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Lit Hub Daily

January 20, 2026

TODAY: In 1894, Harold Gray, the cartoonist best known as the creator of Little Orphan Annie, is born.

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Love our annual list of the year’s best book covers? Then you’ll go wild over the best book covers of the decade. | Lit Hub Design

Larissa Pham explores facing your fears in fiction: “Whenever I felt stuck in the writing, I looked to the most unknown corner and asked: What if?” | Lit Hub Craft

On the arbitrary nature of capital punishment in America and how the criminal justice system decides who gets to live or die. | Lit Hub Politics

The 24 new titles out today include books by Julian Barnes, Jeanette Winterson, Jennette McCurdy, and more! | Lit Hub Reading Lists

“You can be a lot of things and still be you, but there are a lot of things you can’t be without losing yourself. And it matters, in writing, not to lose yourself.” David Guterson on the question of maintaining an “authorial brand”—or not. | Lit Hub Craft

Jane Ziegelman recalls finding a gateway to the old country in Kew Gardens, Queens. | Lit Hub Memoir

Read “Poem in Which I Should Write About Cain, but I’m Tired of Writing About Death,” a poem by Diamond Forde from the collection The Book of Alice. | Lit Hub Poetry

“They went to school; they did school‑kid things, opened their lockers, put books away, took notes...” Read from Gabriel Tallent’s new novel, Crux. | Lit Hub Fiction

A BOOK LOVERS’ DREAM WEEKEND.

Be part of an unforgettable long weekend dedicated to the power of story. Join us May 15-17 in Santa Fe as we bring together influential authors, thinkers, and passionate readers and celebrate our shared love of language and ideas.

Learn More

HOW TO THINK MORE AND BETTER

From William B. Irvine, the author of A Guide to the Good Life, discover new ways to think more and better, arming yourself with strategies to help assess information and make more rational decisions, rather than relying on emotions or hearsay.

Available Now

Katy Waldman considers the recent spate of nonfiction about people pleasing. | The New Yorker

“To monitor one’s tone is human, but why are we this scared of sounding brusque in routine emails?” Nitsuh Abebe on our fear of the period. | The New York Times Magazine

Isabelle Appleton visits the Lesbian Herstory Archives (and dives into the history of sapphic personal ads). | The Paris Review

On the past, present, and politics of the crossword. | Defector

Joshua Bodwell traces the history of Charles Bukowski’s publisher, Black Sparrow Press, and its founder, John Martin. | Los Angeles Review of Books

LITERARY NIGHTS AT 92NY

Join 92NY for literary events this February.