TWO WEEKS AWAY: Slant's launch event for the late poet Baron Wormser's final collection, James Baldwin Smoking a Cigarette and Other Poems, will take place on January 13 and feature four renowned guest poets. Register: us02web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

"The art of close reading reminds us that great literature deepens our respect for mystery & the divided nature of the human heart—& in so doing offers us hope for healing and reconciliation." Don't miss the conversation with Close Reading writers featured today on Substack. youtu.be/CSwB-KwS4JM?...

Don’t forget to make your tax-deductible donation to Slant before December 31! The generosity of our donors makes all our work possible. slantbooks.org/donate/

Every Christmas season I post the wonderful Christmas meditation by the great theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar. churchlifejournal.nd.edu/articles/int...

More kudos for Child of These Tears! Molly McNett's novel on the New Statesman's Books of the Year 2025 list! www.newstatesman.com/culture/book...

We ask for financial support only 2 months a year. Doing something the right way rather than the easy way always comes at a cost. If you agree, please read our annual appeal letter and donate to Support Slant's mission. slantbooks.org/donate/

Don't miss Howard Schaap's conversation with radio station KWIT-KOJI: Siouxland Public Media on his new release from Slant, Brooding Upon the Waters! www.kwit.org/spm-podcasts...

"If we passed over an element of the plot or neglected a significant piece of dialogue, Brother Rudolph would chastise us. And if we seemed zoned out to him, our minds wandering, he’d give us a cuff to the head." Wm Cain on a memory of Close Reading from 1969. slantbooks.substack.com/p/close-read...

MARK YOUR CALENDARS! This tribute to the late Baron Wormser -- featuring four great poets -- is going to be a real treat. His words live on. Registration link: us02web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

From the New Statesman's Books of the Year 2025, Rowan Williams on Molly McNett's "Child of These Tears."

"The most transformative books are the product of an individual writer’s imagination; great books reflect what the philosophers called haeccitas—'thisness'—something no large language model or AI slop will ever possess." Read Slant's Annual Appeal and support our work! slantbooks.org/close-readin...

Terrible photo, i know, but that's a breaching humpback whale. I wondered why the ferry slowed down....

Definitive proof that some people -- at least occasionally -- laugh WITH me rather than, you know, the alternative....

I called her my fairy godmother. She helped me get started as a publisher and an editor. RIP, dearest Luci Shaw, & sincere condolences to John Hoyte and the whole family. Memory eternal!

Congratulations, Howard Schaap, on publication day of your debut memoir, Brooding Upon the Waters. You can still register for tonight's live book launch: us02web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

TOMORROW NIGHT! It's not too late to register! Don't miss the launch event for Howard Schaap's Brooding Upon the Waters tomorrow at 8pm EST. Registration required: us02web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

I am happy to post an antidote to all that Black Friday represents. Coming in February, 2026 from Slant Books.

Awaiting the Great Convergence.

From Howard Schaap's memoir of his father's crippling mental illness—and unforgettable love. Next week from Slant Books. slantbooks.org/books/broodi...

What does it mean to commit to an imperfect place? How can our fathers (& grandfathers) influence our understanding of God? Listen to Howard Schaap’s wide-ranging conversation w/ Gayle Doornbos, about his memoir Brooding Upon the Waters—coming from Slant Bks on 12/2. open.spotify.com/episode/2Jlp...

Don't miss Howard Schaap's debut memoir of a father and a culture in crisis, new from Slant on December 2. slantbooks.org/books/brooding-upon-the-waters/

"He’s all head & shoulders, a masterful presence, a formidable personality. He sends out a wary discontent that captivates me. Yet the more I contemplate Góngora, the more I feel suspicion & woundedness in him." William Cain reads a portrait for Close Reading. slantbooks.substack.com/p/close-read...

Check out this wonderfully rich podcast conversation with poet Robert Cording. The discussion is based on Bob's "Finding the World's Fullness," published by Slant Books. www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiD8...

Can you "close read" the life of a mysterious animal? Find out on today's Close Reading blog. slantbooks.substack.com/p/close-read...

"Parents cannot help this longing for their beloved children—a longing to keep them nearby, with us, always, or at least for as long as they are so small and fragile. But like Monica, we are not in control." Read Nadya Williams's review of "Child of These Tears." mereorthodoxy.com/child-of-the...

"Pessoa’s writing can be read as a kind of lived cosmology." Morgan Meis on a Modernist who may have more traditional than previously thought. Today at Slant's Close Reading blog. slantbooks.substack.com/p/the-mouth-...

"Haven requires the particularity of relationships to provide perspective, color, and value, by which his poetic vision is completed." Read Brad Crenshaw's thoughtful review of Stephen Haven's The Flight From Meaning for North American Review. northamericanreview.org/open-space/2...

"Each of Fincke’s poems tells an immersive story in which readers are invited to accompany characters through moments of great love, loss and longing." Great review of "For Now, We Have Been Spared" in America magazine. www.americamagazine.org/poetry/2025/...

Peggy Rosenthal counts out coffee spoons and dares to eat a peach (after returning to Eliot's Prufrock. Today at Slant's Close Reading blog. slantbooks.substack.com/p/revisiting...

If you missed it, a reading and Q&A with Bonnie Naradzay—author of this week's release, "Invited to the Feast"—is now available as an episode of SlantCast on YouTube! Watch it here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9eu...

"I myself feel it’s the poet’s job to write of the larger problems in our society. Otherwise I might feel as if I must put on blinders to write, the way a horse is made to wear blinders to work." Read Slant's Q&A with Bonnie Naradzay for today's Close Reading slantbooks.substack.com/p/from-the-h...

READ AN EXCERPT from Bonnie Naradzay's just-published debut collection, "Invited to the Feast." slantbooks.org/news/read-an...

TOMORROW! You're invited to the launch event for Bonnie Naradzay's debut poetry collection, Invited to the Feast. Registration required Link: us02web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

"The key to hacking your way through the current thicket of literary noise ... is the same as the cultivation of other kinds of wisdom: paying attention to the disciplines of truthful friends, the embodied motions of prayer, the humility of the unexpected." slantbooks.substack.com/p/a-way-thro...

ONE WEEK AWAY! A debut collection of poems that "burn with a radical empathy." Join us for the launch of Bonnie Naradzay's Invited to the Feast on Tuesday, October 28. Registration required: us02web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

“Oh yes, that’s the road map, that’s what life is, it’s all about eternal recurrence, that’s something everybody should be thinking about.” William Cain on discussing Nietzsche with his Uber drivers for today's Close Reading: slantbooks.substack.com/p/nietzsche-...

"You will find Child of These Tears gripping, stirring, and ... 'most delightful.'” John Tuttle reviews Molly McNett's historical novel, now available from Slant or wherever books are sold. catholicinsight.com/2025/10/14/t...

From Bonnie Naradzay's masterful debut collection, Invited to the Feast. Available for pre-order now. Out 10/28. slantbooks.org/books/invite...

"Maybe this is why Halevi calls upon the Lord to heal him. He sees that his own medicine doesn’t work." Read Richard Chess on "The Poetry Cure" for today's Close Reading. slantbooks.substack.com/p/the-poetry...

Praise for Slant's next release, Invited to the Feast—out October 28. slantbooks.org/books/invite...

I'm a little heartbroken that we lost Baron Wormser before publication day (1/13/26) but he was able to go through the proofs and expressed "delight" with the cover. A huge honor that he was so passionate about wanting to be published by Slant Books. slantbooks.org/books/james-...

Don’t miss the new release that Rowan Williams called “One of the best novels I’ve read in the past couple of years.” Child of These Tears is available now! slantbooks.org/books/child-...

"I wanted it to be shamelessly intellectual at times and shamelessly crude at others." George Dardess on Morgan Meis's trilogy of books, now complete with the publication of "The Grand Valley." Today at Slant's Close Reading blog. slantbooks.substack.com/p/working-on...

“This is what I love about historical pieces—trying to find a voice.” Read Slant's wide-ranging Q&A with Molly McNett, author of new historical novel Child of These Tears, for today's Close Reading blog post. slantbooks.substack.com/p/captivity-...

The other source of color (or off-color) in my life.

CONGRATULATIONS to Molly McNett on the publication day for her beautiful, harrowing, transformative novel. slantbooks.org/books/child-...

ONE WEEK AWAY: Molly McNett’s new, polyphonic novel that Pulitzer Prize-winner Paul Harding calls “as artful as it is unnerving, as beautiful as it is strange.” Join Slant and author Molly McNett for our live launch event on September 30. Register here: us02web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

I mean, I'm a Seahawks fan but do they think they can just drop in at any time?

93 years young. Happy Birthday, Mom!

"The poems in this collection seem to struggle toward description because, even if we catch only a brief and mediated glimpse, what we see in those moments matters." newversereview.substack.com/p/a-review-o...