Reading in Public No. 22: The state of book criticism with Traci Thomas of The Stacks

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit fictionmatters.substack.com

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit fictionmatters.substack.com

Welcome to Books That Matter. In this series, I’ll speak with writers I admire to learn about their lives as readers and deep dive into a book that matters to them. Laura B. McGrath is Assistant Professor of English at Temple University, National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow, and author of Middlemen: Literary Agents and the Making of American Fiction. Her writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Nation, The Los Angeles Review of Books, and Public Books. She also writes the popular publishing substack, TextCrunch. In today’s episode, Laura joins me to talk about Meg Wolitzer’s The Wife. I absolutely loved reading this book and it is a novel that absolutely must be discussed so I was thrilled to get the chance to deep dive into it with Laura. We talked about what makes a good publishing novel and how this particular book illuminates gender disparities in the literary world, while saying something much broader about what it means to be a woman and a wife. Of course we also we dive into Laura’s book Middlemen, which is all about the unique role literary agents play in the contemporary American publishing landscape. This book is the very definition of a rich text. I found Laura’s discoveries fascinating and I think any reader of contemporary fiction will as well. While we do talk about the end of The Wife, we save that for the last few minutes of our conversation and give ample warning before we we into spoilers! You can find Middlemen on Bookshop.org or wherever you get your books! This is a peek behind the curtain of a very opaque industry and if you love books, I think you’ll find it extremely interesting. Connect with Laura: Website | Instagram | Substack | Middlemen on Bookshop

Welcome to the FictionMatters Podcast. I’m your host Sara Hildreth and this is Books That Matter. In this series, I’ll speak with writers I admire to learn about their lives as readers and deep dive into a book that matters to them. Sarah Wang is the author of New Skin (Little Brown, 2026), which was named a best book by NPR, Apple Books, and was featured in Marie Claire, Harper’s Bazaar, People, and Bloomberg. She has written for The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and the London Review of Books. Wang is a MacDowell Fellow, a Center for Fiction Emerging Writer Fellow, a PEN America Writing for Justice Fellow, a Sewanee Writer’s Conference Tennessee Williams Scholar, a Tin House Scholar, and the winner of a Barbara Deming Award. She teaches creative writing at Barnard College. In today’s episode, Sarah joins me to talk about Ben Lerner’s The Topeka School. I loved this book, and processing my reading with Sarah made it all the richer. We delved into the mind-bending world of psychoanalytic theory and speculated on what the book is saying about language, masculinity, and trauma. Then we dive into Sarah’s debut novel New Skin. This book is the very definition of a rich text. I was thrilled to get to ask Sarah all of my questions, but also appreciated the questions she asked me about my experience reading her book. While we do get into some specifics about The Topeka School, we don’t include any spoilers for New Skin and you can listen to the episode without yet having read either book. You can find New Skin in your favorite bookshop now! This is a highly original debut that I hope more readers will pick up! Connect with Sarah: Website | Instagram | New Skin on Bookshop | New Skin on Libro.fm

Welcome to the FictionMatters Podcast. I’m your host Sara Hildreth and this is Books That Matter. In this series, I’ll speak with writers I admire to learn about their lives as readers and deep dive into a book that matters to them. Shannon Sanders is the author of The Great Wherever (Holt, July 2026) and the linked short story collection Company (Graywolf, 2023), which won the 2024 Los Angeles Times Book Prizes’ Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction, was named one of the best books of 2023 by Publishers Weekly and Debutiful, and was shortlisted for the 2024 William Saroyan International Prize for Writing. Her short fiction has appeared in numerous publications, including One Story, The Sewanee Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, and Electric Literature, and has received a PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers. She lives in Silver Spring, Maryland, with her husband and three sons. In today’s episode, Shannon joins me to talk about Toni Morrison’s Jazz, and I felt honored to unpack this complicated and beautifully rendered novel with her. Then we dive into Shannon’s new novel The Great Wherever, which is out Tuesday, July 7th, and yes that is tomorrow if you’re listening to this episode the day it drops. I had the great privilege of reading an early copy of The Great Wherever and I have to say it’s one of the best family novels I’ve read in a long time and I loved the originality Shannon brings to the narrative structure. While we do get into some specifics about Jazz, we don’t include any spoilers for The Great Wherever and you can listen to the episode without yet having read either book. You can find The Great Wherever in your favorite bookshop on July 7th. I also have to give a strong push for Company, Shannon’s linked short story collection which was one of my favorite books of 2023. Aubrey’s family appears in Company as well so if you fall in love with them, you need to pick a copy of that as well! * The Great Wherever by Shannon Sanders * The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin * The Wayside School Series by Louis Sachar * Holes by Louis Sachar * The Babysitters Club by Ann M. Martin * Mary Downing Hahn * The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald * Lord of the Flies by William Golding * Toni Morrison * Octavia Butler * Chinua Achebe * Agatha Christie * The God of the Woods by Liz Moore * Tana French * Company by Shannon Sanders * Jamel Brinkley * Deesha Philyaw * Pemi Aguda * Three Women by Lisa Taddeo * Ghost Lover by Lisa Taddeo * The Final Revival of Opal and Nev by Donnie Walton * Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi * Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn * Ann Patchett * Jonathan Franzen * Jazz by Toni Morrison * Beloved by Toni Morrison * Paradise by Toni Morrison * On Morrison by Namwali Serpell * The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison * Corregidora by Gayl Jones * Kindred by Octavia E. Butler * Dominion by Addie E. Citchens * The Love Songs of W. E. B. Du Bois by Honoree Fannone Jeffers * The World Doesn’t Require You by Rion Amilcar Scott * The Devil Three Times by Rickey Fayne *This post contains affiliate links.