This is tonight!!! We hope to see you @theunderstudychi.bsky.social to celebrate @rachellayown.bsky.social's debut novel!

Honored to see “Border Less” featured here, in excellent company. Thank you @debutiful.bsky.social and @rachellayown.bsky.social for spotlighting polyphonic stories that take risks with form and voice. 🙏🏽🤎 For more on each 📕, visit: debutiful.net/2026/05/18/t... (Images reposted from @debutiful )

Happy pub day, @rachellayown.bsky.social!

Happiest of happy Pub Days to @chicagorevbooks.bsky.social's Managing Director @rachellayown.bsky.social. Go get your copy of Rachel's debut novel HOW WE SEE THE GRAY now!!!! chireviewofbooks.com/2026/05/15/c...

"It’s funny because sensitivity is such a strength as a writer, but you really need to steel yourself to publish." - @rachellayown.bsky.social. Great little interview!

"I hope the novel lets people consider taking a step back and giving people grace and reflecting on how we all mess up...we’re all just trying." Annelies Zijderved's interview with @rachellayown.bsky.social on "How We See the Gray" (Curbstone Press) is out now. chireviewofbooks.com/2026/05/15/c...

"I don’t feel anxious or nervous. More like I’ve just taken off on a wild adventure, so I better enjoy the ride." LOVE this conversation between two brilliant writers, on the occasion of @rachellayown.bsky.social's PUB DAY!!! CC: @amyegia.bsky.social open.substack.com/pub/pubcheer... #booksky

We’re thrilled for @rachellayown.bsky.social's debut novel HOW WE SEE THE GRAY forthcoming tomorrow (!!!) from @nupress.bsky.social. She’ll be in conversation at the @theunderstudychi.bsky.social w/ @meganstielstra.bsky.social on May 21 at 7:30pm—register below! www.eventbrite.com/e/a-conversa...

It was so special to be interviewed by @rubyprosenthal.bsky.social, who is a serious delight. (Huge thanks, Ruby!)

ICYMI: Contributor @recycledgiraffe.bsky.social published an interview with @rachellayown.bsky.social in @chicagorevbooks.bsky.social! 👏 🤩 Check it out right here: buff.ly/qIDvgx6

💕 Always excited for a new book! 💕 Contributor @saralippmann.bsky.social just launched her new book HIDDEN RIVER & was interviewed by fellow contributor @rachellayown.bsky.social 👏 buff.ly/eBHPoTa

"It was important to maintain both generational integrity and cultural complicity while not erasing desire or complex feelings around agency." Read @rachellayown.bsky.social's interview w/ @saralippmann.bsky.social on "Hidden River" (@tortoisebooks.bsky.social). chireviewofbooks.com/2026/05/05/d...

Huge happy Pub Day to @saralippmann.bsky.social and HIDDEN RIVER! It's one of the @chicagorevbooks.bsky.social twelve must-reads for May, so if you live in the city you kinda have to get it. (Or at least read the interview with @rachellayown.bsky.social!) chireviewofbooks.com/2026/05/05/d...

This is soo good!!

To see my book next to Jesmyn Ward’s?!? Pinch me. Huge thanks to @mbwwelch.bsky.social for including HWSTG and for the kind words!

So many great books headed your way in May ... including @chicagorevbooks.bsky.social Managing Director @rachellayown.bsky.social's debut novel, HOW WE SEE THE GRAY!!!!

A delightful surprise in the mail today, @rachellayown.bsky.social's superb novel, How We See The Gray

“Escape as self-care, as opportunity for needed relaxation, as freedom.” @rachellayown.bsky.social reviews Lindsey Danis’s (Out) On the Road: The Radical Joy of Queer Travel (@igpublishing.bsky.social). ➡️ buff.ly/4tEX0HF

@rachellayown.bsky.social and Grace Spulak discuss resilience in fiction (and real life).

"I would like readers to see our healthcare system through the eyes of someone who dedicated their life to hard medicine." @rachellayown.bsky.social's interview with Adam Axler on on “American Triage” (@whiskeytit.com) is out now. chireviewofbooks.com/2026/04/17/r...

"The speculative aspect is almost deeper in this light, because it challenges an American audience to push beyond the guilt of complicity." Out now: @rachellayown.bsky.social's interview with Radhika Singh on "Earthly Playing Field” (@commonnotions.bsky.social). chireviewofbooks.com/2026/03/30/r...

“...the translation is a joyful read of a mind at work...” With Both Anxiety & Self-Importance: @rubyprosenthal.bsky.social reviews Sean Wilsey’s translation of Luigi Pirandello’s One, None, and a Hundred Grand. ➡️ buff.ly/5aa6ERw

HAPPY PUB DAY to our incredible Curriculum Coordinator, Lisa Low. Get your copy of her debut poetry collection, REPLICA, now!

I loved this interview that @rachellayown.bsky.social did, especially the last line: "A beautiful reminder that art takes time."

"In an era dominated by short-form videos, rapidly declining attention spans and instant gratification, Brennan’s slow, steady approach to publishing is a welcome anomaly." Read @rachellayown.bsky.social's interview w/ @tortoisebooks.bsky.social's Gerald Brennan! chireviewofbooks.com/2026/03/20/i...

Super grateful to @rachellayown.bsky.social and @chicagorevbooks.bsky.social for this lovely interview! Get a glimpse of the publisher's life...if you dare! chireviewofbooks.com/2026/03/20/i...

"If you asked people 'What do you need?' you’d get a variety of answers at first.” @rachellayown.bsky.social's interview with Melanie Pappadis Faranello on "Everybody Needs Something” (Columbus State University Press) is out now. chireviewofbooks.com/2026/03/16/i...

Was really happy to interview @mbwwelch.bsky.social for @michiganquarterly.bsky.social about ON AN INLAND SEA (@beltpublishing.bsky.social), the amazing Great Lakes anthology he edited which everyone should check out!! sites.lsa.umich.edu/mqr/2026/03/...

This piece in @chicagorevbooks.bsky.social by @kathleenmrooney.bsky.social (first delivered at an AWP panel) literally gave me chills. I wanted to stand and cheer and high-five every person doing the hard work of thinking about books in the right ways. #books chireviewofbooks.com/2026/03/11/w...

Happy Pub Day to @chicagorevbooks.bsky.social editor-in-chief @mbwwelch.bsky.social. If you're in Chicago, the launch party for ON AN INLAND SEA is tonight at 6:30 pm at @roscoebooks.bsky.social.

The Rockford Anthology was recently officially commended by the Illinois House of Representatives for its “outstanding contribution to Illinois literature and for capturing the enduring spirit of the Rockford community”! So cool to see. Thanks to @rachellayown.bsky.social and the contributors!

Panel 2: I’m in conversation with Gina Chung (Kundiman), Maya Marshall (Haymarket Books), Taylor Lena McTootle (Periplus), and @rachellayown.bsky.social & @mbwwelch.bsky.social (Chicago Review of Books) about “Sustaining & Building Robust Literary Partnerships”—3/6 at 1:45 p.m. in Room 302.

"I didn’t set out to write a likable character." Rich Text and the Tunnel Vision of Love: @rachellayown.bsky.social interviews Seán Hewitt about Open, Heaven (@aaknopf.bsky.social). ➡️ buff.ly/Ii3xRwC

I love this book so much. Happy book birthday to NO OFFENSE and @jackiedwrites.bsky.social!

I’ve been so excited about this book and love the cover, so be sure to check it out!

This is honestly one of my favorite pieces we’ve ever run on the site 👀

"I measure a full-fledged bookstore by its discoveries, its hand-written recommendation note cards, and the checkouts that turn into runaway conversations about what we’re reading..." We're so proud to see @mbwwelch.bsky.social is in @literaryhub.bsky.social today!! 🤩 lithub.com/what-we-lose...

📢 LAST CALL 📢 to read our JANUARY ISSUE before it hits the archive! buff.ly/eKv5fuz Lots of LOVE to our Contributors: WORDS @esmepromise.bsky.social, Stephanie Meade Gresham, Lia Hagen, Joan Kwon Glass ART Audrey Holmes PLUS @rachellayown.bsky.social reviews @chriscampanioni.bsky.social

Pretty freakin stoked to have this interview with the fantastic @rachellayown.bsky.social out at @chicagorevbooks.bsky.social. We got to talk about @sfwp.bsky.social and all the cool folks I work with there. Dig it!

"Here is my point: Campanioni’s book, whose title nods to direction, shows us the boundlessness inherent in letting go of directionality." @rachellayown.bsky.social reviews @chriscampanioni.bsky.social's NORTH BY NORTH/WEST in our JANUARY ISSUE.✨ Don't miss it! buff.ly/5eyaK7H

This @chicagorevbooks.bsky.social piece -- @rachellayown.bsky.social interview SFWP Acquisitions and Developmental Editor, @adamalsirgany.bsky.social -- is a perfect supplement to Pub Crawl! chireviewofbooks.com/2026/02/04/i...

This is online and FREE. Come hear CHIRB editors talk about how much we love books and the CHIRB and how important good criticism is.

Looking at small presses for your book & have dreamed of having your work read around the world? Check out Santa Fe Writers Project, managing editor @rachellayown.bsky.social writes. Read her interview with SFWP editor, @adamalsirgany.bsky.social below! chireviewofbooks.com/2026/02/04/i...

To celebrate our ten years, managing editor @rachellayown.bsky.social writes about her beginnings at CHIRB and shares our first ever review, which was for Abby Geni‘s debut novel, The Lightkeepers (@catapultbooks.bsky.social, 2016). chireviewofbooks.com/2026/02/01/t...

We're officially 10 years old today! It's been quite a decade. Nearly 3,000 published reviews, interviews, essays, book lists, cover reveals, and more. Millions and millions of views. Ten years of CHIRBy awards, readings, and events bringing our literary community together...

For my first piece for Group Threat I wrote about the grotesque profits being made off of people's lives through ICE contracts. If we're going to survive this, we have to abolish the profit motive that ever made us see swaths of people as expendable for profit. groupthreat.com/p/tracking-i...

“Fame is fickle, and positive reception is often ephemeral. And what remains when the public loses interest?” The Cost of Ambition: @rachellayown.bsky.social reviews @allietagledokus.bsky.social’s Lucky Girl (@tinhouse.bsky.social). ➡️ buff.ly/9lBRnkj

In solidarity with all those standing up for our communities against the brutality of immigrant detention and ICE occupation, we're offering free ebooks of three crucial books about migrant justice and border abolition. We’ve also added a list of additional recommended reading:

This is soooo exciting! Join the @chicagorevbooks.bsky.social as it embarks upon a New Chicago Renaissance! chireviewofbooks.com/2026/01/22/i...

"The book’s nonlinear, stream of consciousness, mosaic-like structure feels directionless. (But what is directionless but a resistance to direction?)" @rachellayown.bsky.social reviews @chriscampanioni.bsky.social's NORTH BY NORTH/WEST. Read it all here! buff.ly/vPvEUM8