Blair Hurley

Best Books of 2025: 15 Top Picks From the ‘Best of’ Lists What are the best books of 2025? We looked at the 2025 best book lists to find the best of the best, including "Audition," by Katie Kitamura.

I've read five of these and have another on my nightstand. Some great picks here: pen.org/best-books-o...

Do I need to read Hamnet before I see the movie?

117: Turn the Eye Outward Podcast Episode · The Writerly Bites Podcast · 2025-11-27 · 8m

New podcast ep is out! I'm talking about how important it is to turn the narrative eye outward: podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/t...

Happy American Thanksgiving, friends. I'm making a little family meal here in Canada (we already celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving, so we're thankful twice for a chance for pie).

My favorite book list every year!

100 Notable Books of 2025

Buy from the list or rag on the list, I don't care, just be about books for a minute ...

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/24/b...

There is no health benefit big enough to make me buy the peanut butter that you have to stir. Even if it added 3 years to my life, IT WOULD NOT BE WORTH IT

this is it

everyone is responding to the version of the world they see

now we all see the world in large part via our chosen portion of the functionally-infinite online sources, we are increasingly each seeing a different world

116: Cut One Weak Sentence from Every Paragraph Podcast Episode · The Writerly Bites Podcast · 2025-11-18 · 7m

New ep of the Writerly Bites Podcast! I'm talking about how cutting one weak sentence from every paragraph in your manuscript will make your story sing. Book recommendation is Amity Gaige's HEARTWOOD: podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/t...

Every year I tip my hat to Biblioasis for producing Best Canadian Essays, Best Canadian Stories and Best Canadian Poetry, and this year is no exception. #amreading

My favourite year for oppressed literary masculinity was 2023 when the number of women on the Booker shortlist was smaller than the number of men named Paul

Thrilled to have a short story, "Hairwork", in the new issue of @redividermag.bsky.social. It's about postpartum life and loss, Victorian hair art, grief and madness: redivider.emerson.edu/hairwork/

Why I’m sitting in a parking lot of a Trader Joe’s: I tried to take the kids with me to get snacks but everyone fell asleep in the car, help

Toddler is home sick, I'm trying to manage my expectations for what I can get done today. Sometimes the day is just thinking about your novel while a kid eats a muffin on your lap.

Hosted a Halloween cookie decorating play date, everyone had a great time but I’m still recovering from having a house full of running five year olds. Fell asleep on the couch at 9pm

I'm taking on more editorial clients this fall! If you're looking for an overhaul of your novel, an edit of your short stories, or in-depth content editing, I'm your gal: blairhurley.com/editorial

I was on a panel where one of the authors knitted on stage throughout the others’ readings! Didn’t know whether to be impressed or offended - settled on impressed.

To become dependent on ChapGPT is to evacuate yourself from your own life.

YIKES, no thanks. I’m gonna be alive inside every damn thing I do, even and especially the ish I don’t wanna do.

I was shocked when I finally read Rip Van Winkle and learned he only goes to sleep for 20 years. Through cultural osmosis I thought he went to sleep for 100 years - did anyone else think this?

112: Re-connect with Your Writing Listen to The Writerly Bites Podcast on RedCircle

Delighted to announce that the Writerly Bites podcast is back! Look out for new episodes each week on how to make your writing better, one small step at a time. This week's episode is about re-connecting with old work: redcircle.com/shows/1fb3ce...

My two year old just poured his miso soup into his milk and Cheerios and is happily eating it. Should I be…horrified or just pleased that he’s an adventurous eater?

You know you're onto something when an idea just won't leave you alone. You find you have more and more questions about it that must be answered. It's a sign that you're writing something you need to write.

So true- language has meaning, and adopting the language the tech companies want us to is lazy journalism and writing.

Texas Won’t Study How Its Abortion Ban Impacts Women, So We Did Since Texas banned abortion, no one has studied the statewide effects on pregnant women experiencing complications. Here’s how we sifted through data on millions of pregnancy hospitalizations and anal...

Earlier this year, ProPublica found that the sepsis rate in second-trimester pregnancy loss hospitalizations increased by more than 50% under Texas’ abortion ban.

Here’s how we did our analysis.

(Published Feb. 2025)

Back to a writing routine that feels really great - a ten minute yoga routine in the morning followed by some handwriting in my notebook. It’s exciting to be working on new projects and putting my writing first in the mornings.

After 8 years of buying the fiction for libraries, I’ve decided the most sellable title, based on trends, for a book has to be The Woman’s Daughter’s Girl. I will write this and make millions.

Just got back from a big family trip to Australia. Had a wonderful time seeing the animals and the sights and family members; and now it's back to normal life and writing. I love traveling but I love the first days back almost as much.

I love how toddlers learn the simplest aspects of language simultaneously with imitation of more complex language style. My toddler is just learning to say "vacuum cleaner" but when his Legos come apart he will rest his chin in his hand and say "Oh, dear."

Opinion | The Single Word That Explains Why Chatbots Sound So Human

Interesting article on pragmatics in linguistics and how they convey the thinking mind behind expressed language: www.nytimes.com/2025/08/28/o...

In Melbourne for a day longer than I planned thanks to my flight being canceled- but we’re making the most of it with additional trips to Brunetti’s for pastries and lattes