub Daily: October 13, 2021

“Continue squeezing until all the tomatoes are gone or until you feel like Macbeth at the end of his play.” Stanley Tucci shares his grandmother’s famous tomato sauce recipe. | Lit Hub Food Hanif Abdurraqib reflects on working at a chain bookstore in his twenties, and the frequent caller who... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2021-10-13 10:30:58 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #helped make #chain bookstore


Cynthia Leitich Smith to Headline 2021 Neustadt Lit Fest

News and Events World Literature Today, the University of Oklahoma’s award-winning magazine of international literature and culture, will host the 2021 Neustadt Lit Festival on Zoom from Oct. 25–27. The festival features numerous panels exploring the... Continue reading at World Literature Today

[ World Literature Today | 2021-10-11 18:55:28 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #nsk prize #racial tensions #highly respected #esteemed panel #authors selects #literary merit #nsk winners #silver medallion #literary community #award-winning author #harpercollins #literature award #publishers weekly


Begum reflects on Lit in Colour’s first year as initiative looks to push systemic change

Launched a year ago in a collaboration between Penguin Random House and The Runnymede Trust, Lit in Colour seeks to make the books taught in classrooms more representative of modern life in Britain Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2021-09-17 18:08:18 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #runnymede trust #modern life #penguin random house


Lit Hub Daily: September 13, 2021

“Feeling afraid to obey the demands of your own heart? Is there anything more human?” Jennifer Finney Boylan considers Henry David Thoreau and the risks we take to live our full truth. | Lit Hub Memoir Who was Laurie Colwin, and what makes her (newly reissued) fiction so relevant today? | Lit... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2021-09-13 10:30:34 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #relevant today #memoir


Lit in Colour programme to diversify curriculum will reach 12,000 students

The Lit in Colour Pioneers programme, which supports UK schools in diversifying their English Literature curriculum, will be working with 119 cohorts from across the country this year, reaching almost 12,000 students. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2021-09-06 10:31:02 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #english literature


Lit Hub Daily: August 27, 2021

“By the time I was born, the city had been conquered thrice, by the British, the Japanese, and the military junta. Three enemies to symbolize the three torments of the mind.” Thirii Myo Kyaw Myint on war, reincarnation, and the changing names of Myanmar. | Lit Hub Memoir Jeffrey Webb revisits... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2021-08-27 10:30:19 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #memoir


Jill Murphy, author of The Worst Witch, dies aged 72

Children’s author and illustrator Jill Murphy, best known for the Worst Witch novels and Large Family picture books, has died aged 72.  Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2021-08-20 03:26:07 UTC ]
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Lit Hub Weekly: July 12 – 16

What Borges’ science fiction got right about the importance of forgetting, according to child psychiatry. | Lit Hub Science Searching for Moby-Dick (and the elusive truths of America’s pastime): Rick White goes deep on Bill James, Herman Melville, and the whaleness of Whiteyball. | Lit Hub... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2021-07-17 10:30:33 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #elusive truths #herman melville #science fiction


Body Language in Middle Grade Lit

Two novels and a graphic memoir tackle weighty issues, with grace and good humor. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2021-07-08 04:06:37 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #body language #good humor #graphic memoir


Lit in colour

This week we’ve published the findings of research conducted by Lit in Colour, a campaign run by Penguin Random House and The Runnymede Trust to make the teaching of English Literature more inclusive and representative of the myriad of different voices and narratives that make up Britain’s past... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2021-06-29 23:09:45 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #ve published #research conducted #runnymede trust #english literature #penguin random house


Just 0.7% of GCSE English Lit students study writers of colour, PRH research shows

Research commissioned by Penguin Random House has revealed only 0.7% of English Literature GCSE students in England study a book by a writer of colour while only 7% study a book by a woman. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2021-06-28 22:57:04 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #research commissioned #english literature #penguin random house


Lit Hub Weekly: June 21 – 25, 2021

“It’s a place for writers to publish and earn money directly and instantaneously without any traditional publishing gatekeepers. It’s also a brand-new subculture cut off from a larger writing culture that doesn’t understand it.” Walker Caplan on the writers using NFTs to make a living. | Lit Hub... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2021-06-26 10:30:01 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #lit hub #traditional publishing


A Will Smith memoir will hit bookshelves in November

Will Smith will publish "Will," a memoir co-written by Mark Manson, in November through Penguin Press. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2021-06-21 00:57:25 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #mark manson #penguin press #memoir