In her latest book, part memoir and part biography, Returning to My Father’s Kitchen, Monica Macansantos writes fifteen richly textured essays about her father’s legacy both in her writings and in the kitchen where she finds his continued presence as she recreates his recipes that he’s developed... Continue reading >> [ Source: Electric Literature | 2025-05-15 11:00:00 UTC ]
In her searing and revolutionary memoir First in the Family: A Story of Survival, Recovery, and the American Dream, writer and mental health advocate Jessica Hoppe discusses and inspects addiction and how ingrained the culture is within BIPOC communities, notably within the Latine community. In... Continue reading >> [ Source: Electric Literature | 2025-05-13 11:00:00 UTC ]
In The Lilac People, my debut novel about trans people in Weimar Berlin and Nazi Germany, I have a side character so small, they’re downright tertiary. Dora Richter has no speaking role, nor does she have any impact on the plot. And yet she’s included because she’s important, and she was real.... Continue reading >> [ Source: Electric Literature | 2025-05-09 11:10:00 UTC ]
The year that was has made its artistic judgments. Mostly. The world of film declared Anora as Best Picture. Music selected Beyonce’s Cowboy Carter as Album of the Year. Now, finally, on May 5th, book world gets its big moment. On Monday, at 3:00 p.m. EST, the award ceremony will be live... Continue reading >> [ Source: Electric Literature | 2025-04-28 11:05:00 UTC ]
The year that was has made its artistic judgments. Mostly. The world of film declared Anora as Best Picture. Music selected Beyonce’s Cowboy Carter as Album of the Year. Now, finally, on May 5th, book world gets its big moment. Pulitzer time is here! As most of us book-loving folks know, there... Continue reading >> [ Source: Electric Literature | 2025-04-28 11:05:00 UTC ]
Writers—even if working in fiction—are often concerned about what is happening in the larger world. Though it takes time to see a book through from manuscript to hitting the shelves, the ones featured here have a finger on the pulse of our contemporary moment and take time to explore the deeper... Continue reading >> [ Source: Electric Literature | 2025-04-21 11:05:00 UTC ]
Electric Literature is pleased to reveal the cover of Little Movements by Lauren Morrow, which will be published by Random House on September 9, 2025. You can pre-order your copy here. Thirty-something Layla Smart was raised by her mother to dream medium. But all Layla’s ever wanted was a career... Continue reading >> [ Source: Electric Literature | 2025-04-17 11:00:00 UTC ]
It wouldn’t be wrong to call Kate Folk’s debut novel Sky Daddy a marriage plot. The protagonist, Linda, has had numerous lovers, but she wants to settle down. She’s looking for a “fine gentleman” who’s sleek, strong, and ready to commit, and she already has her dream wedding planned: hurtling to... Continue reading >> [ Source: Electric Literature | 2025-04-08 11:00:00 UTC ]
In this land of opportunities, being an immigrant can often feel like playing a round of Twister. A certain contortion of mind, language, and will power seems written into the script; a lot of territory remains untouchable. Shubha Sunder’s debut novel Optional Practical Training is named after... Continue reading >> [ Source: Electric Literature | 2025-03-07 12:05:00 UTC ]
Emily St. James’s debut novel Woodworking chronicles the developing friendship between a 16-year-old trans girl and her recently-out-to-herself English teacher in Mitchell, South Dakota in the months leading up to the 2016 election. In a town like Mitchell, secrets are few and far between,... Continue reading >> [ Source: Electric Literature | 2025-03-06 12:00:00 UTC ]
Climate change is conspicuously absent from most realist, literary fiction set in the present day. Hurricanes, wildfires, floods, droughts and other natural disasters are part of our daily lives, yet they’re absent, save for brief mentions of a news clip for a college protest from much of our... Continue reading >> [ Source: Electric Literature | 2025-03-04 12:00:00 UTC ]
Electric Literature is pleased to reveal the cover of These Memories Do Not Belong to Us, the highly-anticipated debut novel by Yiming Ma, which will be published by Mariner Books in the US and McClelland & Stewart in Canada on August 12, 2025. You can pre-order here in US or here in Canada.... Continue reading >> [ Source: Electric Literature | 2025-03-04 12:00:00 UTC ]
On the dedication page of No Offense: A Memoir in Essays, Jackie Domenus writes, “To all the queer and trans folks who have bitten their tongues until they bled: this book is for you.” In this powerful and timely collection, Domenus defends and celebrates identity and love with an unflinching... Continue reading >> [ Source: Electric Literature | 2025-02-24 12:00:00 UTC ]
Every week, our weekly magazine The Commuter publishes a new work of flash fiction, poetry, and graphic narrative. For Black History Month, we’re looking to the archives for some of our favorite poetry and stories by Black writers, all available to read for free online. From Tara Campbell’s... Continue reading >> [ Source: Electric Literature | 2025-02-21 12:05:00 UTC ]
Erin Steele’s memoir, Sunrise Over Half-Built Houses: Love, Longing and Addiction in Suburbia, chronicles the life of an isolated, self-conscious Canadian teenager growing up in middle-class British Columbia to loving parents who are simultaneously present and absent. As young Erin grapples with... Continue reading >> [ Source: Electric Literature | 2025-02-21 12:00:00 UTC ]
Mere pages into Nesting, the debut novel from Roisín O’Donnell, Ciara Fay makes a life-altering decision. After discovering she’s pregnant for the third time, she takes her two young daughters, throws them and some hastily-gathered possessions in the car, and flees her emotionally abusive... Continue reading >> [ Source: Electric Literature | 2025-02-18 12:05:00 UTC ]
Edward Underhill didn’t plan on having his debut adult fiction book, The In-Between Bookstore, featuring a trans main character, come out six days before the Trump inauguration, but it’s kind of perfect timing. Especially since the book features a time slip, where Darby Madden meets his younger... Continue reading >> [ Source: Electric Literature | 2025-02-17 12:00:00 UTC ]
Electric Literature is pleased to reveal the cover of Both/And: Essays by Trans and Gender Nonconforming Writers of Color, edited by Denne Michele Norris, which will be published by HarperOne on August 12, 2025. You can pre-order your copy here. From Denne Michele Norris and Electric Literature... Continue reading >> [ Source: Electric Literature | 2025-02-13 12:30:00 UTC ]
Last year, burned out from going straight into a full-time lectureship after a pandemic PhD, I needed the kind of intellectual rest that only one thing brings: re-reading an old favorite novel. For me, that was Anne Bishop’s Black Jewels Trilogy, the fantasy series that got me through my... Continue reading >> [ Source: Electric Literature | 2025-02-11 12:10:00 UTC ]
1. Check the cover for clues. Literary fiction will have the title in Helvetica along with amorphous shapes in shades of that year’s Pantone color. Genre fiction will have a little cutout showing the face of either a wizard or a rakish duke. It opens to reveal the whole picture, and they’re... Continue reading >> [ Source: Electric Literature | 2025-02-07 12:15:00 UTC ]