Category: my reading life

Interviews, my reading life

My Reading Life: Portalmania author Debbie Urbanski was obsessed with Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland as a child

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My Reading Life: Portalmania author Debbie Urbanski was obsessed with Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland as a child

After releasing her debut novel After World in 2023, Debbie Urbanski is back with her debut short story collection Portalmania. The collection explores any and every genre from sci-fi and fantasy to horror and realism. It’s the perfect book for anyone looking for supernatural escapism that is dripping with the grounded and unique characters.

We asked Urbanski to answer our recurring My Reading Life so readers could get to know the books that shaped her life.

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Interviews, my reading life

My Reading Life: This Is Your Mother author Erika J. Simpson wants teens to sink into worlds they love

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My Reading Life: This Is Your Mother author Erika J. Simpson wants teens to sink into worlds they love

Erika J. Simpson, author of the memoir This Is Your Mother, is a recent transplant to Denver after spending her life in the South. She received her MFA from the University of Kentucky and received the 2021 MFA Award in Nonfiction. Her essay “If You Ever Find Yourself” was published in Roxane Gay’s The Audacity and featured in Best American Essays 2022.

Her memoir is a powerful reckoning with legacy, loss, and the shifting terrain between mother and daughter. Through scripture-steeped memories and raw reflections, Erika Simpson traces her mother’s mythic resilience and the moment it gave way to mortality. In peeling back the layers of her mother’s story, she uncovers her own.

We asked her to answer our recurring My Reading Life questionnaire so readers could get to know her, and the books that shaped her life, better.

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Interviews, my reading life

Liann Zhang On Writing Julie Chan Is Dead and Identity in the Age of Influence

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Liann Zhang On Writing Julie Chan Is Dead and Identity in the Age of Influence

In Julie Chan Is Dead, debut novelist Liann Zhang uses her background as a former skincare content creator to introduce readers to Julie, a down-on-her-luck cashier who steps into the glamorous, dangerous life of her estranged influencer twin after discovering her body under mysterious circumstances. What begins as a darkly alluring identity swap quickly spirals into a surreal, high-stakes thriller exploring internet fame, self-erasure, and the secrets we keep behind the filter.

I emailed with Zhang about writing in the age of social media, the blurred line between self and performance, and what it means to inherit someone else’s digital life.

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Interviews, my reading life

My Reading Life: Outside Women author Roohi Choudry was surrounded by British kids’ books growing up in Pakistan and southern Africa

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My Reading Life: Outside Women author Roohi Choudry was surrounded by British kids’ books growing up in Pakistan and southern Africa

Roohi Choudhry’s debut novel Outside Women follows two migrant women, Sita in 1890s South Africa and Hajra in modern-day New York, whose lives are separated by a century but connected by a shared pursuit of justice. As Hajra uncovers Sita’s hidden history, the novel explores identity, resistance, and the enduring power of solidarity across generations.

She holds an MFA from the University of Michigan and has received honors from the New York Foundation for the Arts, Hedgebrook, and Djerassi. Her writing spans criminal justice reform, public health, and creative nonfiction, with work appearing in Ploughshares, Callaloo, Longreads, and The Kenyon Review.

We asked the writer to answer our recurring My Reading Life questionnaire so readers could get to know her better and discover the books that shaped her life.

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Interviews, my reading life

My Reading Life: Fair Play author Louise Hegarty finds the idea of ‘assigned reading’ a little suspicious

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My Reading Life: Fair Play author Louise Hegarty finds the idea of ‘assigned reading’ a little suspicious

Irish writer Louise Hegarty’s debut novel Fair Play follows a group of friends who gather at an Airbnb for a jazz-age themed New Year’s Eve murder mystery party, only to wake up and find the birthday boy, Benjamin, dead. As his sister Abigail reels from the loss, a detective arrives to investigate, transforming the house into a classic whodunit setting where everyone is a suspect and no one is quite who they seem. Both gripping and tender, the novel explores love, grief, and identity while cleverly subverting the conventions of the mystery genre.

The release of the debut mystery builds off of a shining career where she was the inaugural winner of the Sunday Business Post/Penguin Ireland Short Story Prize and her short story “Getting the Electric” has been optioned by Fíbín Media. 

We asked the writer to answer our recurring My Reading Life questionnaire so readers could get to know her better and discover the books that shaped her life.

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Interviews, my reading life

My Reading Life: Bitter Texas Honey author Ashley Whitaker’s reading journey began with the Baby-Sitters Club

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My Reading Life: Bitter Texas Honey author Ashley Whitaker’s reading journey began with the Baby-Sitters Club

Ashley Whitaker earned her MFA from the University of Michigan, and her writing has appeared in publications like Tin House and Story Quarterly. Now, her debut novel Bitter Texas Honey is available for readers to dive into.

The novel follows Joan West, an aspiring writer caught between her conservative family and her messy past in 2011 Austin. As she mines her chaotic relationships and family dysfunction for material, especially her fraught connection with ex-muse Roberto, Joan is determined to make art out of her contradictions. But when her beloved cousin Wyatt hits rock bottom, Joan’s worldview begins to crumble, forcing her to confront what it really means to live, love, and create.

We asked the writer to answer our recurring My Reading Life questionnaire so readers could get to know her better and discover the books that shaped her life.

Continue reading “My Reading Life: Bitter Texas Honey author Ashley Whitaker’s reading journey began with the Baby-Sitters Club” →
Interviews, my reading life

My Reading Life: Mackenzie Kozak got the courage to write No Swaddle after reading Sheila Heti’s Motherhood

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My Reading Life: Mackenzie Kozak got the courage to write No Swaddle after reading Sheila Heti’s Motherhood

Mackenzie Kozak‘s no swaddle was selected for the Iowa Poetry Prize by Brenda Shaughnessy. The poetry collection “examines the complex question of whether or not to bear children.” Kozak’s other writing has appeared in Boston Review, Colorado Review, DIAGRAM, jubilat, Missouri Review, Muzzle Magazine, Sixth Finch, THRUSH Poetry Journal, and elsewhere. Kozak lives in Asheville, North Carolina. She also works as a therapist specializing in grief counseling.

We asked her to answer our recurring My Reading Life questionnaire so readers could get to know the books that inspired her throughout life.

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Interviews, my reading life

My Reading Life: The Confines author Anu Kandikuppa wants high schoolers to read The God of Small Things

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My Reading Life: The Confines author Anu Kandikuppa wants high schoolers to read The God of Small Things

Anu Kandikuppa‘s debut short story collection The Confines features 12 stories about women facing the cultural hierarchies and taboos with a razor-sharp eye into the human condition. Kandikuppa has spent most of her lif outside of the literary world, working as an engineer, a software developer, and an economics consultant. Since beginning writing fiction, her work has appeared in Colorado Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, New England Review, The Cincinnati Review, and Story.

We asked her to answer our recurring My Reading Life questionnaire so readers can discover the books that shaped her life.

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Interviews, my reading life

My Reading Life: Ibis author Justin Haynes prefers reading scripts to watching movies

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My Reading Life: Ibis author Justin Haynes prefers reading scripts to watching movies

Justin Haynes, the author of the debut novel Ibis, is originally from Trinidad and Tobago and earned his MFA from Notre Dame. He currently lives Atlanta and teaches English at Oglethorpe University. His debut was recently published by Overlook Press and is about a coastal village cursed by the death of a witch, where superstitious fishermen are haunted by her vengeful mother and an uncanny flood of scarlet ibis birds. As an American journalist stirs tensions and the government cracks down on migrants, the villagers’ fears entangle with the journey of Milagros, a young refugee searching for her mother across the Americas.

Below, the author answered our My Reading Life questionnaire for you to learn about the books he was obsessed with, what helped him through puberty, and what he’s reading next.

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Interviews, my reading life

My Reading Life: Hello Stranger author Manuel Betancourt needed more books about queer desire in his teens

by Adam1 Comment on My Reading Life: Hello Stranger author Manuel Betancourt needed more books about queer desire in his teens
My Reading Life: Hello Stranger author Manuel Betancourt needed more books about queer desire in his teens

Manuel Betancourt‘s debut book, The Male Gazed, somehow didn’t cross my path until well after it came out. The book, which takes a critical eye toward pop culture and queer desire, originally came out in 2023 and is now available in paperback. After reading and discovering his book, I invited him to the First Taste Reading Series to read and discuss his book.

His second book, Hello Stranger: Musings on Modern Intimacies, is out now. Publishers’ Weekly calls it “steamy and cerebral” while Kirkus says Betancourt is a “witty, intuitive observer of human behavior.” I 100% agree with both of those statements. While Debutiful is dedicated to debut books, but is also focusing on emerging and early career writers because when someone is a damn good writer, we don’t care when you discover them, as long as you do discover them.

Below the author answered our My Reading Life questionnaire, for you to learn about the books he was obsessed with, what helped him through puberty, and what he’s reading next.

Continue reading “My Reading Life: Hello Stranger author Manuel Betancourt needed more books about queer desire in his teens” →