For National Poetry Month, we asked Tsahai Makeda to sit down with Asa Drake, whose debut poetry collection, Maybe the Body, was released on February 24, 2026, from Tin House.
This is their conversation.
Continue reading “Asa Drake on Maybe the Body, Poetry, and the Search for Home”
The following is an excerpt from Wife Shaped Bodies by Laura Cranehill. She is a writer who lives in the Pacific Northwest with her spouse and three children and has had her writing appear in Strange Horizons, Vastarien, ergot., PANK, and multiple award-winning anthologies. This is her first novel.
Wife Shaped Bodies is about an isolated young bride, raised under rigid rules and covered in fungal growths, who begins to unravel both her body and her beliefs after entering a controlling marriage. As she forms a dangerous connection with another woman, she uncovers buried truths about her community and confronts her own autonomy, desire, and transformation. It is now available from Saga Press.
Continue reading “Read an excerpt from Wife Shaped Bodies by Laura Cranehill “
Welcome to Debutiful’s Agent Week! We gathered some of our favorite literary agents representing the most exciting debut books and asked them questions about what makes them love a submission, their agenting style, and the books they’re working on.
Julie Gourinchas is a literary agent at Bell Lomax Moreton in the UK. Writers she works with have won or been nominated for the British Book Awards, the Hugo Awards, the Stoker Awards, the BSFA Awards, the Betty Trask Award, and the Saltire National Book Awards, among others.
We dug into why she loves “weird girl lit,” the differences between agent work in the US and the UK, and why she’s an atmospher-first reader.
Continue reading “Question & Agent: Julie Gourinchas of Bell Lomax Moreton”
Welcome to Debutiful’s Agent Week! We gathered some of our favorite literary agents representing the most exciting debut books and asked them questions about what makes them love a submission, their agenting style, and the books they’re working on.
Mariah Stovall is the author of I Love You So Much, It’s Killing Us Both, one of Debutiful’s Best Debut Books of 2024 (and our conversation remains a Top 10 most-listened to podcast episode in our history). She’s also a literary agent with Trellis Literary Management, where she represents everything from literary and upmarket fiction to narrative nonfiction covering arts, history, STEM, linguistics, sports, and philosophy, including Oye by Melissa Mogollon, another Best Debut Book of 2024.
We dug into a long list of what pitches are oversaturated, how publishing isn’t meritocracy nor a circle jerk, and how she balances writing fiction as an author and representing it as an agent.
Continue reading “Question & Agent: Mariah Stovall of Trellis Literary Management”
Welcome to Debutiful’s Agent Week! We gathered some of our favorite literary agents representing the most exciting debut books and asked them questions about what makes them love a submission, their agenting style, and the books they’re working on.
Emma Dries is a writer and editor whose work has appeared in Outside, Lit Hub, Bookforum, and Dwell. As an agent for Triangle House, her clients have published at imprints including. Alfred A. Knopf, Doubleday Books, and Ecco. The first book she sold was the debut breakout The Hounding by Xenobe Purvis.
We dug into what stands out in query letters, her approach with editorial as an agent, and why climate fiction is so important.
Continue reading “Question & Agent: Emma Dries from Triangle House”
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Continue reading “Debutiful Podcast: Miranda Shulman discusses Harmless”
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”
Welcome to Debutiful’s Agent Week! We gathered some of our favorite literary agents representing the most exciting debut books and asked them questions about what makes them love a submission, their agenting style, and the books they’re working on.
Amanda Orozco has been a literary agent at Transatlantic Agency since 2020, where she is drawn to stories from Asian and Latinx writers. Her clients include Shoshana von Blanckensee, m. mick powell, and Nick Medina. She seeks work where protagonists have a distinct voice and personality, where the plot is clever, quirky, gritty, or twisty.
We dug into why writers should know everything in publishing takes more time than they’d expect, representing both fiction and nonfiction, and her opinion on genre with a capital G.
Continue reading “Question & Agent: Amanda Orozco of Transatlantic Agency”
Welcome to Debutiful’s Agent Week! We gathered up some of our favorite literary agents representing the most exciting debut books and asked them some questions about what makes them love a submission, their agenting style, and what books they’re working on.
Stephanie Delman spent 10 years at Sanford J. Greenburger Associates before starting Trellis Literary Management with Michelle Brower and Allison Hunter in 2021. Her client list includes countless Debutiful favorites, including Vanessa Chan, Eshani Surya, Jenny Tinghui Zhang, and Gina María Balibrera.
We dug into what makes her a “hands-on” agent, why starting Trellis was the best decision in her life, and what makes her excited for a submission.
Continue reading “Question & Agent: Stephanie Delman of Trellis Literary Management”
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”