Podcast
New Books in Literature
Hosted by Marshall Poe · EN
This podcast is a channel on the New Books Network. The New Books Network is an academic audio library dedicated to public education. In each episode you will hear scholars discuss their recently published research with another expert in their field.
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119episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Meryl Branch-McTiernan, "What You Should Worry About" (Akashic Books, 2026)
2w ago00:37:18Tap to summarizeTune in to this interview with Meryl Branch-McTiernan about her new book What You Should Worry About (Akashic Books, 2026). It's January of 2020 and thirty-seven-year-old Layla Moody is trying to worm her way into a party at the Sundance Film Festival. When she’s not picking up other people’s abandoned drinks or skinny-dipping in the hot tub, she’s trying to gain access to someone who can jump-start her stymied career as a Hollywood television writer. After a run-in with one of her creative heroines, she lands an opportunity to get her show produced. The only catch is, she has to return to New York, which she’s been avoiding since her father’s death. But soon all is thwarted when COVID-19 shuts down the entertainment industry and any opportunity to propel her life forward. While quarantining alone in her parents’ apartment in Queens, Layla wrestles with the ghost of an ex-boyfriend who disappeared unexpectedly, the grief of processing the loss of her father, and the notion that she just might be the one responsible for her current state of solitude. Finally, in spite of warnings and stay-at-home orders, Layla throws caution to the wind and joins a share house on Fire Island where she spent summers in her twenties. By returning to the house and its eclectic denizens, she is reintroduced to the comfort and annoying tendencies of other people, and begins to grasp how to find family on her own terms. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literature
Transcribe →Abdelwahab Meddeb, "Returns to Marrakesh / Retour à Marrakech" (Syracuse UP, 2026)
2w ago00:31:59Tap to summarizeAbdelwahab Meddeb’s Returns to Marrakesh, co-translated by Claudia Esposito and Laura Reeck and published by Syracuse University Press in 2026, chronicles Meddeb’s successive visits to the Red City from 1968 through the 1990s, tracing both his personal journey and Marrakesh’s transformation across three pivotal decades. Through his distinctive blend of poetic prose and attentive observation, Meddeb portrays the city as a historical crossroads shaped by Jewish and Muslim communities, different social classes, Sufi mystics, merchants, and travelers—a richly layered urban space in which cultures, histories, and spiritual traditions continually intersect. Presented in a bilingual edition featuring the original French alongside the English translation, the book introduces a wider readership to the work of one of North Africa’s most significant literary and intellectual voices. In this episode, Ibrahim Fawzy sat down with Esposito and Reeck to discuss Meddeb’s distinctive literary and intellectual presence, his movement across languages, cultures, and spiritual traditions, and his intimate portrayal of Marrakesh. They also explore the collaborative process of translating his multilingual, layered prose and consider how translation can extend—and even renew—a writer’s literary afterlife. Claudia Esposito is associate professor of French at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. She is author of The Narrative Mediterranean: Beyond France and the Maghreb.Laura Reeck is an independent translator and scholar. She is the author of Writerly Identities in Beur Fiction and Beyond and coeditor of Post-Migratory Cultures in Postcolonial France. Ibrahim Fawzy is an Egyptian literary translator and writer. He is the translator of Hassan Akram’s A Plan to Save the World (Sandorf Passage, 2026). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literature
Transcribe →City on Fire: A Novel of Hong Kong with Simon Elegant
2w ago00:34:37Tap to summarizeJohn chats with writer and journalist Simon Elegant about his third novel, a crime thriller set during the Hong Kong protests of 2019. City on Fire is published by Pegasus Crime, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. The novel follows Inspector Killian Tong’s investigation of a brutal murder against a backdrop of political chaos, police tensions, and also personal conflict – Killian’s half-sister is a radical protester. John and Simon also discuss the background to the 2019 protests, including the National Security Law and the earlier 2014 Umbrella Movement. Among the books mentioned were: Manchu (1980) by Robert Elegant (a swashbuckling novel by Simon’s father). Gorky Park (1981) by Martin Cruz Smith Among the Braves: Hope, Struggle, and Exile in the Battle for Hong Kong and the Future of Global Democracy (2023) by Shibani Mahtani & Timothy McLaughlin Simon’s book recommendations The Immobile Empire (French 1989, English 1992) by Alain Peyrefitte. This is on the 1973 Macartney mission to Peking. Apple in China (2025) by Patrick McGee, which explores Apple’s deep entanglement with China’s manufacturing system. Ginkgo Season (2025) by Naomi Xu Elegant, a coming-of-age novel set in Philadelphia. To learn more about Simon Elegant and his novel, visit the publisher’s website here The Books on Asia Podcast is co-produced with Plum Rain Press . Subscribe to the BOA podcast from your favorite podcast service. podcast service. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literature
Transcribe →Jacqueline West, "Black Point" (Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2026)
2w ago00:34:29Tap to summarizeBlack Point (Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2026) is an insular small town steeped in Norse traditions, a teen’s developing romance with a newcomer becomes fraught as dark secrets from the past rise to the surface in this gorgeously atmospheric mystery by New York Times bestselling author Jacqueline West. Lucia Sorenson holds on hard to the things she loves. Her tiny Wisconsin hometown clings to the bluffs above the Mississippi River, threatened by weather, time, and the creep of climate change. Her mother is pushing her to go away to college and see the world beyond their small town, but Lucia is determined to stay and to keep her grandfather’s Viking museum going. When the Black Point Hotel, a 150-year-old landmark that’s been empty for decades, is bought by an outsider, tongues start wagging. Lucia meets the new owner’s teenage nephew, Max, and as they grow closer, she discovers there’s something thrilling about getting to know someone who hasn’t known her all her life—and maybe something more. Then Max discovers some ominous things about Black Point hidden away in the hotel—stories of ghosts and mysterious disappearances. Lucia refuses to believe that her town is hiding a sinister past. But the river is rising, and more secrets are washing to the surface. Soon, Lucia will have to choose between the home she thought she knew and uncovering the dark truths hidden underneath. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literature
Transcribe →Elisabeth Rhoads, "Haggard House" (Bodger Books, 2025)
2w ago00:24:06Tap to summarizeIt’s the 19th century, and a village in northern Michigan is the setting for Adam Bolton’s strange, decrepit house, called Haggard House by the community. He’s eleven, and his strictly religious mother only allows him to attend the village school after he promises not to be friendly with the other children. They’re heathens, she tells him. Adam builds an imaginary house in his mind, so when he meets a little girl who likes him, he can imagine her there. His father is a respected carpenter who leads a sad life because of Adam’s over-pious, angry and bitter mother. As a young man Adam escapes for a few years and doesn’t learn of his father’s murder until he returns. And when he goes against his mother’s wishes to marry the woman he loves, everyone pays a price in this well-written tale of madness and piety. Elisabeth Rhoads is the Vice-President of the second largest branch of the California Writers Club—Orange County. Since 2021, she has been a volunteer juror for the Scholastic Writing Awards. She holds her BA in Theatre and has recently been accepted into Chapman University’s Creative Writing MFA program, starting in Fall of 2026. Originally from Michigan, she spent two summers working on Mackinac Island, which only allows transport by horse and carriage, foot, or bicycle. Her time on this history-soaked island deeply influenced her, and has inspired many stories, including, in part, Haggard House (Bodger Books, 2025)—and is featured briefly in the novel. She is the author of one novel and has begun a short story series on her Substack, in which she writes a new story each month, based on subscriber prompts. Now living in California with her husband, she enjoys learning Japanese, fermenting foods of all types—although mainly kombucha—and pretends to enjoy exercise-related activities, such as kayaking and running. As someone who grew up within a strict, religious home, her writing reflects the Victorian influences that made up a large part of her family’s reading habits, such as Charles Dickens, the Brontë sisters, and Edgar Allen Poe. She hopes that modern readers will find much to connect with, as these old-world literary influences combine with her now much broader view of the world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literature
Transcribe →Charles Akl, "Red Like Orange" (Hoopoe, 2026)
2w ago00:34:11Tap to summarizeA Conversation with author Charles Akl about his debut novel Red Like Orange (Hoopoe, 2026) An offbeat tale of creativity, friendship, and finding your voice in this uproarious journey through Cairo's music scene in the early 2000s, where everything from American rock to Egyptian popular songs cultivates big dreams Winner of the Sawiris Cultural Award Following a breakup with his long-term girlfriend, “Local,” as he is known to his friends, moves from Alexandria to Cairo. In his new apartment, he discovers an old accordion, while his roommate unexpectedly decides to take up the saxophone, despite never having touched one before. And so, in the blistering summer heat, the two of them, without any formal training, dive into their first musical experiment: they put his mother’s cookbook to music. Along with an eccentric assortment of acquaintances and occasional bandmates, Local crashes through his twenties and in and out of Cairo hangouts, heated debates on different music scenes, and various impromptu jam sessions and attempts at musical production. This is a raucous journey through offbeat downtown Cairo in the early 2000s and the music of the era, from Mohamed Mounir to Pink Floyd. Suffused with a sardonic humor and full of hilarious observations, Red Like Orange vividly chronicles life lived just outside the mainstream. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literature
Transcribe →A Conversation with LeUyen Pham illustrator of "As I Dream of You" (First Second, 2026)
3w ago00:57:34Tap to summarize As I Dream of You (First Second, 2026) illustrated by LeUyen Pham and written by Jennifer Lee. Falling in love is supposed to hurt. That’s what Franny and Sam, two cynical teenagers raised on tales of heartbreak and loss, have come to understand. Yet when they fall for each other, they find the reality of love is something else entirely: it’s electrifying, all-encompassing, and easy. Theirs is a love that can conquer anything...perhaps even death. But Franny and Sam’s quest to stay together—no matter the cost—soon blurs the line between reality and fantasy, and their shared dream threatens to turn into a nightmare. In this episode, Pham talks about illustrating graphic novels and picture books as well as working as an artist. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literature
Transcribe →Mark Kitto, "China Running Dog" (Plum Rain Press, 2025)
3w ago00:38:28Tap to summarizeIn his novel China Running Dog (Plum Rain Press, 2025), a young man in his early twenties lives in Shanghai in the year 2000, in a greed-crazed free-for-all moral and lawless vacuum created by the Chinese Communist Party. Johnny Trent, small-time entrepreneur from Basildon in the UK, ends up in China, where he meets Felix Fawcett-Smith, fresh off the boat and from the other side of the tracks. An unlikely friendship begins. Johnny impresses the well-bred Felix with his street smarts until Felix takes Johnny’s advice too literally – and too far – and slips into Shanghai’s murky underbelly. He enters a world where the Party, power, and connections to them, are all that matter, where criminals are given sainthoods and saints sent to hell. Johnny tries to stop Felix’s spiral, not least because Felix is taking a sweet, angelic girl, Anita, down with him and Johnny has feelings for Anita that he has never dared to put into words. But Felix thinks he knows best. Like Johnny, all he wants is respect. It’s up to Johnny to save whoever he can, besides himself. Books mentioned in this podcast: Shanghai Baby by Wei Hui, Shanghai by Richie Yokomitsu (transl. Dennis Washburn), Candy by Mian Mian Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literature
Transcribe →Mohamed Alyahyai, "The War" (Dararab for Publishing and Translation, 2026)
3w ago00:33:56Tap to summarizeA psychological Arabic novel in English translation, The War by Mohamed Alyahyai follows a man who begins to question whether he is truly the one who returned from war. On a winter night, Issa Saleh prepares a small gathering at his home. By the end of the evening, they are gone—and he is no longer certain they were ever there. As memory fractures, the war resurfaces not as event but as instability, where identity itself begins to slip and the narratives that sustain survival unravel. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literature
Transcribe →Julie Buntin, "Famous Men" (Random House, 2026)
3w ago01:04:59Tap to summarizeWill Miles is trapped. Trapped in tiny Greening, Michigan, where a toxic high school rumor has turned her into a social exile. Trapped in the predictable routines of her mother, and under the unrelenting gaze of her mother’s increasingly sinister boyfriend. But when Will stumbles across the early poems of Nathaniel Fellow, a famous writer forty years her senior who also grew up in Greening, she feels she’s found a kindred spirit. A passing comment from her mother only adds to Will’s fascination: Is Nathaniel the father she's never known?Will orchestrates a plan to track Nathaniel down, following in his footsteps to New York City, where she learns he's not the answer to her past, not the way she imagined. But their meeting sparks a complicated, consuming relationship that gives Will sidelong access to a world she’s only ever imagined: of writers and intellectuals, a financial safety net, and, most intoxicatingly, a glimpse into her own potential. But who is Nathaniel Fellow, off the page? And what will shaping her life to suit his cost her? When a torrent of information about his past threatens not just her life with Nathaniel, but the story she tells herself about him, Will is faced with a choice that will change everything.A gripping novel about ambition, parents and children, and all the ways women still pay for men’s mistakes, Famous Men (Random House, 2026) traces one woman’s journey to the truth of where she comes from, what she’s capable of, and how she might start again. Julie Buntin‘s debut novel, Marlena, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard Prize, released in ten territories worldwide, and named a best book of the year by over a dozen outlets, including The Washington Post, NPR, and Kirkus Reviews. She is the co-editor of Notes to New Mothers, a collection of dispatches from postpartum life by sixty writers and artists. Previously, Buntin was an editor and director of writing programs at Catapult. Now, she writes and teaches in Ann Arbor, where she is an assistant professor at the University of Michigan. Recommended Books: Dur E. Aziz Amna, A Splintering Chloe Benjamin, The Understory Louise Kennedy, Stations Carol Shields, The Stone Diaries Chris Holmes is Chair of Literatures in English and Professor at Ithaca College. He writes criticism on contemporary global literatures. His book, Kazuo Ishiguro Against World Literature, is published with Bloomsbury Publishing. He is the co-director of The New Voices Festival, a celebration of work in poetry, prose, and playwriting by up-and-coming young writers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literature
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