New Books in Literature

Marshall Poe
  • 5.0 (8)
  • Arts
  • Updated Daily

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

  1. 3d ago

    chaun webster, "Without Terminus: untraining an archive" (Greywolf, 2026)

    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 shaped his inheritance, and grapples with the question of how to know—and mourn—the kin he was never able to meet.webster is particularly drawn to his grandfather Reginald, who worked for years as a Pullman porter, who was denied rest while his labor enabled rest for others, and who died without receiving a pension before webster was born. Returning to the figures of Reginald and the train, webster explores the relationship between comportment and confinement, speaking in tongues in the Pentecostal church, the ancestral meeting place of dreams, his fraught relationship with his mother, and moments with his own child. Throughout, webster also reflects on nonbiological kinship, tethering his and his predecessors’ lives to those of several historical Black figures—Harriet Jacobs, John Henry, Henry “Box” Brown, and Henry Dumas, a writer who was killed by New York City police while riding the subway.Attempting to exhaust the possibilities of the sentence and the grammar of anti-Blackness, webster riffs and rails on the debris within reach. Part elegy, part archival detective story, and part visual poem, Without Terminus: untraining an archive (Greywolf, 2026) is a philosophically rigorous and deeply moving text that takes us beyond the archive of loss. You can find the works chaun references during our conversation, as well as a further discussion about literary form, at the Additions to the Archive Substack. Follow chaun webster on Instagram. Subscribe, like, follow, and rate Additions to the Archive with Sullivan Summer on Instagram, Substack, and wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literature

  2. 5d ago

    Elina Penner, 'Nightberries" (CMU Press, 2026)

    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 husband?Nelli doesn’t seem to be in crisis—or does she? The quiet youngest daughter in a noisy, tangled German Mennonite family who fled from Russia in the 1990s, does she even know where she belongs? Marriage, loyalty, faith, family: memory can be deceiving. Or are memories like nightberries? Nightberries taste good, with sugar, when ripe. But sometimes nightberries are dangerous, and you need to understand when that transformation happens. A tense situation boils over in this darkly entertaining psychological novel of contemporary German life. Elina Penner was born in 1987 as a Mennonite German in the former Soviet Union and moved to Germany in 1991. Plautdietsch is her mother tongue. After years in Berlin and the US, she lives with her family in East Westphalia and is a successful personal essayist and blogger. Nachtbeeren was her debut novel, in 2022. In 2025, her second novel, Die Unbußfertigen, will be published in Germany. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literature

    43 min

  3. 6d ago

    An Interview with Senior Literary Agent Stephen Fraser

    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 children’s books in a wide range of genres. We talked about his experiences in the worlds of editing and agenting, his do's and don'ts for submissions, his thoughts on the current state of children's literature, and the importance of the story. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literature

    49 min

  4. 6d ago

    An Interview with Senior Literary Agent Stephen Fraser

    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 children’s books in a wide range of genres. We talked about his experiences in the worlds of editing and agenting, his do's and don'ts for submissions, his thoughts on the current state of children's literature, and the importance of the story. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literature

    49 min

  5. May 21

    Elizabeth Bradfield's Books in Dark Times (JP)

    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, naturalist, photographer. Her books include Interpretive Work, Approaching Ice, Once Removed, and Toward Antarctica. She lives on Cape Cod, travels north every summer to guide people into Arctic climes, birdwatches. Liz is in and of and for our whole natural world. Did poetry sustaining her through the darkest hours of the pandemic? What about other sources of inspiration? Mentioned in the episode: Eavand Boland, “Quarantine” (from Against Love Poetry; read her NY Times obituary here) Maeve Binchy, “Circle of Friends“ Sherwood Anderson, Winesburg, Ohio Edgar Lee Masters, Spoon River Anthology Louise Gluck Averno and Wild Iris Brian Teare, Doomstead Days Derek Walcott, “Omeros“ W. S. Merwin, “The Folding Cliffs” Natasha Trethewey, “Belloqc’s Ophelia“ Yeats, “We make out of the quarrel with others, rhetoric, but of the quarrel with ourselves, poetry.” Nest, Eggs and Nestlings of North American Birds (Princeton Field Guides) Trixie Belden Shel Silverstein Lois Lowry, “The Giver“ Liz equates poetry and Tetris Leanne Simpson, “This Accident of Being Lost“ Elizabeth Bradfield, “We all want to see a mammal“ Listen and Read Here: Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literature

    30 min

  6. May 19

    Paige Lewis, "Canon" (Viking, 2026)

    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 voice in the tradition of Chain-Gang All-Stars, No One Is Talking About This, and Martyr!Yara can’t comprehend why God has chosen them to slay Dominic, the ruthless leader of the army of Bad Guys. Cast out by their family and reeling from a destructive relationship, Yara has never felt weaker—but with nothing left to lose, they strike a deal. Abandoning their solitary days of embroidery and obsessive cleaning, Yara reluctantly embarks on a perilous odyssey designed to prepare them for the daunting mission ahead.Meanwhile, Adrena, a disillusioned prophet with a terrifying secret power, is determined to become the hero of this story. Desperately seeking the glory of God’s approval and the promise of heaven, where she hopes to reunite with her beloved mother, Adrena must first persuade Harpo, the leader of the Good Guys, that her plan is God’s will.As their journeys unfold in a series of unforgettable adventures, Yara and Adrena are propelled toward each other and transformative revelations about life, death, and destiny in this intensely captivating, irreverent epic from a singularly brilliant new voice in fiction.  Paige Lewis is the author of the poetry collection Space Struck (Sarabande Books, 2019) and the novel Canon (Viking Press, 2026). They co-edited Another Last Call: Poems on Addiction and Deliverance (Sarabande Books, 2023) with Kaveh Akbar. Paige teaches creative writing at the University of Iowa.Recommended Books: Tom Lin, Babylon, South Dakota Layli Long Soldier, We Chris Holmes is Chair of Literatures in English and Professor at Ithaca College. He writes criticism on contemporary global literatures. His book, Kazuo Ishiguro Against World Literature, is published with Bloomsbury Publishing. He is the co-director of The New Voices Festival, a celebration of work in poetry, prose, and playwriting by up-and-coming young writers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literature

    53 min

  7. May 18

    Mike Papantonio, "A Death in Arcadia" (Arcade Publishing, 2026)

    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 Trayvon Clapper is murdered by a guard at Camp B in Florida, his fringe-living mother and boyfriend come to Bergman-Deketomis to file a lawsuit against the facility. Details of the case trigger in Deke memories of his own troubled childhood. As a boy, Deke had no stable parents around him, so he lived with several different families over the years as he grew up, avoiding the foster care system. However, his best friend, Bucky, was not so fortunate. He, too, was killed in a similar facility… and Deke has carried within him a powerful guilt that he has never talked about to anyone, including his wife and children. Cara Deketomis, Deke’s daughter, is a young lawyer at the firm also working on the case. She comes to recognize the pain her father is feeling but she does not have the ability to break through to the truth. An opportunity in Cara’s personal life also hammers a wedge between father and daughter, adding more stress to the situation. Meanwhile, investigation into the case uncovers a hidden threat that could endanger everyone at the law firm. A corrupt Congressman, Bob Minds, and his shady colleague, Skyler Bannock, are “fixers” for Phoenix Industries, the parent company of Camp B and other child “protective” services facilities that do anything but that. Minds and Bannock resort to nefarious crimes to make Phoenix’s problems go away,i ncluding bribery, intimidation, and even murder. And then there’s Skyler’s brother, Midas, a killer straight out of a nightmare, who does the team’s dirtiest work. Will the ugly forces behind the scenes wreak lethal havoc on Deke and his team? Will the echo of Deke’s guilt get in the way of a successful legal action against Phoenix? In the tradition of The Middleman, Suspicious Activity, and Inhuman Trafficking, Papantonio takes Deke and his cohorts on a new and different kind of legal gamble, but full of the action and thrills for which he is known. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literature

    38 min

  8. May 15

    K'wan, "House of the Rising Sun" (Akashic Books, 2026)

    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 of the Rising Sun (Akashic Books, 2026) When the Howell family moves into a house on Heckler Lane, it causes quite a stir around the small town of Sunny Cove, Pennsylvania. Elise Howell, a well-known cardio surgeon, has returned home after fifteen years to fill her recently deceased mother’s position at Sunny Cove General Hospital. In a town this size, it’s big news. But it’s Elise’s new husband, Artie, who has the whole town talking. Artie Howell is a man who always seems to be wearing a smile. He’s an accomplished crime fiction writer, a soccer dad to their young son Nicky, and he volunteers his weekends teaching creative writing to youths in the local detention center. When they first arrived at Heckler Lane, the Howells had seemed like a wholesome American family. Then came the murders. A nun turning up missing from the Convent of St. Mary becomes the first in a string of unexplained tragedies that have befallen the town. Tragedies that all seem to be tied to scenes from Artie’s novels. The writer now finds himself as the prime suspect in an investigation that threatens to not only tear apart his family, but the entire town of Sunny Cove.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literature

    28 min
See All (1.9K)

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
8 Ratings

About

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

Information

  • Creator
    Marshall Poe
  • Years Active
    2013 - 2026
  • Episodes
    1.9K
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © New Books Network
  • Show Website
    New Books in Literature

More From New Books Network

You Might Also Like