Can one cure existential ills via sweating in beautiful places? I'm sure trying! keziahweir.substack.com/p/its-sauna-...

Exactly one woman has won the Booker in the past six years www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Hello! I wrote about Joy Williams and her new book for @washingtonpost.com.

@ezrakupor.bsky.social’s Galley Brag is among the best Substacks on book publishing, and I had such a great time talking with him about book deals, criticism, publicity, and our broken industry! open.substack.com/pub/galleybr...

That time my career was over and I had to disappear so I moved to one of richest neighborhoods in one of most media saturated cities in world to hobnob with media elites who offered me fabulous jobs without questions while I prepared for glam photo shots in major papers. We’ve all been there.

You might have read something about Ross Douthat’s podcast last week. Becca Rothfeld reviews the new book by Leah Libresco Sargeant, one of the guests on that show. www.washingtonpost.com/books/2025/1...

I interviewed ferociously brilliant filmmaker Mira Nair, a.k.a Zohran Mamdani’s mother, about how her voice and vision have shaped a man who sees a better way forward for all of us. SPOILER ALERT: Love matters. www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/feat...

UPDATE — With Rep. Pramila Jayapal (Chair Emerita of the Congressional Progressive Caucus), there are now at least 12 congressional Democrats, 15 Democratic-aligned organizations, and 8 Democratic candidates calling for Chuck Schumer to resign as leader:

One day the US will have to face the shame and horror of what has happened here: that a cabal of wealthy people have elevated a monster into the most powerful person in the world www.nytimes.com/2025/11/12/u...

I had the great good fortune to work with Lucy Feldman and her team on TIME's "100 Must-Read Books 2025," the perfect holidays gift list for bibliophiles in your lives: time.com/collections/...

The identity of Sarah Kendzior, researcher on authoritarian states, and Sarah Kendzior's content discussing authoritarian states are...not really easy to separate. So I'm struggling to see this as a response.

My 2nd deal as an agent. I've been reading Pulitzer Prize winner Forrest Gander's work since my late teens and am over the moon about working with him.

This isn't "internal recriminations." It's voters expressing overwhelming opposition to what the people they elected to represent them are doing, and anyone--either in journalism or politics--who characterizes it as infighting is either not seeing and hearing what's right in front of them or lying.

Enough is enough. Contact your Democratic senators TODAY and tell them to call for Senator Schumer to step aside as Minority Leader. We desperately need new leadership in the Democratic Party.

This deal to reopen the government is fucking disgraceful. Tens of millions will lose their healthcare. Trump will be emboldened. This is exactly what’s wrong with Democratic Party leadership and why we need more people in Congress who will actually hold the line.

One analytical model shows that, as of November 5th, the dismantling of U.S.A.I.D. has already caused the deaths of 600,000 people, two-thirds of them children. https://newyorkermag.visitlink.me/jUzNSc

Let's write together in 2026! If you're looking to jumpstart your memoir project—or are already underway & want some support to maintain momentum or figure out next steps—this @thewriterscenter.bsky.social workshop is for you. We'll meet twice a month, starting in February; learn more + apply here:

ATRIA ( @liveright.bsky.social 2/16/26) is available for preorder bookshop.org/p/books/atri... Interested in writing a review or conducting an interview? Please go to the contact page of my website: www.dswaldman.com A thread of poems from the book, published in @newyorker.com @theatlantic.com ++

really obvious now why trump and the republican party have been working so hard to prevent fair elections lol they know

The news about Teen Vogue is terrible, the latest in the long list of corporate-owned media layoffs, closures, and shifting tone and coverage. There are so many great independent outlets, a list too long but this is a fantastic starter pack. PLEASE pick a few & support them if you're able.

For Esquire, I updated my best books of the year list to include 7 new titles that have dropped since May. www.esquire.com/entertainmen...

Feeding America has a page where you can input your zip code and it'll show you all of the food banks near you overlaid on a map. If you need it, it's there. If you don't need it, think about donating money if you have it and your time if you don't. www.feedingamerica.org/find-your-lo...

Whenever people complain about the number of folks relying on food stamps, it is worth reminding them that SNAP is, by too large of a degree, a subsidy for corporations that refuse to pay a living wage and their political allies who reject public policy prescriptions to reduce income inequality.

Making a recurring donation to your local food bank is one of the easiest & most effective ways to help people in your community. Now is a great time to either set one up or increase your existing support. Find a food bank near you: www.feedingamerica.org/find-your-lo...

Becca Rothfeld on Francesca Wade's big new bio of Gertrude Stein. "Wade takes the Steinian persona and the Steinian corpus equally seriously" in a book that is "marvelous, funny and frequently moving." www.washingtonpost.com/books/2025/1...

Staff at Book World has been doing its usual great work. A few links: @roncharles.bsky.social on Adam Johnson's first novel in 13 years: "an epic that feels less created than unearthed." www.washingtonpost.com/books/2025/1...

heartbroken to learn the pope sympathizes with the poor. how can i continue to believe in god

Not that anybody comes to me for Maine politics, but the fact that the Democrats successfully convinced a 77yo Governor to primary the 41yo progressive, is today's example of why the Democrats fucking stay failing. Susan Collins is 72 and if Schumer gets his way, she'll be the YOUNGER choice!

Wonderful column by Margaret Sullivan at The Guardian on the terrible, weird choice of Bari Weis by CBS News www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Hard to find a more obvious example of the journalism adage “If someone says it’s raining outside and someone else says it isn’t, your job is not to quote them both, your job is to go outside.”

Now feels like a good time to tell you about my favorite recent book purchase: Posters for Change, from Princeton Architectural Press. It’s got a huge collection of posters perfect for protest, and proceeds go to non-profits.

"WE MAKE NEWS LOUDER. IF STORY GOOD ON ONE SIDE, SHOW OTHER SIDE TOO. OTHER SIDE WRONG? OTHER SIDE WANT BLEACH IN VEINS? ANIMAL RUN BOTH. REPORT BOTH SIDES. EVEN WHEN ONE SIDE THINK HEAD MEDS MAKE QUIET BABIES."

I said this when Krasznahorkai won a National Book Award for translation several years ago, and I’ll say it again: This can only encourage Americans to learn how to pronounce the “sz“ sound, and I am here for it!

It was a great night to celebrate books and authors! Huzzah for the 2025 Kirkus Prize winners! apnews.com/article/kirk...

We're heartbroken over the death of Huabing Xie — a Chinese immigrant who suffered a fatal seizure at an ICE facility in Imperial Valley, California. Reports from Detention Watch Network show that Xie is one of at least 20 immigrants who've died in ICE custody since Trump's inauguration. 🧵⬇️

New story by me in Granta today about inept swingers on the Hudson Valley granta.com/pleasantries...

There has always been a small, noisy minority of gay people whose belief in gay rights boils down to "I shouldn't have to give up any of my prejudices because of who I am." And straight people in media have always fallen all over themselves to hire them.

Hello! I am teaching a course for the splendid American Short Fiction MFA for All, on physicality in fiction. I have a lot of thoughts on the subject. Kevin Wlson & Tommy Orange are also teaching! Deadline to sign up for my class is 10/5. americanshortfiction.org/mfa-for-all/

I feel very lucky that I got to talk about my Homeland-Security-mass-detention-Asian-American book on The Daily Show

If you want to understand open adoption, it makes sense to start with birth parents—yet studies of them are few. 2+ yrs ago, I began talking w/ birth mothers to try to understand what living in an open adoption is like for them, and what rights or options they might have if challenges were to arise.

Six Democratic senators on the Senate Judiciary Committee (Durbin, Schiff, Whitehouse, Klobuchar, Coons, and Welch) voted yes on two Trump district court nominees this morning, and my question remains, why do senior members of this party keep voluntarily ceding political capital to Donald Trump

We have lost a hero and role model to millions- RIP: people.com/jane-goodall...

I can’t believe I’m watching interviews of city mayors talking about how they are coordinating with other mayors to discuss how to protect their residents FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES I know we are “used to it” but it is absolutely insane

PSA: If you're an author & you get a chatty email from a marketer, or book club that praises your book & bashes Amazon's algo before offering to 'help', usually with 500 to 10,000 reviewers, it's just a ChatGPT automated marketing scam. It's the new Nigerian prince email, brought to you by 'AI' 🙄.

Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye sold just 2,000 copies in its first year. Today, it’s a number many authors can’t recover from. Writer @tajjaisen.bsky.social examines how the publishing industry’s sales track can make or break careers before they even begin: thewalrus.ca/the-publishing-i...

This year's Booker shortlist: www.washingtonpost.com/books/2025/0...

For @vanityfair.com, I chatted with Mona Awad about 'We Love You, Bunny,' out today. www.vanityfair.com/culture/stor...