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/
Follow us on Instagram and Bluesky to learn about more our latest interviews: @newbooksnetwork
1726
Linda Nagata, “The Last Good Man” (Mythic Islan...
In The Last Good Man (Mythic Island Press, 2017), Linda Nagata uses a brisk and bracing writing style to immerse us into the lives of private military contractors, in the near future. The team, basically moral individuals,
39 min
1727
Sarah Ladipo Manyika, “Like a Mule Bringing Ice...
Sarah Ladipo Manyika’s second novel, Like a Mule Bringing Ice Cream to the Sun (Cassava Republic Press, 2016), is an excellent addition to the larger, and ever-expanding, genre of Nigerian literature. The novella begins slowly,
25 min
1728
Marlene Banks, “Ruth’s Redemption” (Lift Every ...
It’s A Love Story. Set in the 1800s, Ruth’s Redemption (Lift Every Voice, 2012), is an unusual depiction of the lives of slaves and free blacks in pre-Civil War America. Although a slave, Bo is educated. When he gets his freedom,
27 min
1729
David Kushner, “Rise of the Dungeon Master: Gar...
Rise of the Dungeon Master: Gary Gygax and the Creation of D and D (Nation Books, 2017) by David Kushner and illustrated by Koren Shadmi is a gorgeous depiction of the late E. Gary Gygax’s life and times. Gygax’s story and the tale of D and D’s genesis...
21 min
1730
Kathy Wilson Florence, “Jaybird’s Song” (Kathy ...
Josie Flint, known as Jaybird, narrates her story of life in Atlanta during the turbulent South as Jim Crow laws come to an end. Her school desegregates. The country meanders through new ideas brought about by the Civil Rights movement.
20 min
1731
Gabrielle Mathieu, “The Falcon Flies Alone” (Fi...
Peppa Mueller has a lot going for her. The daughter of a deceased Harvard professor who gave her an eclectic upbringing, she is heir to his fortune, and Radcliffe has accepted her application for undergraduate study in chemistry–her gift and her passio...
52 min
1732
Nicky Drayden, “The Prey of Gods” (Harper Voyag...
The Prey of the Gods, published by Harper Voyager on June 13th, is Nicky Drayden‘s debut novel, though she’s published many short stories. It’s a compassionate work, despite a neglected blood-thirsty goddess and an ancient spirit who assaults women in ...
40 min
1733
William Walsh, “Forty-Four American Boys: Short...
Whether you’re on the right or the left of the political spectrum, I’ll bet that lately the Office of the President isn’t far from your mind. Every day, it seems, I encounter one, two, three, four stories about President Trump,
48 min
1734
An Interview with Suzanne Gibbs Taylor of Gibbs...
The Gibbs Smith motto is “to enrich and inspire mankind.” Since 1969, the publishing house has become known for creating smart, stylish, sophisticated books. This has included books on architecture and design as well as cooking,
12 min
1735
Michelle Cox, “A Girl Like You: A Henrietta and...
It’s January 1935. Prohibition has just ended, but the Great Depression has not, and much of Chicago remains under the grip of the crime lords who profited from the trade in illegal liquor. Eighteen-year-old Henrietta von Harmon,
51 min
1736
Assaph Mehr, “Murder in Absentia: A Story of To...
Assaph Mehr‘s Murder in Absentia: A Story of Togas, Daggers, and Magic (Purple Toga Publications, 2015) is Egretia, a town in a fantasy world modeled on the Roman Empire, and the occasion is the crime of murder. Felix the Fox, our narrator,
21 min
1737
Roy Bing Chan, “The Edge of Knowing: Dreams, Hi...
Roy Bing Chan‘s new book explores twentieth-century Chinese literature that emphasizes sleeping and dreaming as a way to reckon with the trauma of modernity, from the early May Fourth period through the end of the Cultural Revolution in the late 1970s....
67 min
1738
Territory-A Literary Project about Maps: Discus...
As our name makes clear, the New Books Network focuses on books. And as a host who looks at contemporary literature, I have the pleasure of interviewing authors with new books, ones often published by smaller presses without the huge PR machines of lar...
52 min
1739
Sarah Bracey White, “Primary Lessons: A Memoir”...
As an African-American child growing up in the segregated pre-Civil Rights South, Sarah Bracey White pushed against the social conventions that warned her not to rock the boat, even before she was old enough to fully understand her urge to defy the sta...
27 min
1740
Tiffany Reisz, “The Night Mark” (Mira Books, 2017)
So many people hope to find the perfect soul mate, but suppose you do, only to lose the person you love just as your life together is getting off to a beautiful start? Faye Morgan reacts by tumbling into a new marriage with her first husband’s best fri...
57 min
1741
Aliette de Bodard, “The House of Binding Thorns...
The House of Binding Thorns (Ace, 2017), Aliette de Bodard‘s novel set in a turn-of-the-century Paris devastated by a magical war, is the follow up to The House of Shattered Wings, which won the 2015 British Science Fiction Association Award.
29 min
1742
Marlene Banks, “Son of A Preacher Man” and “Gre...
The tragic Tulsa Race Riots plus a smidgeon of romance equals to a compelling historical saga. Marlene Banks weaves fact and fiction together illustrating how law and culture may change but human nature remains the same in her historical novel series S...
34 min
1743
Leia Penina Wilson, “i built a boat with all th...
There’s a phrase that sometimes comes up among those of us who love poetry. Its called the “heresy of paraphrase.” It’s from a book published in 1947 by Cleanth Brooks titled The Well Wrought Urn, but it captures an idea that goes back to Aristotle.
48 min
1744
Julia Alekseyeva, “Soviet Daughter: A Graphic R...
Julia Alekseyeva’s graphic novel Soviet Daughter: A Graphic Revolution was published by Microcosm Publishing in 2017. This is the intertwining story of two women: Lola, who was born in a Jewish family in Kiev in 1910,
51 min
1745
Li Zhi, “A Book To Burn And A Book To Keep (Hid...
Rivi Handler-Spitz, Pauline C. Lee, and Haun Saussy have created a wonderful resource for readers, researchers, students, and teachers alike. A Book To Burn And A Book To Keep (Hidden): Selected Writings (Columbia University Press,
66 min
1746
Quincy Carroll, “Up to the Mountains and Down t...
Quincy Carroll’s new novel Up to the Mountains and Down to the Countryside: A Novel (Inkshares, 2015) follows the experiences of a handful of expats teaching English in China, simultaneously offering a compelling story and a peek into various ways of m...
42 min
1747
David Rosen and Aaron Santesso, “The Watchman i...
“Surveillance and literature, as kindred practices, have light to shed on each other.” When David Rosen and Aaron Santesso considered the discipline of surveillance studies in the wake of the attacks on September 11, 2001,
66 min
1748
Polly Buckingham, “The Expense of a View” (U. N...
Mental illness and other emotional troubles are relatable experiences for Polly Buckingham, author of the new collection of short stories, The Expense of a View (University of North Texas Press, 2016). In this collection,
47 min
1749
Holly Charles, “Velvet” (AuthorHouse, 2013)
Have you ever wondered about your family history, and how family traditions or secrets through the years may affect you, your behavior, and major aspects of your life? Velvet (AuthorHouse, 2013) begins with Ludie, a young,
71 min
1750
Marcia Aldrich, “Waveform: 21st-Century Essays ...
Back in 2013, in The New York Times, essayist Christy Wampole declared that we are in a moment of “the essayification of everything.” She noted how not only the genre, but also the genres inventor, Michel de Montaigne,
46 min