Shows / New Books in Literature
New Books in Literature
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/…
Episodes
- New Books in Literature
Tom Lin, "The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu" (Little, Brown and Company, 2021)
It’s a common tale: a gunman out for revenge in the American West, whose six-shooter leaves a trail of bodies behind him. But The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu…
- New Books in Literature
Jackson Ford, "Eye of the Sh*t Storm" (Orbit, 2021)
Jackson Ford has some things in common with his protagonist, Teagan Frost. Both use nom de plumes. And both can move sh*t. With her telekinetic powers, Teagan…
- New Books in Literature
Pornsak Pichetshote, "The Good Asian, Volume 1" (Image Comics, 2021)
Edison Hark, the star of The Good Asian (Image Comics: 2021), the new comic series written by Pornsak Pichetshote and illustrated by Alexandre Tefenkgi, never…
- New Books in Literature
Jeanne Matthews, "Devil by the Tail" (D.X. Varos, 2021)
Today I talked to Jeanne Matthews about her new novel Devil by the Tail (D.X. Varos, 2021) It’s 1867, and a 20-something civil war widow has just set up a…
- New Books in Literature
Matt Bell, "Appleseed" (Custom House, 2021)
We have a collective memory of a primeval world embodied in myth. It is a world where spirits lived in the trees, water, and mountains, and nature was sacred…
- New Books in Literature
Miljenko Jergović, "Kin" (Translated by R. S. Valentino; Archipelago Books, 2021)
Kin by Miljenko Jergović (Archipelago Books, 2021) is a family story that covers more than a century; it takes readers to various geographical places and…
- New Books in Literature
Helen Sword, "The Writer's Diet: A Guide to Fit Prose" (U Chicago Press, 2016)
Helen Sword, writing champion, brings us into the word gym. Or maybe kitchen. Either way, The Writer's Diet: A Guide to Fit Prose (U Chicago Press, 2016) is a…
- New Books in Literature
Mary Martin Devlin, "The La Motte Woman" (Cuidono Press, 2021)
Jeanne de St.-Rémy has a grudge against the world. Born into the French royal family—if admittedly by a somewhat labyrinthine route—she spends years of her…
- New Books in Literature
Martín Prechtel, "Rescuing the Light: Quotes from the Oral Teachings of Martín Prechtel" (North Atlantic Books, 2021)
Today I interview Martín Prechtel, who's an author and so much more than an author. He's a teacher, a musician, a farmer, a cook, a silversmith, a horseman…
- New Books in Literature
Martín Prechtel, "The Mare and the Mouse: Stories of My Horses Vol. I" (North Star Press, 2021)
Hello, this is Eric LeMay, a host on the New Books Network. Today I interview Martín Prechtel, who's written a book about horses called The Mare and the Mouse…
- New Books in Literature
Erik Hoel, "The Revelations" (Overlook Press, 2021)
An edgy and ambitious debut by a powerful new voice in contemporary literary fiction Monday, Kierk wakes up. Once a rising star in neuroscience, Kierk Suren is…
- New Books in Literature
Greg Larson, "Clubbie: A Minor League Baseball Memoir" (U Nebraska Press, 2021)
Today we are joined by Greg Larson, author of Clubbie: A Minor League Baseball Memoir (University of Nebraska, 2021). In Clubbie, Larson shares his unique…
- New Books in Literature
Michelle Cox, "A Child Lost: A Henrietta and Inspector Howard Novel" (She Writes Press, 2020)
Fifth in the Henrietta and Inspector Howard Mystery Series, A Child Lost (She Writes Press, 2020) begins in 1935, with Henrietta’s younger sister, Elsie…
- New Books in Literature
Talia Lakshmi Kolluri, "The Good Donkey" The Common magazine (Spring, 2021)
Talia Lakshmi Kolluri speaks to managing editor Emily Everett about her story “The Good Donkey,” which appears in The Common’s spring issue. In this…
- New Books in Literature
Daniel Shapiro, "The Thin Ledge: A Husband’s Memoir of Love, Trauma, and Unexpected Circumstances" (Greenleaf, 2021)
Daniel Shapiro was a successful attorney in his early forties when his wife, Susan, suffered a brain bleed and a diagnosis that her future was uncertain…
- New Books in Literature
John Horgan, "Pay Attention: Sex, Death, and Science" (MIT Press, 2020)
What would it feel like to wake up inside the head of someone who writes about science for a living? John Horgan, acclaimed author of the bestseller The End of…
- New Books in Literature
A Conversation with Greg Bailey: Sanskrit Scholar and Novelist
This interview features a candid conversation with Greg Bailey, seasoned scholar of Sanskrit narrative Literature, on his multi-decade work on the Purāṇas and…
- New Books in Literature
Gautam Bhatia, "The Wall" (Harper Collins, 2020)
Gautam Bhatia’s debut novel The Wall (Harper Collins, 2020) is set in Sumer, a city enclosed in an impenetrable, unscalable barrier that seems sky high. To its…
- New Books in Literature
Gina G. Warren, "Hatched: Dispatches from the Backyard Chicken Movement" (U Washington Press, 2021)
Guest Gina Warren discusses her newest book Hatched: Dispatches from the Backyard Chicken Movement, published May 2021 by University of Washington Press…
- New Books in Literature
Ron Nyren, "The Book of Lost Light" (Black Lawrence Press, 2019)
Ron Nyren’s The Book of Lost Light—winner of Black Lawrence Press’s 2019 Big Moose Prize and finalist in the 2020 David J. Langum, Sr. Prize in American…
- New Books in Literature
Mati Shemoelof, "The Prize" (Pardes Publishing, 2021)
In 2016, the German government announces a new prize for Hebrew writers around the world, the Berlin Prize for Hebrew Literature, which will return the Hebrew…
- New Books in Literature
Michael Mohammed Ahmad, "The Other Half of You" (Hachette, 2021)
I only ever asked you for one thing,' my father said, a quiver in his voice. 'Just this one thing.' It was as though I had smashed the Ten Commandments. 'Oh…
- New Books in Literature
Ariana Brown, "We Are Owed." (Grieveland Press, 2021)
Poet Ariana Brown searches for new origins in her debut book We Are Owed. (Grieveland Press, 2021). Brown has had over ten years of experience writing…
- New Books in Literature
Ravi Shankar, “The Five-Room Box” The Common magazine (Spring, 2021)
Ravi Shankar speaks to managing editor Emily Everett about his essay “The Five-Room Box,” which appears in The Common’s spring issue. In this conversation…
- New Books in Literature
Bayo Akomolafe, "These Wilds Beyond Our Fences: Letters to My Daughter on Humanity's Search for Home" (North Atlantic Books, 2017)
In These Wilds Beyond Our Fences: Letters to My Daughter on Humanity's Search for Home (North Atlantic Books, 2017), leading edge thinker and post-activist…
- New Books in Literature
P. Djèlí Clark, "A Master of Djinn" (Tordotcom, 2021)
Nebula, Locus, and Alex Award-winner P. Djèlí Clark goes full-length for the first time in his dazzling debut novel: A Master of Djinn (Tordotcom, 2021)…
- New Books in Literature
Carl Marcum, "A Camera Obscura" (Red Hen Press, 2021)
A Camera Obscura (Red Hen Press, 2021) by Carl Marcum is a lyrical exploration of external and internal worlds. The heavens described in these poems could be…
- New Books in Literature
Pik-Shuen Fung, "Ghost Forest" (One World, 2021)
When her father dies after a drawn-out illness, the unnamed protagonist of Ghost Forest (One World, 2021) wonders how one grieves if a family never talks about…
- New Books in Literature
Jessica Barksdale Inclán, "The Play's the Thing" (TouchPoint Press, 2021)
In a sense, those of us who love historical fiction live vicariously in the past. Many of us also fantasize about traveling in time—meeting our favorite…
- New Books in Literature
Krys Malcolm Belc, "The Natural Mother of the Child: A Memoir of Nonbinary Parenthood" (Counterpoint, 2021)
This year, transgender liberation is at the forefront of Pride Month discourse, with a staggering number of conservative, religious, and gender critical-backed…
- New Books in Literature
Sergio Lopez-Pineiro, "A Glossary of Urban Voids" (Jovis Verlag, 2020)
Hello, this is Eric LeMay, a host on the New Books Network. Today I interview Sergio Lopez-Pineiro about his new book, A Glossary of Urban Voids (2020). It's…
- New Books in Literature
L. Bordetsky-Williams, "Forget Russia: A Novel" (Tailwinds Press, 2020)
"Your problem is you have a Russian soul," Anna's mother tells her. In 1980, Anna is a naïve UConn senior studying abroad in Moscow at the height of the Cold…
- New Books in Literature
Wyatt Townley, “Instructions for the Endgame" The Common magazine (Spring, 2021)
Wyatt Townley speaks to managing editor Emily Everett about her poem “Instructions for the Endgame,” which appears in The Common’s spring issue. In this…
- New Books in Literature
Larry Feign, "The Flower Boat Girl: A Novel Based on a True Story" (Top Floor Books, 2021)
It can be easy to forget amongst the glistening skyscrapers, bustling streets and neon lights, but the Pearl River Delta used to be a haven for banditry and…
- New Books in Literature
Sarah Gailey, "The Echo Wife" (Tor Books, 2021)
Where does DNA end and the soul begin? It’s a question that Evelyn Caldwell, the brilliant genetic researcher at the center of Sarah Gailey’s The Echo Wife…
- New Books in Literature
Karen Salyer McElmurray, "Wanting Radiance" (UP of Kentucky, 2020)
Today I talked to Karen Salyer McElmurray about her novel Wanting Radiance (UP of Kentucky, 2020). Fifteen-year-old Miracelle Loving hears the gunshot that…
- New Books in Literature
ʿAbd al-Laṭīf al-Baghdādī, "A Physician on the Nile: A Description of Egypt and Journal of the Famine Years" (NYU Press, 2021)
A Physician on the Nile: A Description of Egypt and Journal of the Famine Years (NYU Press, 2021) is a unique text that will fascinate specialists and general…
- New Books in Literature
Alisse Waterston and Charlotte Corden, "Light in Dark Times: The Human Search for Meaning" (U Toronto Press, 2020)
Today I spoke to anthropologist Alisse Waterston and artist Charlotte Corden to ask them questions, such as: What will become of us in these trying times? How…
- New Books in Literature
Silvia Spring, “The Home Front” The Common magazine (Fall, 2020)
Silvia Spring speaks to managing editor Emily Everett about her debut short story “The Home Front,” which appears in The Common’s fall issue. In this…
- New Books in Literature
Brooke Rollins, "The Ethics of Persuasion: Derrida's Rhetorical Legacies" (Ohio State UP, 2020)
Listen to this interview of Brooke Rollins, Assistant Professor of English at Lehigh University. We talk about lots of Greeks and about one Frenchman and (if…
- New Books in Literature
Lee Zacharias, "What a Wonderful World this Could Be" (Madville Publishing, 2021)
Today I talked to Lee Zacharias about her new book What a Wonderful World this Could Be (Madville Publishing, 2021). Alex has always wanted a real family. Her…
- New Books in Literature
Constance Congdon, "2 Washington Square" (Broadway Play Publishing, 2020)
Constance Congdon's 2 Washington Square (Broadway Play Publishing, 2020) is a free-wheeling adaptation of Henry James' novel Washington Square set on the cusp…
- New Books in Literature
Anahid Nersessian, "Keats's Odes: A Lover's Discourse" (U Chicago Press, 2021)
In this episode, I interview Anahid Nersessian, professor of English at UCLA, about her book, Keats’s Odes: A Lover’s Discourse (University of Chicago Press…
- New Books in Literature
Sara Davis, "The Scapegoat: A Novel" (FSG, 2021)
David Lodge meets Franz Kafka meets Stephen King? All attempts to classify The Scapegoat, let alone to summarize what happens in this compelling and terribly…
- New Books in Literature
Andy Weir, "Project Hail Mary: A Novel" (Ballantine Books, 2021)
A story about an alien invasion typically revolves around diplomacy, military strategy, technological one-upmanship, and brinksmanship. But the invaders in…
- New Books in Literature
Robert C. Bartlett, "Against Demagogues: What Aristophanes Can Teach Us about the Perils of Populism and the Fate of Democracy" (U California Press, 2020)
Political Theorist Robert Bartlett spoke with the New Books in Political Science podcast about two of his recent publications, which take on translating the…
- New Books in Literature
Samira Shackle, "Karachi Vice: Life and Death in a Contested City" (Melville House, 2021)
A young man who turns his desire to join the army into a long stint as a volunteer ambulance driver. A teacher living in an old slum who is the only one…
- New Books in Literature
Diana Stevan, "Lilacs in the Dust Bowl" (Peregrin Publishing, 2021)
Author Diana Stevan's sequel to the award-winning Sunflowers Under Fire. Lukia's story continues in Lilacs in the Dust Bowl (Peregrin Publishing, 2021), an…
- New Books in Literature
Ava Reid, "The Wolf and the Woodsman" (Harper Voyager, 2021)
Today I talked to Ava Reid about her new book The Wolf and the Woodsman (Harper Voyager, 2021) The wolf, in the title refers to a pagan woman, given to the…
- New Books in Literature
Bethany Hicok, "Elizabeth Bishop and the Literary Archive" (Lever Press, 2020)
What more can we learn about legendary American writer Elizabeth Bishop (1911-79), dubbed by Bethany Hicok “the most stunning poet of the twentieth century”…
- New Books in Literature
Kevin McIlvoy, "One Kind Favor: A Novel" (WTAW Press, 2021)
Based loosely on a tragic real-life incident in 2014, One Kind Favor (WTAW Press, 2021) explores the consequences of the lynching of a young black man in rural…
- New Books in Literature
Martin Shaw, "Smoke Hole: Looking to the Wild in the Time of the Spyglass" (Chelsea Green, 2021)
At a time when we are all confronted by not one, but many crossroads in our modern lives—identity, technology, trust, politics, and a global…
- New Books in Literature
Nicole Danielle, "Broken Ballads: A Poetry Collection" (2019)
For as often as it may seem to be the case, life doesn’t exist in extremes. Whatever pain, love, desire, or hurt, moving through life is a balancing act. We…
- New Books in Literature
KC Trommer, “The Couple,” The Common magazine (Fall, 2020)
KC Trommer speaks to managing editor Emily Everett about her poem “The Couple,” which appears in The Common’s fall issue. In this conversation, Trommer…
- New Books in Literature
Kate Lebo, "The Book of Difficult Fruit: Arguments for the Tart, Tender, and Unruly (with Recipes)" (FSG, 2021)
Guest Kate Lebo discusses her newest book, The Book of Difficult Fruit: Arguments for the Tart, Tender, and Unruly with Recipes (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux…
- New Books in Literature
Catherine Menon, "Fragile Monsters" (Viking, 2021)
The year is 1985. Durga is visiting her grandmother Mary in rural Malaysia. It’s not a particularly happy occasion: Mary is tough and sharp-tongued, and “home”…
- New Books in Literature
Joanna Scott, "Excuse Me While I Disappear" (Little, Brown & Company, 2021)
Joanna Scott is the author of 12 works of fiction, including Arrogance, a PEN/Faulkner finalist; and The Manikin, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Her awards…
- New Books in Literature
Dianne Jacob, "Will Write for Food" (Hachette Go, 2021)
Do you have a cookbook in you? Thinking about a memoir with recipes? How about a food blog? Have you ever yearned to be an Instagram Influencer or dreamt of…
- New Books in Literature
Gale Massey, "Rising and Other Stories" (Bronzeville Books, 2021)
In story after story in her diverse new collection, Rising and Other Stories, Gale Massey illustrates the moments that shape and alter destiny. Bringing each…
- New Books in Literature
Association of Asian American Studies Book Awards 2021: Benjamín Naka-Hasebe Kingsley and Jan-Henry Gray
This is the second episode of a four-part series featuring the winners and honorable mentions of the 2021 Book Awards for the Association of Asian American…