We're back from our lil summer break and shaking off the rust! It's been hot, but getting maybe better—and we're trying to take the slow pace and the long view before we truly roll into the fall. Speaking of: what are you reading for the rest of the summer? Perhaps try the Sealey Challenge (all funds this year going to the Sameer Project)! Or start reading the Booker Prize longlist!

Also, you could pick up an old issue of Lapham's Quarterly to get in the mood for the storied mag's revival—and we have acting editor Donovan Hahn on the show to tell us more about that slow pace, that long view, and the future of Lapham's. Or perhaps you're feeling like it's a real socialist gothic summer—and McKayla Coyle is here to chat with Drew about the socialist fundamentals of gothic literature and the very specific burgeoning sub-genre that is Socialist Gothic.

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Halfway through the year means it's time to anticipate again! That's right: the Lit Hub staff has compiled a list (multiple lists, actually) of books you should be looking forward to for the rest of the calendar year—and now we bring you a bunch of staff members talking about some (some!) of the books they're most excited for.

Featuring (in order of appearance): Drew Broussard, Jonny Diamond, Julia Hass, Brittany K. Allen, McKayla Coyle, Calvin Kasulke, Jessie Gaynor, Dan Sheehan, Emily Temple, James Folta, and Drew again (because he is just that excited about SO MANY BOOKS).

Lit Hub's Most Anticipated Books of 2025, Part Two

Our 33 Most Anticipated Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror Books for the Rest of 2025

The Most Anticipated Crime Fiction of Summer 2025

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This week saw the announcement of the 2025 Pulitzer Prizes—which, if you've been following along at home, I had some questions regarding! Unsurprisingly, that's also where we start the show this week. Then, Marie-Helene Bertino (Exit Zero) drops by to talk about vampires, Sinners, and the pitfalls of immortality and Meg Reid of Hub City Writers wraps up with a helpful explainer of just what it means that the NEA has suddenly cancelled funding for non-profit presses and other arts organizations. No Pope stuff, though. Missed the filing deadline by a couple hours.

• "Did the Pulitzer Board just overrule the Jury to give Percival Everett the prize?"
• "Viola in Midwinter" by Marie-Helene Bertino (from our "One great short story..." series this month)
• Sinners
• Hub City Writers
• the NEA Grant Termination Spreadsheet from Annie Dorsen

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Yesterday was May Day and it was a big one for us: Lit Hub finally got to add to the canon of "Why I'm Leaving Twitter" posts! Jonny Diamond kicks us off to explain the rationale behind why and why now. Then, we wrap up our National Poetry Month coverage with a small-press interview: Eric Amling and Sarah Jean Grimm of After Hours Editions tell Drew about running a small poetry press and looking for the strange pizzas. And finally, we thought we'd add to the "books for men" discourse by getting some guys together to talk about guys and books. Listen closely for a great business idea, because Calvin and James and Drew are waiting by the phone.

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April is, as it turns out, a great month for book lovers: the first big wave of pre-summer titles arrives, St. Jordi Day (and Shakespeare's birth/death-day) is April 23rd, and of course Independent Bookstore Day is the last Saturday of the month. And while every day can and should be Indie Bookstore Day, we're getting into the spirit of the holiday this week—just in time for you to hit up your local(s) on Saturday 4/26!

Kicking things off, it's Shelf Awareness editor-in-chief John Mutter, here to tell Drew about watching and reporting on the indie bookstore scene for nearly 20 years. Then, another bookseller roundtable, this one featuring bookstore-bar-coffee-shops, including:

* Jennifer Caspar, Village Well Books & Coffee (Culver City, CA)

* Catherine Johnson and Lani Martin, Flyleaf (Grosse Point, MI)

* Amanda and Anthony Stromoski, Rough Draft Bar & Books (Kingston, NY)

Plus, James Folta reads Sappho and Jonny Diamond reads Jonny Diamond for National Poetry Month!

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We're continuing our celebration of National Poetry Month this week with special guest Lisa Willis, executive director of Cave Canem! She's here to tell Drew about the wide-reaching, first-of-its-kind field study Magnitude and Bond: A Field Study on Black Literary Arts Organizations—it's a must-read for anybody interested in any part of the literary arts ecosystem.

Plus, Brittany Allen on some organizations and organizers pushing back against the Trump administration's assault on the historical archive—and new poetry!! Julia Hass reads "Passerine," an unpublished poem by Sophia Stid, and Oliver Scialdone reads one of their own poems, "Help, Am I Watching a Commercial Break or Just Living in One?" plus "The Garden" by H.D.

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If you didn't hear the song earlier this week, it's Lit Hub's 10th birthday! Double-digits, y'all! It's exciting stuff and so obviously Jonny Diamond had to drop by to tell us a bit about the occasion as well as some site-lore. (PS it's always a great time to become a Lit Hub member...)

Then, Traci Thomas comes on to chat about her podcast TheStacks and the amazing STACK THE SHELVES event she's putting up in LA on May 4th to support those who lost libraries (and more) in the wildfires earlier this year.

Plus, poetry from Olivia Rutigliano (reading Philip Sidney's "Sonnet 1" from Astrophil and Stella) and Dan Sheehan (reading W.B. Yeats's "The Fisherman")!

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Well books are about to get a lot more expensive, as is everything else, and there's no hiding from the fact that these tariffs really suck! But we're going to talk (mostly) about other things this week—like the trailer drop for the new season of The Cosmic Library, like some upcoming weird books you should pre-order as suggested by Molly Odintz, and the first in a run of Lit Hub staffers reading poetry in celebration of National Poetry Month!

* Listen to The Cosmic Library—new episodes Wednesdays starting April 16!

* Molly's suggested reading/pre-ordering:

- Crafting for Sinners

- Friends of the Museum by Heather McGowan

- Leverage by Amran Gowani

- The Library at Hellebore by Cassandra Khaw

- The Starving Saints by Caitlin Starling

- Murderland by Caroline Frasier

The Lit Hub Podcast is a production of Lit Hub Radio

hosted by Drew Broussard

music by Dani Lencioni

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You might be mistaken in thinking that it's a real high-culture/low-culture episode this week, but really it's an all-joy-culture episode. Drew kicks things off with a quick nod to National Short Story Month before talking to Michael Kelleher about the 2025 Windham-Campbell Prizes and what makes the prize so special. Then, he chats with Sammy Loren about the new literary tabloid On the Rag and why pitching a broader, messier tent is a good idea. Go chase something that makes you (and, ideally, other people too) happy, damn it!

The Lit Hub Podcast is a production of Lit Hub Radio

Hosted by Drew Broussard

Music by Dani Lencioni

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This week, we embrace (surprise surprise) the power of books!! But seriously, Drew is in a tizzy about the latest AI-scraping news (tldr they got ALL of the books), Brittany Allen talks about the joys of learning about how they pick the books on The White Lotus, Sophie Gee & Jonty Claypole tell Drew about the joys of discovering (and hosting! the Secret Life of Books (listen now!), and Josh Cook shares a few more ideas for how publishing can do better to fill the information gap. Books: powerful stuff.

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It's a big one this week, kicking off with a quick exhortation to (metaphorically) tell Meta/Facebook/Zuckerberg to pound sand by buying a copy of Careless People! Then, Drew talks with Masie Cochran of Tin House and Molly Stern of Zando about the exciting news of the Voltron-esque team-up that is Zando's acquisition of Tin House. Next, James Folta and Oliver Scialdone drop in to discuss the past week in bracketology—reminder: the villains bracket final is open through Sunday!!—and finally, Erika Swyler (We Lived on the Horizon) picks up an ongoing conversation with Drew (now in pod form) about genre, wonder, and the algorithm. Something for the whole family!

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Music by Dani Lencioni

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There's an Amazon boycott on, from today until the 14th! But really, publishing should stop linking to Amazon now and forever. Drew explains why!

Then, Brad Johnson from East Bay Booksellers drops by to talk about his essay "The Things We Learned in the Fire:

On the Destruction (and Rebirth) of a Bookstore" and then Emily Temple and James Folta chat with Drew about kicking off the Best Villain in Literature bracket. Round One is open through Sunday!!

The Lit Hub Podcast is a production of Lit Hub Radio

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Music by Dani Lencioni

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"...that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from this earth."

No, Lincoln didn't say that on July 4th—but Jefferson was a racist and Adams wasn't all that inspiring a speaker ("sit down, John!") and we certainly aren't going to quote Hamilton (the guy or the show).

Anyway, not a real episode this week—just a little holiday note and an acknowledgement that after next week's Most Anticipated audio, we'll be taking a two week break and coming back in August!

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First up this week: Dan Sheehan recently had the chance to chat with Omar El Akkad about One Day Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This and we're thrilled to bring you an audio excerpt from that conversation. Then, Calvin Kasulke drops in to grill Drew on his apparent disdain for the recent wave of Lady Macbeth novels. And finally, Olivia Rutigliano brings us more "Culture Schlock"—this time, looking Oscar-forward...

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Drew finished re-watching The Lord of the Rings over the weekend and it has probably influenced a bit of the episode. But he also chats with bookseller-libromancer Josh Cook about how the publishing world can respond to the second Trump presidency and why we could all do with a bit more doing what actually energizes us, and with Jordan Kisner about the return of Thresholds in collaboration with the Black Mountain Institute!

The Lit Hub Podcast is a production of Lit Hub Radio

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Music by Dani Lencioni

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It's Valentine's Day! So Drew chats with Chloé Caldwell about her recent piece "Yes, I've Been Selling My Book on Dating Apps" — and asks listeners to call in with their recent favorite reads! Plus, Calvin Kasulke chats with K. Kerimian about the Nonbinarian Book Bike's leap to brick and mortar.

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The Lit Hub Podcast is a production of Lit Hub Radio

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This week, Olivia Wolfgang-Smith tells Drew about reading the entirety of Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin series for her piece "Actually, Master and Commander is a Domestic Fantasy About a Codependent Life Partnership!" and Dan Sheehan stops by to explain why it matters that The Giller Prize (finally) dropped Scotiabank as a sponsor.

The Lit Hub Podcast is a production of Lit Hub Radio

Hosted by Drew Broussard

Music by Dani Lencioni

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This week, some suggestions for men and some suggestions for history! First up, it's James Folta chatting with Drew about his recent piece "Men Have Bigger Problems Than Not Reading Novels" and the crisis of cultural illiteracy. Then, Molly Odintz stops by to talk up some upcoming historical fiction—and why reading historical fiction can help positively impact the present.

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On January 13, New York published a story by Lila Shapiro detailing allegations of sexual assault against fantasy author Neil Gaiman. (TW: the piece is at times graphic and should be approached with care.) Gaiman has denied the allegations and claimed that the encounters were consensual.

It's an upsetting story for so many reasons, and an important one. So, in a special episode of the show, Drew sat down with Lila Shapiroto talk about writing these kinds of stories, what they mean to communities across the world, and how to address the power imbalance between fans and their idols.

"There is No Safe Word" by Lila Shapiro for New York Magazine

Neil Gaiman's response

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The first week of the Trump administration has felt somehow even more awful than we expected it to feel. Everybody's a little on edge. So, we kick things off with Jonny Diamond extolling the excellent pieces from Kim Kelly and Madeline ffitch that ran on the site on Tuesday, sharing excerpts and explaining how they encapsulate Lit Hub's approach to the Trump administration.

Then, because our revolution must include the joyful things as well, we introduce a new recurring segment: "Culture Schlock" with Olivia Rutigliano. This installment, we're headed to Sherlock Holmes week!

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The year has really gotten off on a rough foot. But what lessons can we take from deeply admired artists like Ursula K. Le Guin and David Lynch, for the tumult to come? And what might readers be able to expect from 2025, trend-wise? We might not have the answers, but we do have some answers.

• A note from Drew, about wildfire assistance
• Another note from Drew, about Neil Gaiman
• Julie Phillips on "The Way of Water: On the Quiet Power of Ursula K. Le Guin's Activism"
• McKayla Coyle and Oliver Scialdone drop in to riff with Drew on some possible trends to watch out for in 2025 — or, really, what we all might like to see more of! Call it manifesting.
• A closing note from Drew, about David Lynch

The Lit Hub Podcast is produced by Stardust House

Music by Dani Lencioni of Evelyn

A Lit Hub Radio Podcast

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We're back and raring to go—starting with a year's-resolutions intro from Drew and then diving into something a bit more celebratory: some audio 2025 Most Anticipated picks from Calvin Kasulke, McKayla Coyle, Olivia Rutigliano, Molly Odintz, Brittany K. Allen, Emily Temple, James Folta, Dwyer Murphy, Jonny Diamond, Dan Sheehan, and Drew Broussard!

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'Twas the episode before Christmas and all through the studio

Not a sound could be heard—not even 'Sussudio'

To close out the year, a new holiday tradition: Jonny Diamond reads us Clement Clarke Moore's classic poem, "A Visit from St. Nicholas"

Thanks to everyone for tuning in this year! See you in 2025!

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We're riding the high of something going right in the world (see: NYC's mayoral primary) and leaning mostly into hijinks and happiness this week—but not before we remind you all of the very real stakes facing artists of all stripes right now, the frankly-existential threat that is generative AI.

First up, Brittany Cavallaro drops by to introduce the "Against AI" open letter that Lit Hub just published. Then, Calvin Kasulke hosts a rollicking conversation with Cat Fitzpatrick and Casey Plett about LittlePuss Press, trans publishing, and what it's like to run a small press. Finally, Drew chats with McKayla Coyle and Oliver Scialdone about fan-fiction in a conversation with perhaps more giggles-per-minute than any we've yet aired on the show. Maybe.

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Well, we jinxed it last week by saying that there was only one more news story! Turns out 2024 isn't done with us, thanks to a handsome assassin who stole the internet's heart. Naturally, we took a look at what he was reading—plus, some more best-of list chat!

• Drew, Jonny, Calvin, and James chat about whether or not you can put together a profile of a person based on their reading habits—and what Luigi Mangione's Goodreads really says (or doesn't say) about him.
• Dan Sheehan tells Drew about BookMarks' year-end plans—including some great reviews and some great pans.
• Molly Odintz and Drew discuss the SFFH best-of list as well as CrimeReads' year-end list bonanza!

Music by Dani Lencioni of Evelyn

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It's the holiday season—which means that end-of-year lists are really kicking off, and we will be getting into that more in depth in the weeks to come... but the news hasn't quite finished having its way with us, so we're going to do one more proper news story before the year is out. And guess what: it's about AI!

• Drew, Jonny, Calvin, and James discuss the existential threat and/or possible nothing-burger (but either way, definitely environmentally terrible) reality of AI and the creative industries. (Read our AI-related writing!)

• Robin Whitten, editor of AudioFile Magazine, drops in to talk about Behind the Mic and AudioFile's "best of 2024" lists.

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Happy Thanksgiving! We're thankful for you, listeners—and so here is a little treat of an episode, a bit wild and a bit longer than usual but we figured you might need something special for that Black Friday rush.

• Merve Emre announces season two (and three!) of The Critic and Her Publics
• Jonny Diamond and Drew ask you for money
• Drew hosts a raucous round-table with McKayla Coyle, Oliver Scialdone, and Calvin Kasulke about awards season, why awards should give you cash, and more

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It's a big episode this week, because it is raining in New York (finally!) and we just have a lot of cool stuff to share.

• Jessie Gaynor drops in to chat about having ChatGPT attempt classic poetry and the dangers of AI-assisted art

• Drew talks with The Public Theater's Jack Phillips Moore about the latest revival of Gatz, a verbatim adaptation of The Great Gatsby

• Jonny Diamond celebrates a year of literary assholes with Kristen Arnett and drops a live "Am I the Literary Asshole?" question on our columnist

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Samantha Harvey's Orbital won the Booker Prize! Next week, it's the National Book Awards! It's cold and flu season! Gosh, the year is really flying by.

• Jessie Gaynor talks with Jadie Stillwell and Nicole Blackwood about their piece on the Nancy Drew Convention and the sleuth's enduring appeal

• Ryan Chapman leaves a voicemail about his failed Booker prediction

• Drew reads some delightful answers to the Lit Hub Questionnaire from the 2024 National Book Award Finalists

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No theme music, so you know it's serious.

IN THIS EP:

• Jonny Diamond talks to Drew about some ways that Lit Hub hopes to respond to the idea of a second Trump Presidency

• Drew sits down with Ryan Chapman (The Audacity) to get his thoughts on the 2024 Booker Prize in advance of his forthcoming Sewanee Review column—recorded live at one of Lit Hub's "10 of the Best Bookstores in the World," Rough Draft Bar & Books

• Lena Crown introduces the newest Lit Hub Radio show: Awakeners.

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Spooky season is officially over, which means it's Bookmatch time! Our friends at n+1 have launched their holiday fundraising book quiz once again—and this year, it coincides with a celebration of the magazine's twenty anniversary. It's the right moment to celebrate, so celebrate we shall...

• Jonny Diamond in conversation with n+1 co-editors Mark Krotov and Dayna Tortorici on the history and future of the little magazine and the new collection celebrating the magazine's last decade, The Intellectual Situation

• Brittany Allen on curating a sex-work-positive reading list after seeing Anora

• Drew urges everyone to vote—and to vote in such a way that takes care of your community

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It's a bookseller-heavy episode this week—just in time to start thinking about shopping local/indie for your holiday shopping needs...

• Drew expands on his recent piece about the low-quality paperbacks suddenly showing up in bookstores

• Calvin Kasulke talks to Ramsey Kanaan of PM Press about his leftist press taking ownership of Autumn Leaves, the legendary indie bookstore in Ithaca, NY

• Maris Kreizman drops in to discuss her latest column on the need for better fact-checking

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It's mid-October which means we are in the thick of spooky season—and we've got a spooky spectacular for you this week!

• Tune in to James Folta calling Literary Terrors Bingo live at the community center in Halloweentown

• Olivia Rutigliano drops in to talk to Drew about the strange similarities between the collapse of the publishing mid-list and the recent spate of streaming cancellations

• A conversation about reading weird books with Drew Broussard, McKayla Coyle, and Oliver Scialdone

MENTIONED:

 The Companion by E.E. Ottoman • Paradise Rot by Jenny Hval • Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield • Earthlings by Sayaka Murata • You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine by Alexandra Kleeman • Plain Bad Heroines by Emily Danforth • Bizarre Publishing House • Coup de Grace by Sofia Ajram • Revelator by Daryl Gregory • Curses by George Wylesol

A Lit Hub Radio Podcast

Hosted by Drew Broussard

Music by Dani Lencioni of Evelyn

Mixed and Engineered at Stardust House

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As part of The Issues 2024, this episode is largely about unions and labor—but also, a little bit more about romance books because it turns out... people really like romance books!

• Lit Hub EIC Jonny Diamond talks with Kim Kelly, author of Fight Like Hell: The Untold History of American Labor, about the challenges facing organized labor in the 2020s but also the still-young history of the labor movement in America
• Drew Broussard and McKayla Coyle talk about getting into reading romance novels
• Alexandra Kleeman offers an elegy for the late Robert Coover

Hosted by Drew Broussard

Music by Dani Lencioni of Evelyn

Production and Engineering by Stardust House

A Lit Hub Radio Podcast

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Community. Community, community, community, now more than ever.

We kick things off this week with a special guest: Leila Green Little, lead plaintiff in the ongoing Little v. Llano County book-banning case, chats with both Drew and Anthony Aycock, whose piece about the case ran this week on the site. Then, Drew talks to Benjamin Davis of Chill Subs about their Lit Mag Incubator Program that's going to give away $1000 a piece to five lit mags who need it. And finally, a little suggestion to read Diana Oh's My H8 Letter to the Great American Theater and to hug the people you love.

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What's with all the romance-specific bookstores opening around the country? Have you ever read any translated true crime? And what is horror as a genre, anyway?

• A romance-bookstore-roundtable with Emily Ezell (Blush & Bashful Books, Hopkinsville KY), Leah Koch (The Ripped Bodice, LA & NYC), and Mel Saavedra (Steamy Lit, Deerfield Beach, FLY)
• CrimeReads's Molly Odintz on "True Crime in Translation: A Reading List"
• A sneak peak of Voyage Into Genre's upcoming horror episode, feat. CJ Leede and Kemi Ashing-Giwa

Hosted by Drew Broussard

Music by Dani Lencioni of Evelyn

Production and Engineering by Stardust House

A Lit Hub Radio Podcast

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It's Banned Books Week! There's a new Sally Rooney book! What a week!

• Brittany K. Allen talks to host Drew Broussard about Sally Rooney Mania
• Calvin Kasulke talks to librarian Jess deCourcy Hinds about banned books, libraries, and fighting back against attempts at oppression
• Maris Kreizman stops by with a peek into her latest column

BANNED BOOK RESOURCES:

FReadom Fighters

Advice on writing to elected officials or your local newspaper

Advocate for School Libraries 

Anti-Censorship Toolkit from Book Riot

Librarian Amanda Jones's story of fighting back and suing her tormentors 

Hosted by Drew Broussard

Music by Dani Lencioni of Evelyn

Production and Engineering by Stardust House

A Lit Hub Radio Podcast

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This week:

• James Folta on "Meet the writer who added 'lol' to the end of every sentence of In Search of Lost Time"
• Dan Sheehan talks to Huda Fakhreddine about "Intifada: On Being an Arabic Literature Professor in a Time of Genocide"

Here's a link to the full text of the lol-ed version of In Search of Lost Time.

Hosted by Drew Broussard

Music by Dani Lencioni of Evelyn

Production and Engineering by Stardust House

A Lit Hub Radio Podcast

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This week:

• A Conversation on Lists with Jonny Diamond & Emily Temple
• 17 Novels You Should Read This Fall
• "Am I the Literary Asshole?" with Kristen Arnett
• An Introduction from the Host

Hosted by Drew Broussard

Music by Dani Lencioni of Evelyn

Production and Engineering by Stardust House

A Lit Hub Radio Podcast

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Welcome to The Lit Hub Podcast!

Hosted by LH podcasts editor Drew Broussard, this new weekly show goes behind the scenes at Lit Hub, diving deeper into everything interesting, dynamic, strange, and wonderful in literary culture. Featuring appearances by Lit Hub staff, recurring columnists like Kristen Arnett and Maris Kreizman, and special guests talking about the news of the day and so much more.

New episodes every Friday, wherever you get your podcasts.

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Oh another bad week in the world, and what's a book podcast to do but... talk about Hamlet! Seriously, though: theater belongs in the literary conversation and there's something about the confluence of text and audio that we obviously take very seriously here at Literary Hub or else we wouldn't be doing this podcast!

So, this episode is primarily Make Believe Association's Jeremy McCarter sitting down with Drew for a warm reunion (they've known each other for a long, long time) and a discussion of MB's new production of Hamlet—which takes place entirely from the point of view of the prince. Yeah, it's very cool and you can listen to the whole thing now wherever you get your podcasts. Will it build empathy? Maybe. Will it teach you how to understand character and motivation and direction differently? Absolutely.

Then, as a little treat, James Folta explains the difference between his book recommendations... and your book recommendations.

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Do you have one of the ~iconic~ Joan Didion Lit Hub totes? (You can still get one, ps.) Were you also interested, and then maybe confused, by the 'new' Joan Didion book? Don't worry, we've got you covered this week. We've also got some writer-beware tips for those hoping to get their work out into the world while avoiding a mess like the one at Unbound/Boundless—and also there's a bit of meta/twee fun! A true summer jawn!

First: Evelyn McDonnell (The World According to Joan—coming in paperback this summer!) talks about her essay "Who Thought This Was a Good Idea? On Notes to John and the Selling of Didion's Privacy"

Then: Kate McKean (Write Through It—out next week!) offers some agent-level advice to writers about what to watch out for when looking at agents and publishers.

Finally: Brittany Allen drops in to mutually adore Wes Anderson with Drew, inspired by her "All the Fake Books in Wes Anderson's multiverse, ranked" list before we all (and I do mean we all) go see The Phoenician Scheme this weekend.

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How do you solve a problem like romantasy? What is it like to have written the most banned book in the country? Jenny Hamilton chats about her Reactor essay "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Romantasy?" and George M. Johnson talks banned books, being banned, and their new podcast Fighting Words.

* "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Romantasy?"

* "Natalie's Theory of Urban Fantasy"

* Fighting Words

* All Boys Aren't Blue

* The ALA's Top Ten Banned Books List

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Memorial Day Weekend is upon us and that means: summer reading! Yes, it's true, you can wear white and it's officially summer. Even if it's already been summer where you live, temperature-wise or white-clothing-wise. Drew kicks us off with a bit of a tear about the AI-generated summer reading lists that got syndicated to papers this week (and mentions his own ongoing summer-reading-rec Bluesky offer, which has become unmanageable in a great way) before bringing on Molly Odintz to talk about some books that are exciting for summer.

Then, Calvin Kasulke talks to friend and writing buddy Isaac Fellman about their unique writing relationship and how it helped influence both Calvin's Several People Are Typing and Isaac's latest book Notes from a Regicide.

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Mrs. Dalloway turns 100 this week and it has Drew thinking about old books—and, more specifically, discovering old books. After a lightly eerie reverie, he chats with Nathan Connolly of Dead Ink Books about the pleasures of running a small press and creating a real-life, real-time literary hoax with the Eden Book Society. (If you aren't backing the 1993 collection on Kickstarter, do you even like literary joy?) Then, James Folta chats with Shea Dunlop and Sarah Robbins from Abrams about the in-process unionization vote at Abrams, their experience with a weird union-buster, what they're reading, and why unions make us strong.

* Mia Manzulli on teaching Mrs. Dalloway to high schoolers in 2025

* 100 covers of Mrs. Dalloway

* Dead Ink Books

* The Eden Book Society — 1993 on Kickstarter

* James' "The Abrams Union wants a "more equitable, ethical, and transparent” publisher."

* The Abrams Union on Instagram

* "The Persuaders: Workers Wanted A Union. Then The Mysterious Men Showed Up." by Dave Jamieson on HuffPost

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Summer, to me, means long days and hanging out in nature and Shakespeare — specifically Shakespeare in the Park. After James Folta wrote about NYC Comptroller Brad Lander's sonnet for the ribbon cutting at the revamped Delacorte Theater in Central Park, his office reached out to remind us that the Comptroller has done this multiple times now... and so obviously, Drew had to talk to him about diving into the poetic form and the power of art to build empathy in these otherwise selfish times.

Then, Stefan Tobler (publisher of & Other Stories) drops in to tell Drew what it's like to be a small press that wins a big prize — and why it is that copies of 2025 International Booker Prize winner Heart Lamp have taken so long to reach US bookshops.

Plus, a quick love letter to a recent read: Strange and Perfect Account from the Permafrost!

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