In my hands, @lbmcgrath.bsky.social’s Middlemen…and there’s even pictures! e.g. The Dial Press’s “New Novelists Plan” from 1954…

@nplusonemag.com veteran World Cup correspondent Kathryn Winner is BACK! And her first dispatches from the field, the FIFA Fan Festival™, and the family reunion are here. As far as I’m concerned, when it comes to sports reporting, this is what peak performance looks like!

Listen: you teach ERASURE, I teach ERASURE. It’s great in the classroom. but why, oh why, have we all been sleeping on THE WIFE???

You can now snap this baby up in the UK!

A revealing account of how agents have shaped book publishing and the literary canon from the 1950s to today. @lbmcgrath.bsky.social's Middlemen is now available worldwide! Order yours: press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...

Guys, it finally happened. Academia dot edu accurately identified something I wrote.

I spent a lot of last summer doing a deep dive on the business of Christian publishing and mainstream publication of Christian media, and it went nowhere. And this summer, book media is going crazy about Yesteryear and the new JD Vance book. Someone please, for the LOVE, interview me.

Having spent a lot of time thinking about The Debut, I’m very chuffed to find myself on this list, of “The Best Debut Nonfiction of 2026 (so far)”

An agent’s work has changed since the profession began in the 1800s. “For one thing, agents now edit,” Michael Gorra writes. “In part that comes from the peculiar pressures the publishing industry puts on first novels.”

Also the expression "eat-what-you-kill basis" will stay with me! Looking forward to getting hold of @lbmcgrath.bsky.social's new book Middlemen...

"What are ppl consistently getting wrong about...agenting today? The assumption that they only care about $ – 15% of a small book deal & NYC rent are genuinely incompatible. But there are ppl in this profession who are deeply committed to the literary future" www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/...

Today, my 2.5 year old didn’t know the word “whoopie cushion,” so coined the term “toot balloon.” And so they shall henceforth be known, forever.

Putting together my tenure dossier, and reflecting again that the things that have made me proudest have no place here. I don’t mean trade vs. academic, but things like “I wrote this chapter with a newborn strapped to my chest“ or “I gave this epic talk at 11 weeks postpartum,” etc.

I really really love what @bookriot.bsky.social is doing with Zero to Well-Read and I think fellow lit profs should take note! An avid group of listeners, eager for literary history and close reading. With some great guests! (@emilyrcwilson.bsky.social, @namwalien.bsky.social, -ahem- yours truly)

Imagine if Tech or Finance allowed their story to be told in the mainstream press almost exclusively by people who hated them. This is what Education has chosen, in large part because it is saboteurs from Finance and Tech who have been doing the choosing.

My science-loving kid this morning, preparing for a field trip to the natural history museum, asked me to do her hair “like a paleontologist“: in pigtails.

My new essay, on "The Institution(s) of High School English," and the chasm that exists between high school and university English departments, is out now in Post45! Such a pleasure to be thinking alongside this fabulous collection of teachers and scholars! post45.org/2026/06/inst...

It‘s extra special to see this baby in print.

"'No figure,' she writes, 'has been more significant, and yet more invisible' in the 'ecosystem' of contemporary American fiction, and her shrewd, scholarly, and generous work shows why.” Read the full review of @lbmcgrath.bsky.social's Middlemen in @nybooks.com:

Who are the literary agents of irish authors, and what do they do? I had a go at answering these questions and more in this (open access) essay - with help from some (anonymous) agents, authors and publishers who were good enough to lend me their time www.euppublishing.com/doi/10.3366/...

A beautiful day to wake up to find this review of MIDDLEMEN in the New York Review of Books!

Thrilled to see this review of MIDDLEMEN in The Economist today!

I got to hang with my awesome PUP publicist @alyssasanford.bsky.social yesterday at the US Book Show, and we must’ve manifested hard enough to realign the universe or tear some kind of hole in the space-time continuum, because…

A beautiful day to wake up to find this review of MIDDLEMEN in the New York Review of Books!

Come hang with me at the US Book Show tomorrow! Join me and PW’s Ed Nawotka for a lunchtime chat about literary agents. (Not to be confused with the panel about AI agents happening a few doors down. Only humans here!)

Come join me at the US Book Show on Wednesday!

That’s my friend! That’s my friend!

Also, I’m finally watching the last two episodes of HACKS, which is a really brave thing for me to do, as a person whose cry-trigger is women achieving their dreams.

Cheers to @princetonupress.bsky.social and a happy belated one month to Middlemen.

Here’s Susan Choi on Barthelme in The Paris Review, just ahead of the reissue of his Sixty Stories. I wrote about Barthelme and his agent, Lynn Nesbit, in MIDDLEMEN, even unearthing his query letter. Which is just to say: I am *so ready* for the Barthelme renaissance.

Chronicling the story of literary agents in the United States from the 1950s to today, @lbmcgrath.bsky.social's Middlemen uncovers their critical role in the making of American literature. Out now (23 June UK pub). Read a free preview: press.princeton.edu/books/hardco... #Publishing

Here’s Susan Choi on Barthelme in The Paris Review, just ahead of the reissue of his Sixty Stories. I wrote about Barthelme and his agent, Lynn Nesbit, in MIDDLEMEN, even unearthing his query letter. Which is just to say: I am *so ready* for the Barthelme renaissance.

If only there were a book that explained this………….

“this industry hinges on symbolic capital” - @lbmcgrath.bsky.social podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/p... MIDDLEMEN is still my favorite book that I have not read yet, & I look forward to reading it💕

The single most revealing question that you can ask a parent is: what do you do during the three pages of wild rumpus?

I’m not generally tempted by fast fashion; travel accessories/luggage are my consumerist kryptonite. Jelly sandals, nap dressss? Meh. But packing cubes or travel portfolios? Hide my wallet.

This matters, btw, because trade non-fiction is really the centerline of an educated public, in my view. The people who want to go beyond the takes and the feeds, yet who are not going to read full on academic research. It’s a big deal.

Still in the middle of it but y'all, McGrath's Middlemen is so good! It's a history of literary agents but it also has tons of data and interesting stories about book publishing and I've already told 5 colleagues to read it so now I'm telling you! bookshop.org/p/books/midd...

I had a wonderful time talking about MIDDLEMEN with Ed Nawotka at Publishers Weekly!

BONUS EPISODE: Laura B. McGrath discussed all things literary agents and her debut book, MIDDLEMEN, over on the podcast feed. Listen here: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/m... Or here: open.spotify.com/episode/3svi...

Assorted book arrivals

Did a big book haul today. One of the books I'm most excited about is Middlemen by Laura B. McGrath! Once I finish Edge of Space-Time, I'm getting right into it. Also jazzed about On Writing Well and One of Us from Elizabeth Day. press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...

I would like a personal apology from every man who called the station or emailed me personally to gripe about my voice during my time on public radio but never did the same to Ira Glass.

I talked with Rosa Lyster about literary agents for THE PARIS REVIEW.

"A professor of English literature who has never worked in publishing, McGrath describes the mechanisms and eccentricities of the industry with a clarity and curiosity that insiders don’t necessarily have." A great interview on the making of MIDDLEMEN in @parisreview.bsky.social!

I talked with Rosa Lyster about literary agents for THE PARIS REVIEW.

"A piece of this book [The Edge of Space-Time] is me saying there is value in banding with the poets, and fighting for the value of being curious and trying to articulate the world with whatever tools are available to us." -- @chanda.blacksky.app via @nytimes.com

Hello from the (admittedly very privileged) trenches, we assistant profs are panicking!!

I’m the only assistant prof in my department, and for (fingers crossed) just a few more months.

I have saved some of my sassiest moments for footnotes, they are highly underrated as a way of saying 1) "bitch I have receipts" and 2) "oh this unreliable source *thought* they were going to get the last word?? lolol"