"In true '90s fashion, at one point, I sent him a mix tape." Amy Crider shared a playlist for her memoir Catching an Orange at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/05/22/a...

"I listened to so much music as I wrote. I love music. And I included a lot of it, knitted into the writing. I can't imagine writing novels without music, honestly." Caitlin Shetterly shared a playlist for her novel The Gulf of Lions at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/05/21/c...

"This is a set list of brokenhearted love songs, so listen to it when you want exactly that" Rebecca Chace shared a playlist for her novel Talking to the Wolf at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/05/21/r...

"...when you’re looking for a certain entry point to your writing, a tone or mood or feeling (grim in this case), then it's nice to have a song that can ease you into that mood as into a warm bath." Nick Cutter shared a playlist for his novel The Dorians largeheartedboy.com/2026/05/19/n...

"In the days after I came out, I would sit in my small house, cut off from everything...Music brought me a lot of deep healing as I learned how to be okay." Chad Anderson shared a playlist for his graphic memoir Gay Mormon Dad at Largehearted Boy. largeheartedboy.com/2026/05/18/c...

"...the protagonist is a music lover, a concert goer, and music of a certain kind, in a certain register, can be imagined as floating around the edges of the story." Eric Beck Rubin shared a playlist for his novel Ten Clear Days at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/05/15/e...

"At the keyboard in the morning, I feel the pressure to perform. To sing. I love a musical sentence." TJ Fuller shared a playlist for his story collection Some Stupid Glow at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/05/14/t...

"Much of my book Afternoon Hours of a Hermit concerns memory and the techniques of fiction which I have tried to pass onto my students." Patrick Cottrell shared a playlist for his novel Afternoon Hours of a Hermit at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/05/13/p...

"The Coffin of Honey has an internationalist point of view, and this playlist inevitably reflects that." Geoffrey D. Morrison shared a playlist for is novel The Coffin of Honey at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/05/13/g...

"The playlist features songs from seductive Haiti, sexy and spiritual 1950s New York City and festive and soulful Brazil..." Dimitry Elias Léger shared a playlist for his novel Death of the Soccer God at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/05/12/d...

"I’ve always used music as a crowbar to access emotions that I usually hide from myself." Sam Beckbessinger shared a playlist for her debut novel Femme Feral at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/05/12/s...

"The book is full of songs playing in cafés and late-night bus stations, on tape decks in kitchens and living-room turntables, broadcast on pirate radio or performed by punk bands in sweaty, crowded rooms." Jeff Miller shared a playlist for Temporary Palaces largeheartedboy.com/2026/05/11/j...

"In 2017, when I was struggling daily with the growing desire to die, I made a playlist. The playlist was thirty-one songs, all by the Mountain Goats, titled simply: stay alive." Madeline Vosch shared a playlist for her memoir Undead at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/05/11/m...

“Music plays throughout my novel, Hidden River...its emotional heart is lodged squarely in the mid ‘80s to early ‘90s, when any Gen Xer could tell you: music was life.” Sara Lippmann shared a playlist for her novel Hidden River at @largeheartedboy largeheartedboy.com/2026/05/08/s...

"What follows is an eclectic playlist that could make you cry or dance or say 'what the fuck?' As with all good things, it ends with Cher." Alexa Yasemin Brahme shared a playlist for her debut novel Good News at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/05/07/a...

"As soon as I started writing Immersions I knew the bad boy of the novel would be named Johnny. All bad boys are named Johnny: all drifters, no-good charmers, and sweet, shiftless men." Kyle McCarthy shared a playlist for her novel Immersions at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/05/06/k...

"I was thinking about big beautiful pop music – the feelings of euphoria or heartbreak that a key change or a bridge can bestow on you..." Ana Kinsella shared a playlist for her debut novel Frida Slattery As Herself largeheartedboy.com/2026/05/05/a...

"Music is a tool I use to block out the metaphorical and literal noise." Andrew Dana Hudson shared a playlist for his novel Absence at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/05/05/a...

"I have a DJ past, and the soundtrack was a way for me to add new layers of subtext to the writing." Alicia Kennedy shared a playlist for her book On Eating at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/05/01/a...

"...In our hyper-informed digital era of patriarchal panic, climate catastrophe...this book foregrounds hope as a form of resistance." Anna Badkhen shared a playlist for her essay collection To See Beyond at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/04/30/a...

"The devouring monster that my protagonist can seem to be is a reflection on our overwhelming consumption, which will in fact devour our world." Ananda Devi shared a playlist for her novel All Flesh at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/04/28/a...

"As I’ve put this playlist together, and the book for that matter, there’s an obvious trajectory from isolation to connection. Isn’t that what it’s all about?" James Ciano shared a playlist for his poetry collection The Committee of Men at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/04/28/j...

"This playlist traces that arc: from heartland rock’s narratives of survival to the hyper-produced imperatives of pop, where freedom is marketed as a reward for submission." Candice Wuehle shared a playlist for her novel Ultranatural at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/04/27/c...

"Music runs throughout The Soldier's House as this plot unfolds, played on a little cassette recorder, the car radio, on an iPod (remember those?)..." Helen Benedict shared a playlist for her novel The Soldier's House at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/04/24/h...

"Music is an amazing tone-setter for a writing day." Ramona Ausubel shared a playlist for her book Unstuck at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/04/23/r...

"Don’t Stop is a novel about a woman with an utterly divided life, who tells herself that part of it is real and important...and the other...is make-believe." Bonnie Friedman shared a playlist for her debut novel Don't Stop largeheartedboy.com/2026/04/23/b...

"...I’m a novelist who wants to be a musician. This is obvious from all my books but this one in particular." Anna Dorn shared a playlist for her novel American Spirits at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/04/19/a...

"'You're about to get hit by a hurricane.' That's the best advice I got about what it's like when a baby makes landfall in your life." Eric LeMay shared a playlist for his essay collection The First 649 at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/04/17/e...

"I do most of my writing in coffee shops, so my playlists are often selected by baristas." Zach Powers shared a playlist for his novel The Migraine Diaries at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/04/16/z...

"The music herein may take you a place you may not want to go: to a graveside perhaps, or a deathbed, or simply to a wasted day." Pamela Ryder shared a playlist for her novel Daybreak Birdsong Always Wakes Him at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/04/15/p...

"...I wanted this list to capture something else — something deliberately accessible. Something glossy. Something you’d hear leaking from a car window at night. Something catchy enough to carry a body." Luke Goebel shared a playlist for his novel Kill Dick largeheartedboy.com/2026/04/14/l...

"I read that Daniel Day-Lewis would listen to Eminem’s 'The Way I Am' every day on the set of Gangs of New York to get amped up for his role as Bill the Butcher..." Edward Salem shared a playlist for his collection Intifadas largeheartedboy.com/2026/04/12/e...

“These songs were routes to the elemental, helping me get down to different scales of existence and see through the lens of a French Bulldog...” Morgan Day shared a playlist for her debut novel The Oldest Bitch Alive largeheartedboy.com/2026/04/10/m...

"My new collection of short fiction, King the Wonder Dog: and Other Stories...is my love letter to the healing power of animals." Eleanor Lerman shared a playlist for her story collection King the Wonder Dog at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/04/08/e...

"To write incisively about events that happened forty to fifty years ago, finding music to evoke those times was key." Stephanie Weaver shared a playlist for her memoir Bitter, Sweet at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/04/07/s...

"People ask me if I ever get writers' block, and I say 'Never!' If you feel like you can't get anything creative done, throw on 'Born to Go' by Hawkwind." Ed Lin shared a playlist for his novel The Dead Can't Make a Living at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/04/07/e...

"When I lived in Sac City, Iowa, in my early twenties, the time in my life that Surety draws from, I was in the habit of starting a new playlist on the first of each month." Anna Zumbahlen shared a playlist for her poetry collection Surety at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/04/06/a...

"Miranda Lambert and I  might have made quite a team back in the day when I still drank tequila, smoked roll-your-own cigarettes, and danced with strangers." Patricia Henley shared a playlist for her story collection Apple & Palm at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/04/03/p...

"I wrote red, white, and blues because I believe poetry can still tell the truth when other forms have failed us." Sean Murphy shared a playlist for his poetry collection red, white, and blues at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/04/02/s...

"I love loud music in desert bars, especially on a jukebox, and throughout the '90s, which was when I worked on this book, such establishments were plentiful." Deanne Stillman shared a playlist on the 25th anniversary of the publication of Twentynine Palms largeheartedboy.com/2026/04/01/d...

"It is my great pleasure to share with you the music that soothed me and influenced me, that gave me the confidence to listen to my inner voice." Lisa Lee shared a playlist for her debut novel American Han at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/03/31/l...

"The book is divided into five sections of three essays each, and I’ve picked one song (and occasionally a bonus track) to accompany each essay." Elizabeth Zaleski shared a playlist for her essay collection The Trouble with Loving Poets at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/03/29/e...

"Music is woven throughout the book, as it is woven through my life..." Alicia Jo Rabins shared a playlist for her memoir, When We're Born We Forget Everything, at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/03/27/a...

"I think Horses is a response to pressure. I imagine the book opening with sound, disrupted, distorted, but oddly in sync as it rises slowly from the dark." Jake Skeets shared a playlist for his poetry collection Horses at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/03/26/j...

"The sonic quirk started in St. Louis, in my early teens. As the act of stringing sentences together moved beyond pleasure into something earnest, even sacred, it became harder to write without music..." Matthew Pitt shared a playlist for his novel Tear Here largeheartedboy.com/2026/03/25/m...

"Because my beautiful doomed daughter Anna loved music so much—it was her balm, her joy—music is a thread through my memoir, A Ribbon for Your Hair." Stephen Policoff shared a playlist for his memoir A Ribbon For Your Hair at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/03/24/s...

"The narrator of HOVEL is trying to defamiliarize the familiar world; she’s trying to see the world anew by probing it from as many strange angles as possible." Ailsa Ross shared a playlist for her debut novel Hovel at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/03/22/a...

"Concentric Macroscope is about transmissions—about radio waves and about communication, what’s said and unsaid. It’s about the transmission of information..." Kelly Krumrie shared a playlist for Concentric Macroscope at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/03/20/k...

"...the issue is maybe that I love music so much that sometimes I can’t cope with it. I am, like a lot of elder millennials, arrested in the '90s indie scene I first fell in love with." Luke Kennard shared a playlist for his novel Black Bag at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/03/19/l...

"...the book’s method is musical:  questions of tone, rhythm, pitch, and volume drive the unnamed first-person narrator’s torrential, obsessive voice." Wayne Koestenbaum shared a playlist for his novel My Lover, the Rabbi at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/03/18/w...