Lit Hub Daily: May 12, 2026

TODAY: In 1828, poet, painter, and translator Dante Gabriel Rossetti is born. - “The waxing and waning fortunes of languages are inevitably historical and political questions, and these questions are likewise delirium-inducing if we sit with them honestly.” The benefits of being a polyglot (as a fiction writer). | Lit Hub Craft - Lori Carlson-Hijuelos honors the legacy of her late husband, Pulitzer Prize-winner Oscar Hijuelos. | Lit Hub Memoir - How members of the Brontë family confronted and worked with grief over the loss of their brother. | Lit Hub Biography - Henry Snow chronicles the history of relations between managers and workers: “As much as possible, workers were meant to be mere appendages of decision-making managers, components of capital’s machinery.” | Lit Hub History - Hannah Thurman, author of Mercy Hill, talks to Jane Ciabattari about researching mental hospitals and starting a book with the action. | Lit Hub In Conversation - The 20 new books out today include titles by Tove Ditlevsen, Vanessa Hua, Barry Walters, and more! | Lit Hub Reading Lists - Anna Konkle, Hafeez Lakhani, Harriet Clark and more authors answer our questions about writerly life. | Lit Hub In Conversation - William Kentridge chronicles a personal history of making art in his studio. | Lit Hub Art - “Days after Ana Rodriguez started working for the Belles, feeding the chickens had become a part of the morning routine: her bosses’ youngest daughter, Jordan, would fetch a scoop of pellets from the plastic tub in the pantry.” Read from Vanessa Hua’s new novel, Coyoteland. | Lit Hub Fiction - “Is this AI? Do I care if it’s AI? Why does this sound or look or read so weird? Does this person just write like this? Is this a person at all?” What other people’s AI use is doing to us. | 404 Media - Richard Taws explores the roles of forgotten communication devices from the French Revolution. | The MIT Press Reader - Christopher J. Lee considers the creative evolution of author, artist, and musician Kim Gordon. | Jacobin - Joachim Trier, Ocean Vuong, and the appeal of the (former) skateboarder. | Dirt - “And yet the truth remains: We read poetry for the glimmer of a human presence, even if the writer has been hell-bent (as many of the writers I love were) on hiding that presence from us.” On teaching poetry in the age of AI. | The Nation - What too many readers missed in Gisèle Pelicot’s memoir. | The New York Times