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
Emily B. Martin, "Sunshield: A Novel" (Harper Voyager, 2020)
A frustrated prince out to make a name for himself, a mysterious young woman who goes by the name of the Sunshield Bandit, and a prisoner named Tamsin — Emily…
- New Books in Literature
P. W. Singer and A. Cole, "Burn-In: A Novel of the Real Robotic Revolution" (HMH, 2020)
In P. W. Singer and August Cole's groundbreaking book, Burn-In: A Novel of the Real Robotic Revolution (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2020), an FBI agent hunts a…
- New Books in Literature
Ilze Hugo, "The Down Days" (Skybound Books, 2020)
Few science fiction writers have their vision of the future tested upon publication. But that’s what happened to Ilze Hugo, whose novel about a mysterious…
- New Books in Literature
Sohrab Ahmari, "From Fire, by Water: My Journey to the Catholic Faith" (Ignatius Press, 2019)
Youthful arrogance. Hipster alienation. A lot of reading. A lot of drinking. Struggles to adjust to a land radically different from the one that one has left…
- New Books in Literature
Connie Kronlokhen, "So Are You to My Thoughts" (Lightly Held Books, 2020)
So Are You to My Thoughts (Lightly Held Books, 2020 is the seventh novel in a series about the Mikkelson siblings and loosely based loosely on the author’s…
- New Books in Literature
Sarah Knott, "Mother is a Verb: An Unconventional History" (Penguin, 2020)
Mothering is as old as human existence. But how has this most essential experience changed over time and cultures? What is the history of maternity—the history…
- New Books in Literature
Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, "The Age of Phillis" (Wesleyan UP, 2020)
Jennifer J. Davis speaks with Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, Professor of English at the University of Oklahoma, about The Age of Phillis (Wesleyan UP, 2020)…
- New Books in Literature
Will Thomas, "Lethal Pursuit" (Minotaur, 2019)
London, 1892. Private enquiry agents Cyrus Barker and Thomas Llewelyn have been tasked by the Prime Minister to deliver a satchel to the Vatican. The satchel…
- New Books in Literature
Maggie Kast, "Side by Side but Never Face to Face" (Orison Books, 2020)
During the first few stories, we think the book centers on Manfred, an Austrian Holocaust survivor whose parents converted out of Judaism to save him from…
- New Books in Literature
Crissy Van Meter, "Creatures: A Novel" (Algonquin Books, 2020)
Going back and forth in time, Evangeline (Evie) recalls the challenges of being raised on a lush island off the coast of California. Her mother has left Evie…
- New Books in Literature
Donna Hemans, "Tea by the Sea" (Red Hen Press, 2020)
A new father walks out of the hospital with his day-old baby while the mother recuperates from giving birth. He tells a series of lies and moves houses or…
- New Books in Literature
Sarah M. Sala, "Devil's Lake" (Tolsun Books, 2020)
Devil's Lake (Tolsun Books, 2020), the debut collection by Sarah Sala, is an amalgam of American life. The poems move deftly within a world that is equal parts…
- New Books in Literature
Barbara Monier, "The Rocky Orchard" (Amika Press, 2020)
Sitting on the porch swing at her family’s vacation house, Mazie sees an old woman cutting through the orchard across the way and offers her a glass of water…
- New Books in Literature
Kristin O’Donnell Tubb, "The Story Collector" (Henry Holt, 2018)
On this special kids-at-home episode of the New Books Network, Dr. Lee Pierce (s/t) interviews middle grade reader author Kristin O’Donnell Tubb about The…
- New Books in Literature
Eric LeMay, "Remember Me: An Essay" (CutBank 2020)
This, my first podcast for the New Books Network, was a hard one … but, a good one. Listen in, as I talk cancer, parenting, writing, and Shakespeare’s Hamlet…
- New Books in Literature
Janie Chang, "The Library of Legends" (William Morrow, 2020)
Perhaps in anticipation of the seventy-fifth anniversary of the armistice, or just the reality that the last survivors will not be with us much longer, World…
- New Books in Literature
Tochi Onyebuchi, "Riot Baby" (Tor.com, 2020)
Tochi Onyebuchi’s Riot Baby (Tor.com, 2020) tells the story of two siblings—Ella, who is gifted with powers of precognition and telekinesis, and her younger…
- New Books in Literature
Frederik H. Green, "Bird Talk and Other Stories by Xu Xu: Modern Tales of a Chinese Romantic" (Stone Bridge Press, 2020)
Xu Xu (1908-1980) was one of the most widely read Chinese authors of the 1930s to 1960s. His popular urban gothic tales, his exotic spy fiction, and his…
- New Books in Literature
Erica Bauermeister, "House Lessons: Renovating a Life" (Sasquatch Books, 2020)
From the New York Times, best selling author Erica Bauermeister comes House Lessons: Renovating a Life (Sasquatch Books, 2020). This memoir is about the power…
- New Books in Literature
Gabriel Bump, "Everywhere You Don’t Belong" (Algonquin Books, 2020)
Abandoned by his parents and raised by a strong-willed grandmother and her live-in friend, Claude McKay Love just wants to have friends and fit in at school or…
- New Books in Literature
Brian Greene, "Until the End of Time: Mind, Matter, and Our Search for Meaning in an Evolving Universe" (Random House, 2020)
Brian Greene is a Professor of Mathematics and Physics at Columbia University in the City of New York, where he is the Director of the Institute for Strings…
- New Books in Literature
Alice C. Early, "The Moon Always Rising" (She Writes Press, 2020)
At the dawn of the new millennium, Els Gordon finds herself adrift – she’s in mourning for her fiancé and her father, she’s lost the inheritance of her…
- New Books in Literature
Kathryn H. Ross, "Black Was Not a Label" (Pronto, 2019)
Kathryn H. Ross has found a balance. Between past and present. Between self and ancestors. Between self-discovery and continuous growth. In her hybrid…
- New Books in Literature
Megan E. O'Keefe, "Velocity Weapon" (Orbit, 2019)
Velocity Weapon (Orbit, 2019) by Megan E. O’Keefe centers on siblings: Biran, a member of an elite cadre that controls the interstellar gates by which humans…
- New Books in Literature
Chip Jacobs, "Arroyo" (Rare Birds Books, 2019)
Two guys named Nick Chance, both with clairvoyant dogs named Royo, both inventors living in Pasadena, California – in 1913 and 1993. The original Nick, who…
- New Books in Literature
S. M. Hardy, "The Evil Within" (Allison and Busby, 2020)
Jim, our narrator, experiences a crisis of conscience in the wake of the possible suicide of his girlfriend. He quits his high-paying job seizing assets for a…
- New Books in Literature
Caridad Svich, "The Hour of All Things and Other Plays" (Intellect Books, 2018)
The Hour of All Things and Other Plays (Intellect Books, 2018) collects four plays by Caridad Svich, a 2012 OBIE for Lifetime Achievement playwright. The plays…
- New Books in Literature
Chris Fleming, "On Drugs" (Giramondo Publishing, 2019)
"After I’d finished my rapid-fire history of self-justification he paused and then said, deadpan and rural-Australian-slow: 'Right. Ok. So how is that all…
- New Books in Literature
Marco Rafalà, "How Fires End" (Little A, 2019)
In a sad but loving tribute to his Sicilian-Italian heritage, Marco Rafala’s debut novel How Fires End (Little A, 2019) centers on the haunting legacy of WWII…
- New Books in Literature
Lana Lesley, "Rude Mechs’ Lipstick Traces" (53rd State, 2019)
Rude Mechs’ Lipstick Traces (53rd State Press, 2019) is Lana Lesley’s graphic novelization of Lipstick Traces by Austin-based theatre collective Rude Mechs…
- New Books in Literature
Laura Lam, "Goldilocks" (Orbit, 2020)
Laura Lam’s new book Goldilocks (Orbit, 2020) takes readers into space with an all-female crew bound for a distant Earth-like planet. The all-female crew isn’t…
- New Books in Literature
Janice Hadlow, "The Other Bennet Sister" (Henry Holt, 2020)
It is well known that the novels of Jane Austen (1775–1817), which enjoyed at best a modest success during her lifetime, have become ever more popular in the…
- New Books in Literature
Martin Shaw, "Courting the Wild Twin" (Chelsea Green, 2020)
Today I interview Martin Shaw. In Shaw’s new book, Courting the Wild Twin (Chelsea Green Publishing, 2020), he writes, “Here’s a secret I don’t share very…
- New Books in Literature
Leslie M. Harris, "Slavery and the University: Histories and Legacies" (U Georgia Press, 2019)
Slavery and the University: Histories and Legacies (University of Georgia Press, 2019), edited by Leslie M. Harris, James T. Campbell, and Alfred L. Brophy, is…
- New Books in Literature
Archana Venkatesan, "Endless Song: Tiruvaymoli" (Penguin, 2010)
Endless Song (Oxford University Press, 2019) is Dr. Archana Venkatesan’s exquisite translation of the Tiruvaymoli (sacred utterance), a brilliant 1102-verse…
- New Books in Literature
Kevin Miller, "Fight Fight" (Braveship Books, 2018)
In this interview we discuss Fight Fight (Braveship Books, 2018), book 3 of the Raven One series. In Fight Fight, former aviator Kevin Miller explores the next…
- New Books in Literature
Margaret Randall, "I Never Left Home: Poet, Feminist, Revolutionary" (Duke UP, 2020)
Margaret Randall’s new memoir, I Never Left Home: Poet, Feminist, Revolutionary was published by Duke University Press in March 2020. Randall, born in New York…
- New Books in Literature
Matthew Quirk, "Hour of the Assassin" (William Morrow, 2020)
After a decade spent protecting public officials, Nick Averose has the unique ability to think like an assassin. Now he works as a red-teamer, who tests…
- New Books in Literature
Sarah Adleman, "The Lampblack Blue of Memory: My Mother Echoes" (Tolsun, 2019)
The Houston Chronicle’s review of Sarah Adleman’s The Lampblack Blue of Memory: My Mother Echoes (Tolsun 2019) praises that the book “dissects the feelings…
- New Books in Literature
Rowan Hisayo Buchanan, "Starling Days" (The Overlook Press, 2020)
Mina completed a doctorate in Classics but can’t find a tenure track position. She earns money by teaching adjunct classes and tutoring in Latin. Mina’s…
- New Books in Literature
Keren Landsman, "The Heart of the Circle" (Angry Robot, 2019)
dReed Katz is in many ways an ordinary guy. He shares an apartment in Tel Aviv with his best friend, Daphne, works in a coffee shop, crushes on Lee, a…
- New Books in Literature
Jaime Baum, "Then She Woke Up" (2019)
One summer, Joni Griffith Wexler realizes that she hasn’t paid enough attention to her life. While her sons are at sleepaway camp and her husband immersed in…
- New Books in Literature
Tyler Hayes, "The Imaginary Corpse" (Angry Robot, 2019)
Tyler Hayes's The Imaginary Corpse (Angry Robot, 2019) offers an escape from the unending stress of the Covid-19 pandemic with three simple words: plush yellow…
- New Books in Literature
Octavia Cade, "Mary Shelley Makes a Monster" (Aqueduct Press, 2019)
In Octavia Cade's brilliant collection of poetry Mary Shelley Makes a Monster (Aqueduct Press, 2019), the famous author of Frankenstein crafts a creature out…
- New Books in Literature
Mari Coates, "The Pelton Papers" (She Writes Press, 2020)
Like the better-known and perhaps luckier Georgia O’Keeffe, the American painter Agnes Pelton also found her unique vision in the western desert. As Mari…
- New Books in Literature
George Scialabba, "How To Be Depressed" (U Penn Press, 2020)
George Scialabba is a prolific critic and essayist known for his incisive, wide-ranging commentary on literature, philosophy, religion, and politics. He is…
- New Books in Literature
Shelly Hoover, "Timeless Sisters: Peace at the River"
Janene, Cora, and Amadahy live on the banks of the river in a small North Carolina town, but they live centuries apart. Janene, a modern-day high school…
- New Books in Literature
C. Baker and P. Phongpaichit, "From the Fifty Jātaka: Selections from the Thai Paññāsa Jātaka" (Silkworm Books, 2019)
The Jātaka tales, or stories of the Buddha’s previous lives as a bodhisatta, are included in the Pāli Canon and have for centuries been a rich source of…
- New Books in Literature
Mark Haber, "Reinhardt's Garden" (Coffee House Press, 2019)
Ten men have already died while searching the jungles of Uruguay for a reclusive writer, Emiliano Gomez Carrasquilla, who Jacov Reinhardt believes knows the…
- New Books in Literature
Jake Kaminski, "The Shadow Wolves" (Page Publishing, 2019)
In his novel The Shadow Wolves (Page Publishing, 2019), Jake Kaminski tells the story of Ethan Crowe, a Lakota Sioux tracker who spent a career with the Delta…
- New Books in Literature
Ken Liu, "The Hidden Girl and Other Stories" (Gallery/Saga Press, 2020)
Ken Liu’s second collection of speculative stories explores migration, memory, and a post-human future through the eyes of parents and their children. Whether…
- New Books in Literature
James Rosone, "Rigged" (Front Line, 2019)
In military thrillers, many authors attempt to create plausible conflicts and many come up short, but James Rosone and Miranda Watson's Rigged (Front Line…
- New Books in Literature
Stephen Jenkinson, "Come of Age: The Case for Elderhood in a Time of Trouble" (North Atlantic Books, 2018)
Today I interviewed Stephen Jenkinson. He’s not only an author, an activist, a musician, and the founder of a school, but also an inspired etymologist, a…
- New Books in Literature
Carrie Vaughn, "The Immortal Conquistador" (Tachyon Publications, 2020)
Ricardo de Avila would have followed Coronado to the ends of the earth. Instead, Ricardo found the end of his mortal life, and a new one, as a renegade…
- New Books in Literature
K. M. Szpara, "Docile" (Tor.com, 2020)
In Docile (Tor.com, 2020), the debut novel by K.M. Szpara, people pay off family debts by working as indentured personal assistants to the ultra-wealthy. Tor…
- New Books in Literature
Maya Rodale, "An Heiress to Remember" (Avon Books, 2020)
As Maya Rodale notes early in this interview, romance novels tend not to get the same respect as other categories of fiction, historical or otherwise. Here…
- New Books in Literature
Berry Grass, "Hall of Waters" (Operating System, 2019)
Today I interview Berry Grass, an essayist with a powerful new collection of linked essays called Hall of Waters (Operating System, 2019). Grass’s aim is…
- New Books in Literature
Eliza Griswold, "If Men, Then" (FSG, 2020)
Eliza Griswold writes in Snow in Rome, "we hate being human,/depleted by absence." In her latest poetry collection, If Men, Then (Farrar, Straus and Giroux…
- New Books in Literature
Laura Waterman, "Starvation Shore" (U Wisconsin Press, 2019)
Laura Waterman talks about her novel, Starvation Shore (University of Wisconsin Press, 2019), which relies upon memoirs, letters, and diaries to reconstruct…
- New Books in Literature
Sarah Abrevaya Stein, "A Sephardic Journey Through the Twentieth Century" (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2019)
In Family Papers: A Sephardic Journey Through the Twentieth Century (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2019), Sarah Abrevaya Stein weaves a narrative tapestry whose…