Lit Hub Daily: August 14, 2026
How following Octavia Butler’s advice guided Clarence A. Haynes to write a novel. | Lit Hub Craft Casey Michel explores the decline of American democracy (and the rise of the oligarch class). | Lit Hub Politics Chang-Rae Lee’s A Tender
In 1969, Leonard Woolf passed away. According to an article on Lit Hub Craft, following this event, Clarence A. Haynes found inspiration to pen a novel by heeding Octavia Butler's advice. The decline of American democracy and the emergence of oligarchic power were discussed in an article on Lit Hub Politics. Chang-Rae Lee's A Tender Age, Joby Warrick's The Jackal, and Téa Obreht's Sunrise were among the best reviewed books of the week, according to the book marks section.
The article "For us humans, who are so sensitive to estimations of authority and might, a lot hangs on whether we believe another can take an active role in affecting something" delved into the roots of agency for both humans and other creatures. In a piece from Lit Hub Nature, Marina Closs's novel The Depopulation, translated by Thomas Bunstead, was featured.
David Hollingshead from Defector analyzed the ongoing conflict between humanists and the humanities. Elizabeth Brogden from Asymptote examined the role of heterotopic literature in the era of content creation. In Full Stop, Elizabeth Brogden pondered what we could learn from a deceased goliath grouper, highlighting how the equation of thought with abstraction contradicts our inherent understanding and gut feelings.
Lastly, Sam Huber from the Los Angeles Review of Books explored the dual career of the late feminist theorist Kate Millet as a sculptor, while the New York Review of Books offered various perspectives.
Written by urgent.news from Literary Hub's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
