This podcast is a channel on the New Books Network. The New Books Network is an academic audio library dedicated to public education. In each episode you will hear scholars discuss their recently published research with another expert in their field. Discover our 150+ channels and browse our 28,000+ episodes on our website: newbooksnetwork.com Subscribe to our free weekly Substack newsletter to get informative, engaging content straight to your inbox: https://newbooksnetwork.substack.com/ Follow us on Instagram and Bluesky to learn about more our latest interviews: @newbooksnetwork Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literature
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Sep 29, 2026 · 32:05
In this NBN episode, host Hollay Ghadery speaks with Robin Blackburn McBride about her novel, River of Dreams (Guernica Editions, 2026). A near-tragic accident. A life-changing…
Sep 28, 2026 · 41:11
Now I'm Photogenic and Other Stories I Tell Myself (Black Lawrence Press, 2026) is a collection of ten playfully strange and unsettling stories, some realistic and some surreal.…
Sep 28, 2026 · 38:25
In this NBN episode, host Hollay Ghadery speaks with Liz Johnston about her eagerly anticipated debut novel, The Fall-Down Effect (Book*hug, 2026). The Fall-Down Effect traces…
Sep 27, 2026 · 50:33
Wastelands and Wonderlands : Utopias and Dystopias in Film and Literature with Matthew Leggatt (SUNY Press, 2026) is an edited collection exploring utopias ad dystopias in films…
Sep 26, 2026 · 39:21
DON’T FALL IN LOVE. That’s the only rule. In this world, everyone knows their death date. If you’re rich, you can check in to a resort to have the greatest final few weeks of…
Sep 25, 2026 · 31:02
Liz DeWolf speaks to Emily Everett about her story “ Ex Situ ,” which appear in The Common’s spring issue. The story follows an American living in Istanbul, navigating the end of…
Sep 23, 2026 · 34:51
In this NBN episode, host Hollay Ghadery speaks with Ed Seaward about his thrilling novel, London Gothic (Dark Winter Press, 2026). In 1975, John Caine and his nineteen-year-old…
Sep 22, 2026 · 29:00
It seems likely that most listeners to this podcast channel have heard of “shell shock,” the old name for what is now called post-traumatic stress disorder (usually abbreviated…
Sep 20, 2026 · 40:21
In Alice Sees Ghosts (Galiot Press, 2026) , Daisy Rockwell tells an unforgettable story of love, grief and wanting closure. A profound exploration of people trying to piece their…
Sep 17, 2026 · 55:46
Whether you’re hoping to publish your first book or you’re a seasoned author with an unfinished proposal languishing on your hard drive, The Book Proposal Book provides honest…
Sep 17, 2026 · 46:49
Psychoanalysing Mind-Body Narratives Through Beckett and Artaud: The Trauma of the Body (Routledge, 2026) provides an epistemology of the body as it relates to subjectivity…
Sep 15, 2026 · 47:59
On September 24, 2021, Rachel Eliza Griffiths married her husband, the novelist Salman Rushdie. On the same day, hundreds of miles away, Griffiths’ closest friend and chosen…
Sep 14, 2026 · 40:47
In this NBN episode, host Hollay Ghadery speaks with award-winning author Rod Carley about The Great Catsby by Hilton , published by Canadian publisher Smart House (September 1,…
Sep 9, 2026 · 38:20
Kabwe, Zambia: Sali, a working mother of three, stands trial for the murder of her husband, Kasunga. The prosecutor claims Sali shot him after a heated fight in their bedroom.…
Sep 9, 2026 · 45:47
When Saul Keng Hsiu and his wife, Mei Lee, move from China to the United States to take possession of a 160-acre homestead bequeathed to them by a distant relative, all they have…
Sep 8, 2026 · 25:35
Beginning in the 1880s and spanning three generations through the 1980s, Vanishing Point (Apprentice House Press, 2026) explores the life and family of Pennsylvania artist George…
Sep 8, 2026 · 44:26
As we approach the 50th anniversaries of Alex Haley’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Roots (1976) and its landmark television adaptation (1977), journalist and storyteller Lucas L.…
Sep 8, 2026 · 34:14
In Pining for You (Simon & Schuster, 2026) the classic Hallmark holiday movie gets turned upside down when a teen leaves her small-town Christmas tree farm in pursuit of the city…
Sep 7, 2026 · 45:40
Gulliver's Travels is one of the landmarks of world literature. Gulliver's adventures with the tiny but spirited Lilliputians, the giant inhabitants of Brobdingnag, the flying…
Sep 2, 2026 · 53:51
In 2024, Nina’s small-engine plane crashes into a lake in the Wyoming mountains. Her boyfriend Ben, who was flying it, is nowhere to be found. Lost and freezing on the shore,…
Aug 29, 2026 · 59:47
In this NBN episode, host Hollay Ghadery speaks with retired lawyer and award-winning author of 10 books, Darlene Madott about her new book, Closing Ceremonies and Dying Times ,…
Aug 28, 2026 · 39:16
In this episode, Rebecca Ruth Gould , Distinguished Professor, Comparative Poetics & Global Politics at SOAS University of London, and University of Puerto Rico professors…
Aug 25, 2026 · 1:01:25
In 2021, the NAACP Image Award-winning poet Honorée Fanonne Jeffers made her fiction debut with The Love Songs of W.E.B. DuBois , a magisterial epic of African American…
Aug 25, 2026 · 37:21
Post Mortem: A Mystery (Knopf, 2026) is the third book in David Lagercrantz's mystery series following detective duo Rekke and Vargas: this time, their hunt for a killer has a…
Aug 21, 2026 · 1:17:35
Three Tenses (Random House, 2026) by Ed Park is not quite a memoir, not quite fiction, not quite poetry and not quite prose—and yet it transcends the sum of all its not-quite…
Aug 20, 2026 · 24:40
For our pandemic-era Books in Dark Times (our first ever Special Series!) Elizabeth and John discussed books that were keeping us afloat, barely afloat, way back in April 2020.…
Aug 18, 2026 · 30:18
Angelica Cheng's YA rom-com, The Fast Track (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2026) brings readers into the world of F1 racing. Justine Kwong has always dreamed of…
Aug 18, 2026 · 40:05
Beloved author and winner of The Story Prize, Paul Yoon, is back with the unforgettable story of a working dog, Etna, who, after a devastating war, embarks on an odyssey in the…
Aug 18, 2026 · 21:11
In All We Hide (Soho Crime 2026), after Lauren Kelly transitions to female in a small-town District Attorney’s Office, her bosses do whatever they can to push her into…
Aug 14, 2026 · 56:57
After Caroline Bicks was named the University of Maineʼs inaugural Stephen E. King Chair in Literature, she became the first scholar to be granted extended access by King to his…
Aug 14, 2026 · 34:39
Lauren Delapenha speaks to Emily Everett about her poems “Supermarketing” and “If You Are Learning English,” which appear in The Common’s spring issue. Lauren also discusses her…
Aug 14, 2026 · 26:07
I love Rhys Bowen’s historical mystery series, especially Her Royal Spyness books, which feature Lady Georgiana Rannoch. The Castle in the Glen (Lake Union Publishing, 2026)…
Aug 12, 2026 · 40:45
In this episode of the New Books Network, we talk with Jeremy Tiang about his English translation of The Formosa Exchange (Honford Star, 2026)—which will be released on September…
Aug 11, 2026 · 47:42
A dazzling novel about a community where an upcoming film production brings their past into sharp focus--and nobody's version is the same. In Derry, the locals are already in a…
Aug 11, 2026 · 27:00
A Song of Legends Lost (Saga Press, 2025) is the first, highly praised instalment in the Invoker Series. Set in a world offering an unique combination of an African inspired…
Aug 11, 2026 · 54:52
Moving between word and image, the call-and-response collaboration between writer Christopher R. Rogers and photographer karim brown improvises a contemporary portrait of…
Aug 10, 2026 · 44:30
The Red Wind Howls (Columbia UP, 2025) is an unsettling, gripping, and darkly funny novel by Tsering Döndrup, one of modern Tibet’s most celebrated writers. First self-published…
Aug 6, 2026 · 42:39
Today, we’re welcoming novelist Tom Lin back to the show, whose new novel Babylon, South Dakota (Little, Brown and Company: 2026) moves his fascination with the American West…
Aug 6, 2026 · 35:32
In Amy B. Scher's The Unexpected Afterlife of Salon Rose (Tiny Ghost Press, 2026) college hopeful Salon Rose arrives to the Nowhere in Between, a way-station between life and…
Aug 4, 2026 · 37:53
There is a changeling in this story—but who? Madeleine is young for motherhood, a promising grad student in Victorian and Modernist literature, twenty-three and not long married.…
Aug 4, 2026 · 40:12
When nobleman Thomas Boleyn, lord of Hever Castle, is called to London in 1509 to present himself to a newly anointed King Henry VIII, he sets in train events that ensure the…
Aug 3, 2026 · 35:57
J.J. Crayhill's Raleigh and the Pirates (Raconteur Press, 2026) is the launch of The Adventures of Midshipman Raleigh — a science fiction adventure series built on the bones of…
Aug 2, 2026 · 34:33
Tune in to this interview with Meryl Branch-McTiernan about her new book What You Should Worry About (Akashic Books, 2026). It's January of 2020 and thirty-seven-year-old Layla…
Aug 1, 2026 · 32:15
Abdelwahab Meddeb’s Returns to Marrakesh , co-translated by Claudia Esposito and Laura Reeck and published by Syracuse University Press in 2026, chronicles Meddeb’s successive…
Aug 1, 2026 · 35:49
John chats with writer and journalist Simon Elegant about his third novel, a crime thriller set during the Hong Kong protests of 2019. City on Fire is published by Pegasus Crime,…
Jul 29, 2026 · 32:44
Black Point (Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2026) is an insular small town steeped in Norse traditions, a teen’s developing romance with a newcomer becomes fraught as dark…
Jul 28, 2026 · 21:21
It’s the 19th century, and a village in northern Michigan is the setting for Adam Bolton’s strange, decrepit house, called Haggard House by the community. He’s eleven, and his…
Jul 27, 2026 · 31:26
A Conversation with author Charles Akl about his debut novel Red Like Orange (Hoopoe, 2026) An offbeat tale of creativity, friendship, and finding your voice in this uproarious…
Jul 26, 2026 · 35:43
In his novel China Running Dog (Plum Rain Press, 2025), a young man in his early twenties lives in Shanghai in the year 2000, in a greed-crazed free-for-all moral and lawless…
Jul 26, 2026 · 55:49
As I Dream of You (First Second, 2026) illustrated by LeUyen Pham and written by Jennifer Lee. Falling in love is supposed to hurt. That’s what Franny and Sam, two cynical…
Jul 23, 2026 · 31:11
A psychological Arabic novel in English translation, The War by Mohamed Alyahyai follows a man who begins to question whether he is truly the one who returned from war. On a…
Jul 21, 2026 · 1:01:14
Will Miles is trapped. Trapped in tiny Greening, Michigan, where a toxic high school rumor has turned her into a social exile. Trapped in the predictable routines of her mother,…
Jul 20, 2026 · 1:11:59
Camille’s Lakou (Vanderbilt UP, 2025) , a novel by Guadeloupean writer and educator Marie Léticée, tells the story of Camille, a young Caribbean girl living with her…
Jul 17, 2026 · 31:35
Lizzie Raju is back in Christy Wilhelmi's sequel Bolting to Seed (Garden Nerd Press, 2026) and she has "Six Reasons Not to Have Kids." Finding a corpse in her happy place wasn't…
Jul 15, 2026 · 30:05
In the midst of texting and cell phones, online websites and GPS, it can be difficult to remember an era when almost all communication took place by landline or snail mail, as…
Jul 14, 2026 · 22:37
It’s 1980, a decade after he dropped out of grad school, and Paul Bishop is a lowly writing instructor at a college in Nevada. His former best friend, Tom Corbin is now the…
Jul 14, 2026 · 37:50
In Molly Fader's latest novel, Lady X: A Novel (Random House, 2026), the search for a notorious vigilante exposes the secrets between three generations of women in this…
Jul 10, 2026 · 28:36
Juliet McShannon speaks to Emily Everett about her story “ Rescue ,” which appears in The Common’s spring issue. The story follows a woman on her search for a lost dog through a…
Jul 9, 2026 · 40:21
Andrew Martin is the author of the novel Early Work, a New York Times Notable book of 2018, and the story collection Cool for America, longlisted for the 2020 Story Prize. His…
Jul 7, 2026 · 24:22
In an ancient kingdom, a princess takes inspiration from a visiting young woman to challenge her father's views and reach for leadership-and then discovers her muse is a man. The…
Jul 5, 2026 · 39:23
In this NBN episode, host Hollay Ghadery speaks with Matthew D. Del Papa, one of the editors of SuperCanucks: An Anthology of Canadian Small-Town Superheroes (Latitude 46…
Jul 5, 2026 · 32:29
Annakeara Stinson's Nerve Damage: A Novel (Knopf, 2026) is a riotous revenge novel about a woman’s quest to escape her stalker ex-boyfriend—by stalking him herself. Clarice’s…
Jul 4, 2026 · 33:24
L.L. Madrid's My Lips, Her Voice (Creature Publishing, 2025) takes place in Copper City, a town who's bloody history is steeped in ghost stories and whispers of serial killers,…
Jul 3, 2026 · 1:00:59
In this debut story collection Patchwork Dolls (Blair, 2026), Ysabelle Cheung weaves an eerie fabulism with tales that cross continents, technology, and time. Set in Hong Kong…
Jun 30, 2026 · 36:58
In this NBN episode, host Hollay Ghadery speaks with David Ly about his novel, Not All Dragons (Wolsak & Wynn, 2026). What is it that you are, Rhys? In a land of magic and myth,…
Jun 30, 2026 · 46:15
Kevin P. Reilly is President Emeritus and Regent Professor with the University of Wisconsin System, having served as President from 2004-13. Kevin grew up in Manhattan and the…
Jun 28, 2026 · 58:46
Monday, June 22—William Kennedy is to Albany what Joyce is to Dublin and Faulkner to Mississippi, a fictional alchemist who transforms his native place into novels at once deeply…
Jun 26, 2026 · 37:28
In this NBN episode, host Hollay Ghadery speaks with YA author Emily De Angelis about her acclaimed novel, The Stones of Burren Bay (Latitude 46 Publishing, 2024). In a tragic…
Jun 23, 2026 · 26:52
In Crown City (A Japantown Mystery) " (Soho Crime, 2026), Ryunosuke “Ryui Wada is orphaned at 18, with no family or path left in Japan. He’s lucky when merchants from the states…
Jun 22, 2026 · 53:19
In Other Lives Our Own (Spuyten Duyvil, 2025) Jason Weiss reflects on travel, language, memory, identity, and the stories we inherit and create. This conversation explores how we…
Jun 21, 2026 · 32:57
Loretta Chefchaouni's debut The Lustrous Dark (Peachtree Teen, 2026) follows protagonist Shay . Orphaned as a baby, Shay has spent her life training as the midwife’s apprentice.…
Jun 19, 2026 · 38:47
In this NBN episode, host Hollay Ghadery speaks with Wendy J. Fox about her novel, The Last Supper, published by Sante Fe Writer's Project, 2026. As stay-at-home mom Amanda turns…
Jun 18, 2026 · 26:39
Romance novels—especially historical romance novels—thrive on heroes and heroines who don’t match in terms of social class. There must be conflict, after all, or the novel would…
Jun 16, 2026 · 38:46
New York Times bestselling author Kimberly McCreight delivers a tour de force of character-driven suspense with her latest novel, Someone Else's Husband (Knopf, 2026), the story…
Jun 13, 2026 · 42:54
From author Justin C. Key comes The Hospital at the End of the World: A Novel (Harper, 2026), set in a near future where artificial intelligence runs the world, involving a young…
Jun 12, 2026 · 40:09
Ro Skelton speaks to Emily Everett about her essay “Naow’s Boutique,” which appears in The Common’s Spring issue. The essay explores Ro’s time living and working in Dakar, where…
Jun 11, 2026 · 52:21
Well, that’s about it for the story of planet Earth, poor Earth, reduced to not much more than a piece of burnt coal. But, as Deb Olin Unferth shows in her latest electrifying…
Jun 9, 2026 · 21:53
With thanks to “forever” plastics, the earth has reverted to sand and dust. Dylan has been raised by her scientist mother, in a pod under the sea, and longs to escape the…
Jun 9, 2026 · 1:02:24
In 1945, Charlie Trammell steps off a cross-country train into the vibrant tapestry of Los Angeles. Lured by his cousin Marguerite’s invitation to the esteemed West Adams…
Jun 8, 2026 · 37:56
In this NBN episode, host Hollay Ghadery speaks with editor, poet, and author, Terese Mason Pierre about As the Earth Dreams: Black Canadian Speculative Stories (Spiderline,…
Jun 4, 2026 · 52:50
Amrita Chowdhury and Ujaan Ghosh bring into English for the first time a long-inaccessible masterpiece of South Asian literature Baidehisha Bilasa: The Amorous Plays of Sita’s…
Jun 3, 2026 · 55:09
With Taiwan Travelogue winning the 2026 International Booker Prize, Taiwanese literature in translation has achieved new heights of visibility in the Anglosphere. In this episode…
Jun 2, 2026 · 19:26
It’s 1940 and Gaby’s parents and sister succumb to Typhus after staying in France to care for Gaby and Sabine’s dying grandmother. The war is in full swing and Gaby can’t get…
Jun 1, 2026 · 41:23
Mackenzi Lee's Masters of the Universe: Teela: Daughter of Eternos (Mattel, 2026) is a young adult tie-in for the Masters of the Universe (2026) film. A FALLEN KINGDOM Four years…
May 26, 2026 · 52:24
In his first work of nonfiction, poet chaun webster blends memoir, archival research, visual poetics, and cultural criticism to trace the ways structural anti-Black violence has…
May 24, 2026 · 39:05
In this NBN episode, host Hollay Ghadery speaks with Elina Penner about her translated novel, Nightberries (CMU Press, 2026, translated by Bradley Schmidt). Where is your…
May 23, 2026 · 47:30
Stephen Fraser is senior literary agent with The Jennifer De Chiara Literary Agency, after having worked as an editor for over 25 years before becoming an agent. He represents…
May 23, 2026 · 47:30
Stephen Fraser is senior literary agent with The Jennifer De Chiara Literary Agency, after having worked as an editor for over 25 years before becoming an agent. He represents…
May 21, 2026 · 27:26
For the RtB Books in Dark Times series back in 2021, John spoke with Elizabeth Bradfield , editor of Broadsided Press , poet, professor of creative writing at Brandeis,…
May 19, 2026 · 49:39
In Canon (Viking, 2026), two unlikely heroes embark on quests to win God’s favor in this outrageously entertaining, profoundly heartfelt novel that announces an ingenious new…
May 18, 2026 · 35:13
In Mike Papantonio's A Death in Arcadia (Arcade Publishing, 2026) Nicholas “Deke”Deketomis Returns to Face His Darkest Case Yet—And His Own Haunted Past When fifteen-year-old…
May 15, 2026 · 37:27
So close to the semiquincentennial, it’s great to see a novel focused on the life of Abigail Adams, a woman appreciated even in her own time—especially by her husband of more…
May 15, 2026 · 24:57
When Artie Howell moves with his wife back to her sleepy hometown, he must protect their son Nicky from the skeletons coming out of the closets from both of their pasts in House…
May 14, 2026 · 53:07
My guest is Caroline Bicks, whose new book Monsters in the Archives: My Year of Fear with Stephen King (Hogarth, 2026) became a bestseller shortly after release. After she was…
May 13, 2026 · 36:53
In this NBN episode, host Hollay Ghadery speaks with J.J. Dupuis about Roanoke Ridge —the first book in his Creature X series published with Dundurn Press, 2020. There’s been a…
May 13, 2026 · 50:20
Maria Ingrande Mora's latest fantasy romance A Wild Radiance (Peachtree Teen, 2026) brings readers to the magical industrial revolution. Josephine Haven is about to find out…
May 12, 2026 · 44:11
Shannon Chakraborty’s novel The Tapestry of Fate , the second installment in the The Adventures of Amina-al Sarafi, encounters the titular Amina at a time of transition. trying…
May 12, 2026 · 19:29
Six years ago, Katya Zamarin’s mother was murdered by a stranger who also maimed her Aunt Julia. More recently, her father died of a heart attack. He visits Katya in a dream, and…
May 11, 2026 · 34:53
In this NBN episode, host Hollay Ghadery speaks with Wesley Brown about how novella, Looking for Frank Wills (McSweenys, 2026). It's 1972. Tricky Dick is in office, James Brown…
May 9, 2026 · 44:04
In her latest young adult novel, Holloway (Clarion Books, 2026), award-winning author Elana K. Arnold returns with a boldly visionary, deeply felt story that crosses space and…
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