Helen Benedict, author of The Soldier’s House, tells @janeciab.bsky.social about chronicling the legacy of the Iraq War in fiction. lithub.com/helen-benedi...

Happy birthday, BIG OTHER contributor Jane Ciabattari! Celebrate by reading Ciabattari's "Air and Fog, Light and Flight," which we published in 2021! Follow that by reading Ciabattari's "Acqua Alta," which we published in 2019! bigother.com/2026/03/27/f... Cc: @janeciab.bsky.social

If you’re curious about the author of the ground-breaking collection Black Tickets, published when she was 26, or the inspiration for her war trilogy, including the 2024 Pulitzer Prize winning Civil War novel Night Watch…

Happy birthday, BIG OTHER contributor Jane Ciabattari! Celebrate by reading Ciabattari's "Air and Fog, Light and Flight," which I published in 2021! Follow that by reading Ciabattari's "Acqua Alta," which I published in 2019! bigother.com/2026/03/27/f... Cc: @janeciab.bsky.social

This week’s @literaryhub.bsky.social conversation with Jung Yun about her new novel, All the World Can Hold, brought back memories of 9/11. Her personal experience during that time underpin a compelling multilayered narrative.

“I would say that reading Morrison over the course of my life as a fiction writer has given me the courage of my artistic convictions.” @janeciab.bsky.social talks to Namwali Serpell about engaging with Toni Morrison as both a reader and a critic.

ICYMI here’s my @literaryhub.bsky.social conversation with inventive empathetic author George Saunders re his dazzling new novel Vigil,

Happy launch day to George Saunders! Here’s our @literaryhub.bsky.social conversation about Vigil, revising, finding a novel’s ending, & the afterlife.

ICYMI

“In the publicly traded world of Netflix and the breathless business reporting that follows it around, the growing success of arthouses and revival houses is an inconvenience best ignored.” —A.S. Hamrah

@janeciab.bsky.social talks to debut author Lauren Rothery about her novel, Television.

“The whole skirmish is obscuring the insides of both collections—which AI covers tend to do. But both authors have been quick to distinguish form from content.”

After six rounds of voting, you’ve finally chosen Literary Twitter’s greatest icon! Congratulations to Joyce Carol Oates.

@janeciab.bsky.social talks to Iida Turpenen, the author Of Beasts Of The Sea, about exploring our relationship with the natural world through fiction.

@janeciab.bsky.social talks to Olivia Laing about fictionalizing cinematic icons Federico Fellini and Pier Paolo Pasolini.

@janeciab.bsky.social talks to Susan Straight about chronicling COVID in literature: “I stood at the gate and listened to my neighbors and the traveler nurses. Their backpacks were their lives, and their camaraderie.”

The Wayfarer is set in Polynesia 1k years ago, filled with fascinating characters, animals, birds, celestial navigators. Utterly captivating!

The Wayfarer is set in Polynesia 1k years ago, filled with fascinating characters, animals, birds, celestial navigators. Utterly captivating!

Take the guess work out of your submissions. Use our free Small Presses database to find contact information, submission guidelines, representative authors, and more—everything you need to make your submission process simpler. Start exploring: at.pw.org/smallpress

@janeciab.bsky.social talks to award-winning playwright, poet, and novelist Quan Barry about writing a horror story set in Antarctica.

Quan Barry, re her new novel @literaryhub.bsky.social: "...I’m really an instinctual writer. I don’t have a scholarly bone in my body, i.e., nothing in me vibes with literary analysis or criticism. At its heart, my book is a novel about memory." @groveatlantic lithub.com/quan-barry-o...

Flashback to 2019, Gregg Barrios and I welcoming #tommyorange to @bookcritics awards ceremony, when he received the NBCC John Leonard award for best first book for #therethere Today he's honored by the @macarthur.foundation with a MacArthur Fellow grant. More books TK! (Link in comments.)

And how an AI hallucination inspired the newest story in his collection…the last in the book.

Sasha Bonét, whose new memoir, “The Waterbearers,” traces the lives of her mother and grandmother, discusses four other books that examine complex mothers.

Happy publication day to @angelaflournoy.bsky.social Her beautifully crafted new novel, The Wilderness, ranges from 2008 to 2027, revealing moments from ecstatic & heart breaking, & the value of friendship.

“I think precocious children in fiction can be pretentious. But what are you gonna do? Write about a dumb one?” @janeciab.bsky.social interviews @shteyngart.bsky.social.

“Love and toxicity are hardly unfamiliar bedfellows.” Hal Ebbott tells @janeciab.bsky.social about writing a novel of male friendship.

Lovely time at the Bay Area Book Fest. Thanks to @janeciab.bsky.social for hosting and so great to speak with @anitafelicelli.bsky.social, Hon Lai-Chu, and @jacqlyy.bsky.social about spec fic! Check out their weird and wonderful books, HOW WE KNOW OUR TIME TRAVELERS and MENDING BODIES

Bay Area! I'm going to be IN you May 30-June 3 for the Bay Area Book Festival On the panel "Stories of Tomorrow: Speculative Fiction" with @anitafelicelli.bsky.social, Hon Lai Chu, @jacqlyy.bsky.social, moderated by @janeciab.bsky.social 12:30 Sunday, June 1 www.baybookfest.org/session/stor...

🌿Please join us this Sat 5/17 @ LitCamp's #reading at Sebastopol's #Litcrawl when 15 #writers-- including me--share short takes on a having a super bad attitude! 5pm, 186 N. Main Street. FREE. It'd be great to see you! 💜 #writer #writing #books

Looking forward to this @baybookfest.bsky.social speculative fiction conversation!

Dear friends, we've launch a change to the way we offer grants to underrepresented writers at @pageonem.bsky.social. I hope you'll read and share with your colleagues and writers. Thanks!

“The most interesting fiction, to me, contains this element of strangeness, whether it’s set in the real world or an alternative one.” @janeciab.bsky.social interviews @karenebender.bsky.social.

My @literaryhub.bsky.social conversation with award winning short story author @karenebender.bsky.social re: her new collection, The Words of Dr L and Other Stories, just our from Counterpoint Press.

Congrats @bookcritics.bsky.social poetry finalist @oliverbaezbendorf.bsky.social !

Congratulations to Pulitzer Prize winners and finalists www.pulitzer.org/winners/22691

Happy book launch month to #GuadalupeNettel & #CristinaRiveraNettel

Incredible list for @carolshieldsprize.bsky.social shortlist, congrats to all!

A joy to intro Maxine Hong Kingston, NBCC fiction award winner 1976, distinguished guest at 50th anniversary awards ceremony. Gratitude to my co-chair Jacob Appel, NBCC president @hspartington.bsky.social & awards co-vps @irisjamahldunkle & CristophIrmscher.

@janeciab.bsky.social co-chair of the @bookcritics.bsky.social 50th anniversary committee. Tells us about when the prize was founded in 1974 and reminds us that there used to be syndicated literary columnists! (not even that long ago)

Such an honor and a joy!

Karen Russell re The Antidote: "The word ‘apocalypse’ also means a revelation, an uncovering. I was interested in what this disaster reveals—what truths come to light, what injustices and possibilities are laid bare in the aftermath of a storm." lithub.com/karen-russel... via @lithub @AAKnopf

For the New English Review, NBCC member Kevin Anthony Brown published an essay-review of six Jean Giono titles, reissued by Archipelago Books and New York Review Books Classics, and translated by Paul Eprile, Jody Gladding and Bill Johnston:

NBCC member Clea Simon’s upcoming psychological suspense novel, "The Butterfly Trap," was reviewed by Booklist. Clea will be celebrating the book’s release at Harvard Book Store in discussion with Nina MacLaughlin on March 4 at 7 p.m.

NBCC Vice President/Barrios Book in Translation Prize Mandana Chaffa interviewed Aria Aber about her novel "Good Girl" for The Brooklyn Rail:

NBCC member Aiden Hunt reviewed "The Black Box: Writing the Race" by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. for NewPages:

NBCC member Nicole Yurcaba reviewed Timothy Schaffert's "The Titanic Survivors Book Club" for Heavy Feather Review:

Former NBCC board member and recipient of the Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing @mclemee.bsky.social concluded his “Intellectual Affairs” column at Inside Higher Ed, reflecting on 20 years of writing about scholarly books:

Former NBCC board member and recipient of the Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing Steven G. Kellman reviewed Lawrence Wright's "The Human Scale" for Arts Alive San Antonio:

NBCC member Robert Allen Papinchak reviewed "Canoes," written by Maylis de Kerangal and translated from the French by Jessica Moore, for World Literature Today: