"What distinguishes NONSTOP BODIES... is that McDougall pays as much attention to the social and cultural context in which dancing occurs as he does to the more rarefied corners of high art...McDougall’s book is, among other things, a cri de coeur." www.newyorker.com/books/under-...

I would love to know if this is the same person & I would also love to know if I can buy this agent a drink

"America’s pitch today is not simply that the military is the ultimate proving ground for masculinity but that it is the best place for ameliorating all of men’s problems and desires" Such a smart essay from Jasper Craven for @thenation.com:

The most powerful way to fight the exhaustion of the Trump era was figured out decades ago. slate.trib.al/VN2pxaS

I suppose I should also say: now that I'm back from leave I'm opening to queries again, and eager to find some great new fiction and nonfiction. Please get in touch! (And also be patient with me, I am still experiencing email reentry.)

A joy to be back at my desk from maternity leave just in time for the publication of Rennie McDougall's NONSTOP BODIES, a cultural history of dance and New York that's as elegant, alive, engaging, and utterly fascinating as they come. Out today! www.abramsbooks.com/product/nons...

Couldn't be more excited to share @chaykak.bsky.social's next book, which asks what role our most piercing, powerful encounters with culture and beauty play in making us who we are, explores how we seek more of them, and looks at what we lose in a world where those experiences are increasingly rare

Inbox— next cover of the New Yorker: “Mayor Mamdani,” by Edel Rodriguez

Happiest of publication days to this utterly singular, extremely good novel. An adventure story, an exploration of the rotten heart of the American frontier myth, a tender meditation on male friendship and making a family, and a truly freaky novel about alchemy and hunting a giant salamander.

a particular pleasure to be involved with this one as a member of the KYE/Sam fan club-- I am a huge admirer of the intellectual expansiveness, moral depth, electric prose and startling humor of his writing/thinking, and can't wait to experience that at book length on a perfect topic

ripping down a whole wing of the White House just feels a little TOO on the nose if I'm being honest

hard to convey how fucking cool it is to edit a really good writer, especially over the course of years/multiple projects: it's this conversation you're in with a mind that gets deeper and deeper, and still you're occasionally surprised by what comes out when you push them, where they can reach

The Great Work got a starred review from Kirkus 🥲 "Whether Gentle is a visionary or a drunk, whether the salamander is a creature of flesh or a shared delusion, and ultimately, the meaning of the mission is as much about human frailty and grace as the nightmares that stalk the page."

ok here's my nyc policy idea: create the post of Chief Weirdo. The job goes to an iconic freak whose job it is to maintain our world-leading weirdo levels. Curtis Sliwa can be the inaugural officeholder

I’m not certain I agree with Sliwa on virtually anything but I do have to respect how much he seems to hate Cuomo

Can world leaders have work-life balance? I traveled to Helsinki over the summer to find out. For this week's issue, I profiled Sanna Marin, the former "party girl" prime minister of Finland. www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

wow nothing like someone impersonating an editor fishing for a novel you have on sub to make you feel alive, I’m flattered Filippo 🥲

On the contrary this person has just been anointed and is now the pope, I'm hearing.

Such an honor to work on this one, on so many levels-- it's a special project, and going to be a beautiful, incredibly thoughtful book.

sitting in the coffee shop in the lobby of one of NYC's major publishers with the agency submissions tracking doc open.......... living dangerously...........

"oh man, I think things are about to get really bad" a thought I have had approximately 123,342 times in 2025 so far

once again reckoning with the fact that I may never in my life encounter another piece of writing I consider quite as perfect as this poem www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47553/...

everything is so stupid all the time

sat across the subway this morning from a man with a long mullet reading ACCELERATE: The Accelerationist Reader, hard yikes

we live in hell, exhibit 586,608

laughably horrible outside

I've been lusting after her cookbook but decided I had to cook a few of her recipes first to prove the buy to myself and good lord this first one was a stone cold knockout, actual restaurant quality cafehailee.com/recipes/stic...

Why tech billionaires want a dictatorship — & why most of Silicon Valley will quietly watch democracy burn. My talk with @jonfortt.bsky.social (my DePauw classmate) about the dangerous coalition between the far right & the tech right. On @theverge.com's Decoder www.theverge.com/decoder-podc...

I didn't expect that Trump would actually somehow manage to make me MORE interested in Epstein conspiracy theories, but here we are

So pleased to be working with the beyond brilliant Jaime on this gorgeous, expansive book on out space: our place in it, and our responsibilities to it. I adore the way she writes and thinks, and know how special this one is going to be!

Jess is one hell of an editor and a fierce advocate for her authors-- as an agent I'm sorry to see her go at Quirk, but if I were an author in need of a freelance editor, I'd jump at this!

A much-needed essay @chaykak.bsky.social looking at the way using AI affects our thinking. Given what autocorrect has done to people's spelling, he's spot on in raising the alarm about the very average, extremely mundane reality of AI-aided creativity heading our way.

I love this for us

ICE just arrested Brad Lander, the NYC Comptroller and one of the leading candidates for Mayor, without grounds. He was conducting routine immigration court work, escorting individuals from hearings. He asked ICE for their warrant - well within his legal rights. This is political intimidation.

you know what's cool is the new Outlook glitch that randomly strips attachments from emails generated via template, which is the tool that I use for submissions. it's great. I love it so much. I am having a great time

Earlier this year, The New Yorker sent me to Los Angeles to train to become an intimacy coordinator, the new shepherds of the sex scene in a post #MeToo Hollywood. Was this job legit, or a cynical HR move? I investigated... www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

I think Reddit may be the only social media platform in my life where the good/value (for me personally) just obviously, enormously outweighs any felt negatives. as someone who loves to pick up hobbies and burrow into niche fields of knowledge/expertise it is sort of nerding-out paradise

genuine question how do people deal with editing in Google Docs

if you'd like to develop a sudden, bone-deep horror at the very concept of material accumulation may I recommend the one quick trick of moving apartments

bought a copy of a book that released last week just because I was interested in it and before I knew the sales track would look strong (and it might end up being comp able), please clap

rereading the last chapter of POETS SQUARE on a Sunday afternoon because apparently I like the feeling of being devastated (complimentary, to be clear)

I could not be any more over the moon for Courtney Gustafson or her deeply beautiful book, POETS SQUARE, which is now a New York Times bestseller!

We could not be more excited to welcome Lucy Cleland to @goldinagency.bsky.social--a truly brilliant agent and a lovely friend of the agency, now turned colleague! She had a fairly low key first day yesterday in the form of, uh, her client winning a Pulitzer, so we'll count it as an auspicious start

the early reviews for POETS SQUARE might be the singular exception to the "don't read the Goodreads reviews" rule, I love each and every one but especially

get to drop some more good @goldinagency.bsky.social news today I think 😎

👀

For @altajournal.bsky.social, I reviewed Courtney Gustafson's (aka Poets Square Cats) new book, POETS SQUARE: A Memoir in Thirty Cats, which is glorious and about how we do and don't care for one another (as well as, of course, about cats, so many wonderful cats): www.altaonline.com/books/nonfic...

In case others might be in the mood for a little good news, for a change: I have found this new book idea absolutely electric from the very first time @jennitaur.bsky.social told me about it, and it really couldn't feel any more urgent, expansive, or necessary now.

gee, wonder what's going on over at ol' x dot com--

Happy publication day to POETS SQUARE: A Memoir in Thirty Cats, a beautiful book about animal rescue that's also about how to find increments of community and hope in a world that can feel irreparably broken. Trust me: you should read this one. www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/735683...