❤️ this list, ❤️ this publication

weekly talk story about @chicagorevbooks.bsky.social review of Bitter Over Sweet and end of the year round up... www.melissallanesbrownlee.com/talk-story/2...

Hrm... I just *wonder* who could be on this list of Notable Trans/NB/GNC Debut Authors of 2025..... 🤔 (It's me. Hi. I'm notable.)

“This feeling of being lost, in-between, permeates many of these stories.” In @chicagorevbooks.bsky.social‬‬, Leah Rachel von Essen reviews Elena Garro’s newly translated short story collection, “The Week of Colors” - chireviewofbooks.com/2025/12/10/t...

7) This interview with Jacqui Devaney for @chicagorevbooks.bsky.social was the first one I did. I was so nervous before her call. But the questions were interesting and my pulse slowed and I got through it without turning into a deer in headlights. tinyurl.com/nhauuhbv

Delighted to find Guardians & Saints included in @chicagorevbooks.bsky.social's Best Short Story Collections of 2025! Thanks, @rachellayown.bsky.social! chireviewofbooks.com/2025/12/18/t...

And just like that, I finished editing one of our last @chicagorevbooks.bsky.social reviews of the year! ...which also reminded me: it's been a year since I joined the masthead as a daily editor. What a joy to edit writers you adore and be part of the @storystudiochicago.bsky.social community!

Great reading list here, in which I recommend my favorite book of the year, Xenobe Purvis' fabulous debut The Hounding 🐕✨️ (@henryholtbooks.bsky.social)

"These books show up soft and believe themselves. They show up swinging because they know they deserve not only to play, but to win." Read @jenstjude.bsky.social's list of this year's over 100 notable debuts by trans, nonbinary, & gender non-conforming authors. chireviewofbooks.com/2025/12/23/o...

"Characters are overwhelmed by a sense of knowing, from top to bottom, that you own what you created." Mia Rhee's review of “Girl Dinner” by Olivie Blake (@torbooks.bsky.social) is out now. chireviewofbooks.com/2025/12/23/g...

At the end of the year, we think it's vitally important to celebrate wins! In our latest newsletter, we spelled out our 10 best successes of 2025: buff.ly/2hlmao1 #writingcommunity

"Since I was a kid, I could feel the pull of the lake beyond the horizon in the east and knew it would lead me home." 😍 We were soooo thrilled to see our lovely leader @mbwwelch.bsky.social in @beltpublishing.bsky.social!!! beltpublishing.com/pages/conver...

What an amazing list! /Adds every single one to TBR.

LOVED Crawl by @maxdelsohn.bsky.social (from @graywolfpress.bsky.social) so much this year!!!

Many thanks for including THE EL here!

"Handke has found his own way of describing a chaotic world made up of people and places that were changed forever." Joe Stanek's review of “Ballad of the Lost Guest” by Peter Handke, translated by Krishna Winston (@fsgbooks.bsky.social) is out now. chireviewofbooks.com/2025/12/22/c...

While we already ran a list of the best books we read in 2025 last week, it pains us to leave so many out. Sooo we’re offering another “best of 2025” list—introducing the best debuts we read in 2025. chireviewofbooks.com/2025/12/22/t...

Now this is what WE want for the holidays 😍

It's not too late to get the writer in your life the PERFECT writerly gift. A StoryStudio gift card can be used for any online or in person class, workshop, or program. Grab one now and be a Holiday Hero! buff.ly/Tsb5z29 #writingcommunity

#ShortStories #BookSky 📚 💙

I’m extremely excited about this new reading event ❤️ Come get a first look at some of the beautiful new releases coming out of the Chicago literary community in 2026!

Mark your calendars, #Chicago. This is going to be incredible.

SACRAMENT is one of the best books of 2025 according to @chicagorevbooks.bsky.social! "Straight masterfully explores the interwoven intricacies of the moment—tackling race, class, gender, and the ways in which care was complicated and challenged in America."

Pretty stoked to see MORE HELL on the @chicagorevbooks.bsky.social Best Short Story Collections of 2025 list, and next to @sfwp.bsky.social’s Bitter Over Sweet by @lumchanmfa.bsky.social. Big, big shoutout to the phenomenal Rachel León! @whiskeytit.com chireviewofbooks.com/2025/12/18/t...

#amreading SOMETIMES I NEVER SUFFERED by Shane McCrae (2020). Uncanny, haunting, rigorous, wondrous strange. I loved this book. This interview in @chicagorevbooks.bsky.social by @michaelpittard.bsky.social is illuminating: chireviewofbooks.com/2020/08/11/d... #booksky #poetry @akasomeguy.bsky.social

So surprised to see Bitter Over Sweet on @chicagorevbooks.bsky.social The Best Short Story Collections of 2025 (with @adamalsirgany.bsky.social’s More Hell)! Thank you so much for your kind words. @sfwp.bsky.social @susanschulman.bsky.social

Published my first newsletter issue in quite a while. Check it out. It's short, because sometimes after a writing lull, you just need to get a new thing out there. newsletter.aaronjacobwolfson.com/archive/97-n... Special thanks to everyone at @chicagorevbooks.bsky.social!

Get a first-look at the new books coming out of the Chicago literary community in 2026 at our CHICAGO WRITERS SHOWCASE on January 21, 6:30pm at the Book Cellar! It’s our next evolution in our mission to uplift the voices in our city’s creative community 🧵 chireviewofbooks.com/2025/12/19/j...

"Art, perhaps unlike reality, does crave a perceiver." @recycledgiraffe.bsky.social's interview with @madamesosostris.bsky.social on her new book "Lazarus Species” (@milkweededitions.bsky.social) is out now. chireviewofbooks.com/2025/12/19/t...

Such a great list! My contribution: Paper Girl by @bethmacy.bsky.social

💚💚💚

And now 🥁🥁🥁 For the best short story collections of the year... With books from: @nupress.bsky.social, @eccobooks.bsky.social, Counterpoint Press, The Sante Fe Writer's Project, @catapultbooks.bsky.social, @whiskeytit.com, Cornerstone Press, Astra House chireviewofbooks.com/2025/12/18/t...

We love being a part of this community 🥰

It’s end of year list season at the @chicagorevbooks.bsky.social, and we read a lot of stunning books!

Wooohoooo! Check out the @chicagorevbooks.bsky.social's editors list of the best books they read this year. Perfect for last-minute gift ideas for the reader in your life. buff.ly/D9rhbzs #books #booksky

What are the best books we read this year? Always a hard question, but @chicagorevbooks.bsky.social has compiled them all! 📚

Parsed through stacks of ARCs & chose 2025 favorite books, like One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad (@aaknopf.bsky.social), Sour Cherry by Natalia Theodoridou (@tinhouse.bsky.social), & Sacrament by Susan Straight (Counterpoint). chireviewofbooks.com/2025/12/17/t...

I was so honored to write this appreciation of my favorite "lost" gay novel, Nebraska by George Whitmore, a hugely important novel to me and many others. Now available from @thesongcave.bsky.social in a gorgeous edition. Thank you @chicagorevbooks.bsky.social!

"Leaves a lasting impression on what it means to fight for one’s voice and freedom when everything else is taken." Ashley Thompson's review of “Cape Fever” by Nadia Davids (@simonandschuster.bsky.social) is out now. chireviewofbooks.com/2025/12/16/t...

"A novel about the echoes of shame and the possibility of disrupting them." Read @rpmirabella.bsky.social on "Nebraska" by George Whitmore (@thesongcave.bsky.social). chireviewofbooks.com/2025/12/16/i...

Recipients of the so-called “CHIRBy” Awards include Eve L. Ewing, WBEZ’s Adriana Cardona-Maguigad and New York Times bestselling author Samira Ahmed.

"[The Osage language] is something that has been in my bones and my blood for decades. I’m so happy to have been able to get it all down on the page." Elisa Shoenberger's interview with Elise Paschen on "Blood Wolf Moon” (@redhenpress.bsky.social) is out now. chireviewofbooks.com/2025/12/15/o...

🎉🎉🎉

It only makes sense that the best city in the world has the best community of writers

We had such a fabulous time at the CHIRBys last night... And if there’s one thing we agree on, it’s that Chicago has the BEST literary community in the country!!! @tvayyyy.bsky.social @rebeccamakkai.bsky.social @samiraahmed.bsky.social @eveewing.bsky.social @mbwwelch.bsky.social

Stunned and honored to have received the 10th Annual Chicago Review of Books Award for Fiction. The CHIRBys are a special event, a truly Chicago moment.Thank you @chicagorevbooks.bsky.social and all the readers, writers, judges, supporters, and members of this extraordinary community.

"I feel that my job is to honor the archive as closely as possible." Ryan Asmussen's interview with @akasomeguy.bsky.social on "His Toy, His Dream, His Rest” (@fsgbooks.bsky.social) is out now. chireviewofbooks.com/2025/12/12/e...

This is your ONE WEEK warning. Pub Crawl Early Bird Registration ends next Wednesday 12/17 at midnight. Save $50 for the next week on the ORIGINAL online month-long publishing intensive. Register now, and learn, pitch, publish with us! buff.ly/RB4SuzP #writingcommunity