“Anyone curious about how their favorite books came to be will appreciate this peek behind the curtain.” @lbmcgrath.bsky.social’s Middlemen—“an enlightening study” of literary agents—earns a @publisherswkly.bsky.social review:

“An enlightening study of how agents have shaped the American literary landscape. . . . McGrath’s research is extremely thorough and presented in entertaining prose. Anyone curious about how their favorite books came to be will appreciate this peek behind the curtain.”—Publishers Weekly

Might work today from this one glorious sun patch on my kitchen floor, like a cat.

Should I crunch these numbers to figure out who would actually be eligible for this job, for funsies? Calling @jdporter.bsky.social.

Page proofs arrived today (!) and actual book coming August 2026!!!

Out today: THE CROWN'S SILENCE I'm delighted to share that my new book is officially out! It traces the British monarchy's involvement in the transatlantic slave trade and colonial slavery over hundreds of years. Please buy a copy, tell your library, & spread the word. bookshop.org/p/books/the-...

First trade review! Thrilled to see some pre-pub praise for MIDDLEMEN from kirkus.

“A fresh, well-researched debut.” @lbmcgrath.bsky.social’s Middlemen (publishing April 28, 2026) “offers insights into the strategies, values, and relationships that shape an agent’s work.” Read the full review in Kirkus Reviews:

My entire MLA panel on Public Canons. cc @mellymeldubs.bsky.social, @manshel.bsky.social, Tess McNulty

Teaching a YA class this semester, which is brand new to me and my department. It's both a thrilling and terrifying time to be diving into this material! Here's an ongoing thread of things I'm reading/teaching.

[email protected] and I are both in Toronto, though we're giving our papers virtually. Come find us in an abandoned conference room or hallway somewhere in the convention center!

One last reminder about our virtual session tomorrow (Saturday, January 9th)! Please join us online for a great discussion featuring @mellymeldubs.bsky.social @lbmcgrath.bsky.social @carmenthong.bsky.social Angelina Eimannsberger and Jacinta R. Saffold.

So excited for this!! @sselisker.bsky.social’s article on the Bechdel Test teaches beautifully, always a fave of my grad students learning networks. Thrilled to read a book’s worth!

If you're headed to #MLA26 in Toronto, come check out these two DYNAMITE panels I'm a part of... On Saturday at 12:00, we've got PUBLIC CANONS, featuring @lbmcgrath.bsky.social, @mellymeldubs.bsky.social, Tess McNulty, and Autumn Womack!

Barnes & Noble is running a preorder sale for members! Snag MIDDLEMEN (my most anticipated book of 2026!) for 25% off with code PREORDER25.

Guess how many times we’ve watched MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO this flu-infested holiday break. Then double it.

Show me your holiday bakes!! 1/3 cakes in my kitchen today. A raspberry swirl cheesecake!

It is about this: because so many people do not give a shit about romance, shit gets tried in romance first. You should pay attention to romance publishing news and care about it, because they will try that shit here first.

Was about to post something snarky and cute and self-effacing about how I didn’t make Oprah’s Most Anticipated Books of 2026 list (har har) but THEN I learned from said list there’s a new Tana French in 2026 and now I’m not even on my own most anticipated list anymore.

I'm excited to share the most wonderful blurbs I received for MIDDLEMEN.

Yes, indeed!!

Un grand livre.

More details to come but… 🎉🎉 I just learned that my book has won the first ever Biennial Book Prize from MELUS, the Society for the Study of Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States! I’m over the moon! 🎉🎉 cup.columbia.edu/book/writing...

Very smart move by self, 16 weeks ago, to schedule haircut for the morning after grades due. Well done.

Lord, please never let me be hated by someone as skilled as that Vanity Fair photographer. Let all my haters be incompetent.

Very happy to introduce a new tool, BookReconciler! You can take spreadsheets with book data and add subject headings, descriptions, ISBNs, HathiTrust IDs, & more. You can also cluster editions & variations of the same "Work." Led by @thisismattmiller.com and supported by @post45data.bsky.social.

I get that they’re silly, but I don’t care: I’m weeping over my blurbs.

If you'd asked me which agent was most likely to publish a memoir, I'd probably have guessed Emanuel. If you were to ask me which agent I would MOST LIKE to publish their memoirs... well, I'd have a very different answer.

I’m teaching YA Lit for the first time this spring. I thought it would be a fun assignment, fill a dept need, and help us attract majors. But I’m beginning to see this class as really politically radical and profound, meeting our moment in important ways. I think this is what hope feels like?

It Happened to Me: kindergartener began saying “6-7” for the first time and I lost my shit in target.

Our School of Information Sciences is running four searches, and we can hire more than four candidates. Here’s the first link, for a job that might appeal to people working in history of information, history of science, or digital humanities. +

Finals week approaches! Tell me about your most immersive/propulsive light-ish but smart read of the year to get me through grading!

Thrilled to make my debut in @newyorker.com today with this piece on Trump’s new foster care exec order, which pairs an initiative to help kids aging out of the system with efforts to put the religious rights of foster parents above the civil rights of LGBTQ+ youth: www.newyorker.com/news/the-led...

Grad students asked me recently why I write collaboratively, and I struggled to give an answer better than “I have extremely smart friends and I love to hang out and talk about books with them,” but that’s really it.

Lots of fun presenting with @lbmcgrath.bsky.social and @jdporter.bsky.social at this week’s fabulous conference on the world of audiobooks! Thanks to @corinnanorue.bsky.social and @millicentweber.bsky.social for organizing. And watch this space for more on “Echoing: A Theory of the Audiobook”!

To all the parents of elementary schoolers “disguising turkeys” this weekend: godspeed.

Had my first book-related anxiety dream last night, in which a literary agent I interviewed accused me of getting him wrong. The good news is, the reality certainly will not be worse than my subconscious imagines! The bad news is, I guess this is my life until April.

I devoured @lbmcgrath.bsky.social’s Middlemen over the weekend! This is such a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the marketplace of contemporary literature (and reminded me of all the lunches I heard about but never attended as a summer intern at Carlisle and Company (now Inkwell)

Murphy’s Law, but for moms*: uour child WILL get sick and need to be picked up from daycare in the day if an important event you’re coordinating. *parent who has a “more flexible” work schedule

Hi publishing folk: I've got an amazing student graduating in December who's looking for an internship! She'd love to work in editorial, focusing on children's, but she's open to anything that'll get her Philadelphia-foot in an NYC-door. Any of you fine folks looking for an assistant?

Thinking only of Rosalind Franklin today, and what was stolen from her (and so many other female scientists alongside her).

When your dad finds out that your book is available for preorder…

You heard it here, folks. You won't find higher praise.

If you are an agent or want to be an agent or an editor who deals with agents or an author who has an agent or is trying to get one, you need to read this book.

Excited to reveal the cover of my book, MIDDLEMEN: LITERARY AGENTS AND THE MAKING OF AMERICAN FICTION, which is available for pre-order now!

I cannot effing wait to read this, @lbmcgrath.bsky.social

AAAAAH BABY’S FIRST GALLEYBRAG!!!!!

This Halloween, I'm dressing as my middle school self's idea of A Cool Adult. (Or: wearing the exact clothes I would've worn in middle school, as a very uncool kid, but now trendy.)

Here's a Very Good Thing in Very Bad Times: my local mom fb group is working to connect members who are losing SNAP benefits with members who can "sponsor" them through the coming weeks. It's really beautiful to see everyone working together to make sure kids in our community aren't going hungry.

I would love to see more rigorous, popular criticism of contemporary children’s media. Love this, on Miss Rachel, from Sophie Pinkham. thebaffler.com/salvos/speak...