Category: my reading life

Interviews, my reading life

A History of Heartache author Patrick Strickland was inspired by his former teacher, Patricia Lear

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A History of Heartache author Patrick Strickland was inspired by his former teacher, Patricia Lear

Patrick Strickland is the author of Alerta! Alerta! Snapshots of Europe’s Anti-Fascist Struggle, The Marauders: Standing Up to Vigilantes in the American Borderlands, and You Can Kill Each Other After I Leave: Refugees, Fascism, and Bloodshed in Greece.

His debut short story collection, A History of Heartache, is filled with fourteen stories that chart the small mercies and big mistakes that make a life.

We asked him 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 “A History of Heartache author Patrick Strickland was inspired by his former teacher, Patricia Lear” →
Interviews, my reading life

Gabrielle Sher, author of Odessa, is always inspired by Mary Shelley and Shirley Jackson

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Gabrielle Sher, author of Odessa, is always inspired by Mary Shelley and Shirley Jackson

In Odessa, Gabrielle Sher introduces Yetta, a restless teenage girl coming of age in a shtetl shadowed by fear, where disappearances and whispered violence press in on daily life. After a brutal attack leaves her dead, her father turns to forbidden texts and uncertain magic to bring her back, but what returns is not entirely the daughter he lost. As Yetta begins to sense the truth of what she has become, the novel unfolds into a haunting story of grief, identity, and the consequences of trying to reverse the irreversible.

We asked Sher 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 “Gabrielle Sher, author of Odessa, is always inspired by Mary Shelley and Shirley Jackson” →
Interviews, my reading life

Che Yeun, author of Tailbone, wishes she read more 19th and 20th century Korean history as a teen

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Che Yeun, author of Tailbone, wishes she read more 19th and 20th century Korean history as a teen

Che Yeun‘s debut novel, Tailbone, follows a teenager who runs away from her abusive home to live in a boarding house for single women as a global financial crash threatens the people of Seoul. Heralded by the great Alexander Chee as an “unforgettable debut novel,” Yeun’s book finds hope in the darkest moments.

Her short has previously appeared in Granta, AGNI, Virginia Quarterly Review, and The Kenyon Review Online. Outside of fiction, she earned a PhD in History of Science at Harvard University, and is currently a professor of History of Science & Technology at Texas A&M University.

We asked Yeun 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 “Che Yeun, author of Tailbone, wishes she read more 19th and 20th century Korean history as a teen” →
Interviews, my reading life

Corey Ann Haydu deeply thought about motherhood and friendship while writing Mothers and Other Strangers

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Corey Ann Haydu deeply thought about motherhood and friendship while writing Mothers and Other Strangers

In her adult fiction debut, Mothers and Other Strangers, Corey Anne Haydu delivers an unforgettable story about two estranged childhood best friends who reunite as expectant mothers, after a mysterious falling-out between their own mothers keeps them apart for years​. The writer, no stranger to writing compelling stories for all ages, brings readers into a complicated relationship with warmth and rich prose.

We asked her 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 “Corey Ann Haydu deeply thought about motherhood and friendship while writing Mothers and Other Strangers” →
Interviews, my reading life

Gone Girl is the guide for Kirsten King, author of A Good Person

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Gone Girl is the guide for Kirsten King, author of A Good Person

Kirsten King is a screenwriter and novelist whose debut book, A Good Person, has been called “A zillennial Gone Girl” by The New York Times Book Review. The debut follows Lillian, who believes she can turn her situationship into something real by becoming Henry’s ideal partner. That is, until he unexpectedly breaks up with her and she retaliates with a hex. When Henry is found dead, and she becomes the prime suspect, Lillian spirals into a dangerous attempt to control the narrative, clear her name, and prove she’s still a good person.

We caught up with King and asked her to answer our recurring My Reading Life Q&A so readers could get to know the books that shaped her life and inspired her writing.

Continue reading “Gone Girl is the guide for Kirsten King, author of A Good Person” →
Interviews, my reading life

Catching Up with Coleman Hill author Kim Coleman Foote and the books that shaped her life

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Catching Up with Coleman Hill author Kim Coleman Foote and the books that shaped her life

In 2023, Kim Coleman Foote debuted with Coleman Hill, a story that follows two American families whose fates become intertwined in the wake of the Great Migration. Since it debuted, it has taken the world by storm, being shortlisted for the Crook’s Corner Book Prize, the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction, and the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Debut Author.

Debutiful caught up with the author recently and asked her 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

The Boyhood of Cain author Michael Amherst is always inspired by JM Coetzee and Damon Galgut

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Michael Amherst‘s The Boyhood of Cain originally came out in March 2025. Now, the paperback of the book, which André Aciman called “A powerful, searing tale told by a boy facing the plenitude of life but hemmed in by a world so…ordinary that he can’t wait either to flee it or be drowned in it,” has been released.

We chatted with Amherst a year ago when the hardcover of The Boyhood of Cain came out. Now, we’ve asked him to answer our reucrring My Reading Life Q&A so readers could get to know the books that shaped his life and influenced his writing.

Continue reading “The Boyhood of Cain author Michael Amherst is always inspired by JM Coetzee and Damon Galgut” →
Interviews, my reading life

Salt Lakes author Caroline Tracey listened to Bright Eyes every night in high school

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Salt Lakes author Caroline Tracey listened to Bright Eyes every night in high school

Caroline Tracey‘s debut book, Salt Lakes: An Unnatrual History, follows the writer and geographer across four continents as she documents the beauty and alarming decline of the world’s salt lakes, from Utah’s Great Salt Lake to the remnants of the Aral Sea. Blending travel writing, environmental reporting, and memoir, Tracey explores the people, ecosystems, and histories tied to these fragile waters while reflecting on her own journey toward queer love and a sense of home in a world shaped by ecological change.

We asked Tracey 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 “Salt Lakes author Caroline Tracey listened to Bright Eyes every night in high school” →
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.

Continue reading “Kate Schatz read sociopolitical and historical nonfiction to ground Where the Girls Were” →
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” →