Category: my reading life

Interviews, my reading life

Kate Schatz read sociopolitical and historical nonfiction to ground Where the Girls Were

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Kate Schatz read sociopolitical and historical nonfiction to ground Where the Girls Were

Kate Schatz, known for co-writing the New York Times bestselling author of Do the Work: An Anti-Racist Activity Book with W. Kamau Bell and the Rad Women book series, is back with her debut solo novel.

Where the Girls Were is about a promising 17-year-old in 1968 whose carefully planned future collapses when an unexpected pregnancy sends her to a home for unwed mothers. Inside the restrictive world of the maternity home, she confronts shame, limited choices, and societal judgment while finding solidarity and strength among the other girls forced into silence.

We asked Schatz to answer our recurring My Reading Life Q&A so readers could get to know the books that shaped her life and influenced her writing.

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Interviews, my reading life

Diana Xin discusses the books that shaped her life

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Diana Xin discusses the books that shaped her life

Diana Xin‘s debut short story collection, Book of Exemplary Women, was released late in 2025 and her writing was called “quiet intensity, emotional acuity, and impressive range, as though we are peering into a dozen kitchen windows and catching our neighbors at their most intimate, soul-baring, and true” by Kim Fu.

We asked Xin to answer our recurring My Reading Life Q&A so readers could get to know the books that shaped her life and influenced her debut collection.

Continue reading “Diana Xin discusses the books that shaped her life” →
Interviews, my reading life

Maybe the Body Poet Asa Drake thinks a lot about time and place when writing

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Maybe the Body Poet Asa Drake thinks a lot about time and place when writing

Asa Drake was a 2024 National Poetry Series finalist and has received fellowships and awards from the 92Y Discovery Poetry Contest, the Florida Book Awards, the Rona Jaffe Foundation, Storyknife, Sundress Publications, Tin House, and Idyllwild Arts. Her poems have been published with The Slowdown Podcast, The American Poetry Review, The Paris Review Daily, and The Georgia Review.

Her debut poetry collection, Maybe the Body, explores the conflicts between art and patriotism, labor and longing. It is now available from Tin House.

We asked Drake to answer our recurring My Reading Life Q&A so readers could get to know the books that shaped her life and influenced her debut book.

Continue reading “Maybe the Body Poet Asa Drake thinks a lot about time and place when writing” →
Interviews, my reading life

Belgrave Road author Manish Chauhan believes every book he’s ever read shaped his debut novel

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Belgrave Road author Manish Chauhan believes every book he’s ever read shaped his debut novel

Manish Chauhan, born in Leicester, is a writer who works as a finance lawyer in East London. His short story, “Pieces,” was shortlisted for the 2024 BBC National Short Story Award, and early excerpts of his debut novel, Belgrave Road, were longlisted for the Curtis Brown First Novel Award and shortlisted for the Daniel Goldsmith First Novel Prize.

In Belgrave Road, Chauhan introduces readers to Mira, a young woman navigating life in a new country and a marriage that leaves little room for choice. When she forms a quiet bond with Tahliil, she must decide whether connection and selfhood are risks worth taking and what freedom might really mean.

We asked Chauhan to answer our recurring My Reading Life Q&A so readers could get to know the books that shaped his life and influenced his debut novel.

Continue reading “Belgrave Road author Manish Chauhan believes every book he’s ever read shaped his debut novel” →
Interviews, my reading life

Murder Bimbo author Rebecca Novack is always looking for a perfect Michael Crichton smell-alike

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Murder Bimbo author Rebecca Novack is always looking for a perfect Michael Crichton smell-alike

Rebecca Novack grew up in the Rocky Mountains and received a master’s in theological studies from Harvard Divinity school. Now, she’s releasing her debut novel, Murder Bimbo.

Murder Bimbo follows a sex worker recruited into a covert political assassination, who is left to fend for herself once the job is done. Hiding in the woods with only days to survive, she races to control her story through a feminist podcast and a series of increasingly unreliable emails, forcing readers to question truth, power, and who gets to be disposable.

We asked Novack to answer our recurring My Reading Life Q&A so readers could learn about the books that shaped her life and influenced her debut novel.

Continue reading “Murder Bimbo author Rebecca Novack is always looking for a perfect Michael Crichton smell-alike” →
my reading life

Good Intentions author Marisa Walz loves suspense and book clubs

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Good Intentions author Marisa Walz loves suspense and book clubs

Marisa Walz is a Chicago-based Federal Reserve executive by day who writes suspenseful novels about people behaving badly by night. Her debut novel, Good Intentions, has been called “razor-sharp tension and surprising twists” by Jeneva Rose. It follows Cady, a successful event planner whose life collapses after the sudden death of her identical twin. Instead of grieving, she becomes fixated on Morgan, a grieving mother she meets at the hospital, convinced their meeting is no coincidence. As her attachment deepens, compassion gives way to obsession, pulling Cady into dangerous moral territory.

We asked Walz to answer our recurring My Reading Life Q&A so readers could learn about the books that shaped her life and influenced her debut book.

Continue reading “Good Intentions author Marisa Walz loves suspense and book clubs” →
Interviews, my reading life

Notes on a Heartbreak author Annie Lord knows that great books don’t have to be “perfect”

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Notes on a Heartbreak author Annie Lord knows that great books don’t have to be “perfect”

In her debut memoir, Notes on Heartbreak, Annie Lord reveals the unraveling of a five-year relationship and the emotional aftermath of losing the person she believed she would spend her life with. Throughout her memoir, Lord examines love, obsession, and recovery in the wake of devastating heartbreak.

We asked Lord to answer our My Reading Life Q&A so readers could get to know the books that shaped her life and influenced her book.

Continue reading “Notes on a Heartbreak author Annie Lord knows that great books don’t have to be “perfect”” →
Interviews, my reading life

YA horror got Hemlock author Melissa Faliveno through puberty

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YA horror got Hemlock author Melissa Faliveno through puberty

Melissa Faliveno is a longtime Debutiful favorite (listen to our 2020 conversation with her). Her essay collection, Tomboyland, was one of 2020’s best debut books, and now Faliveno is debuting in fiction.

In Hemlock, Faliveno brings readers to a cabin deep in the Wisconsin woods, where a sober Sam has a sip of a beer. As the quick cabin getaway turns south, the woods around her close in, her dependence awakens, and she begins a battle she isn’t sure she can win. It’s a deeply moving book, and the more I sit with it, the more convinced I am that this isn’t just a book of the year contender, but a book of the decade contender.

Faliveno answered the recurring My Reading Life Q&A so readers could get to know the books that shaped her life and influenced her book.

Continue reading “YA horror got Hemlock author Melissa Faliveno through puberty” →
Interviews, my reading life

Jacob Rollinson’s debut book The Truth of Carcosa is an homage to The King in Yellow

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Jacob Rollinson’s debut book The Truth of Carcosa is an homage to The King in Yellow

Jacob Rollinson is an English librarian and writer who has completed a creative and critical writing PhD at the University of East Anglia. His work has appeared in  Spoonfeed, Moxy, Critical Quarterly , and the Brixton Review of Books. In 2021, he released his novella, Late King in Yellow Wood.

Now, his debut novel, The Truth of Carcosa, has been published. An homage to The King in Yellow, the book follows evil books, shadowy corporations, and interdimensional monsters as they collide in a metafictional and horrific tale of corruption and power.

We asked Rollinson to answer our recurring My Reading Life Q&A so readers could get to know the books that shaped his life and influenced his writing.

Continue reading “Jacob Rollinson’s debut book The Truth of Carcosa is an homage to The King in Yellow” →
Interviews, my reading life

I Could Be Famous author Sydney Rende shares the books that shaped her life

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I Could Be Famous author Sydney Rende shares the books that shaped her life

Sydney Rende‘s short stories and travel writing have appeared in Joyland, Carve Magazine, T: The New York Times Style Magazine, and Who What Wear. The writer, who earned her MFA in fiction from Syracuse University, has now published her debut collection of short stories.

I Could Be Famous is a collection of ten stories that follow ten ambitious women and one male superstar as they pursue their (sometimes delusional) dreams and desires.

We asked Rende to answer our recurring My Reading Life Q&A so readers could get to know the books that shaped her life and influenced her writing.

Continue reading “I Could Be Famous author Sydney Rende shares the books that shaped her life” →