Autofocus Books

▶️ NOW PLAYING - #1000 (!!)

🎧 Available wherever you get your podcasts.

#otherppl1000

What Does It Mean to Be a Minor Writer? Podcast Episode · Otherppl with Brad Listi · 10/12/2025 · 1h 8m

I genuinely think every writer today should listen to this new episode of @bradlisti.bsky.social's Otherppl—a frank conversation with Jeff Alessandrelli about the often sobering realities of making art today, and why we do it anyway

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/w...

How about a memoir to close ACCOMPLISHMENT SUNDAY? Contributor Erin Slaughter’s memoir THE DEAD DAD DIARIES is out now from @autofocusbooks.bsky.social 💗 Get your copy now: buff.ly/gIYuqsL

▶️ NOW PLAYING

Last book of '25 is by @lindzmcleod.bsky.social + a cast of collaborators incl The Handmaid's Tale screenwriter Lynn Renee Maxcy, Sunday Times bestseller Thomas D. Lee & Nebula/WFA finalist Eugenia Triantafyllou.

Pre-order now with UK Saver Shipping to save £! www.stanchionzine.com/product-page...

WOO WOO - Farewell Transmission By Mike Nagel My sister-in-law Molly grew up as a pastor’s daughter but at some point in her mid-thirties she became more of a witch. I thought that being a witch meant you invited the devil into your...

Got a little woo woo for the fine folks at @farewelltransmiss.bsky.social.

farewelltransmission.net/2025/10/woo-...

The Barrelhouse conference, Conversations and Connections, is coming back to DC on April 18, 2026.

The @barrelhouse.bsky.social conference is coming back to DC on April 18, 2026, and we're open for registration! It's $95, and that includes the one-day conference, 1 book, 1 meeting w an editor, and your choice of literary stuff from our partner presses. www.barrelhousemag.com/conference

'How to Write Autobiographical Fiction' with Hannah Pittard — a new 8-hour intensive course from DeepDive, available now.

Feat. Michael Wheaton, founder of @autofocusbooks.bsky.social.

Hosted by @bradlisti.bsky.social.

Launch sale: 25% off. Limited time.

👉🏼 courses.deepdive.audio/autofiction

🎉 Launch Day! Our new DeepDive course, 'How to Write Autobiographical Fiction,' is live!

Learn from novelist Hannah Pittard + publisher Michael Wheaton.

👉 Launch Special: $147 (25% off)

🔗 courses.deepdive.audio/autofiction

XNESS ESSAYS IN A BOOK???????

Zona Motel | Substack Zona Motel is a web space and Brotherhood that exists to support good literature. Click to read Zona Motel, a Substack publication with thousands of subscribers.

Since we're all talking about how book review culture is dying - I'd love to get a couple of younger/newer reviewers on at Zona Motel. Are you looking for a place to develop your review chops and engage with small press lit in front of an enthusiastic readership? Reach out.

zonamotel.substack.com

😁😁

Good mail day.
@autofocusbooks.bsky.social

Congrats, Lexi!!!!

Tomorrow on the Otherppl show, a special sneak preview of 'How to Write Autobiographical Fiction,' the new course from @deepdive.audio, avail 10/1 & taught by author Hannah Pittard, whose most recent novel is called 'If You Love It, Let It Kill You.'

🎧 Listen wherever you get your podcasts.

Hello, are you a Literary Person in Philadelphia? Perhaps a Music Person? Come see me and @olgamikolaivna.bsky.social yap about both at @alinapleskova.bsky.social's reading series

✨️💿 Track Changes 💿 ✨️

on Oct 7. www.eventbrite.com/e/track-chan...

Always appreciate it when people connect with my work. This particular essay was written in a time of intense parenting and intense self-interrogation. It’s maybe the most straight forward and no BS essay in the whole book.

The Body Is A Temporary Gathering Place @autofocusbooks.bsky.social

Taking a train to NYC to read from my essay, On Trains, about various trains of thought.

🚨 Coming soon from DeepDive 🚨

'How to Write Autobiographical Fiction' — an intensive new course taught by acclaimed author Hannah Pittard ('If You Love It, Let It Kill You').

📱 Streaming soon on the DeepDive app + online. Stay tuned.

5 novels, 3 books of poetry, 1 book of essays, & 1 hybrid assemblage

📚📚📚

#books #recommendations #novels

From our new book review: wildroofjournal.substack.com/p/navigating...
Organic Matter paints a luminous portrait of the rural ecosystem that feeds the city and explores one perceptive young woman’s relationship with faith, labor, love, family, the body, and the ground. @autofocusbooks.bsky.social

Read our new book review: wildroofjournal.substack.com/p/navigating...
Organic Matter paints a luminous portrait of the rural ecosystem that feeds the city and explores one perceptive young woman’s relationship with faith, labor, love, family, the body, and the ground. @autofocusbooks.bsky.social

By the way, some news! I have a book coming out with the wonderful @autofocusbooks.bsky.social. I'm incredibly excited to join the list -- I so admire the work they've been putting out.

Out There in the Dark, Katharine Coldiron.

Contributor @ilanaslightly.bsky.social interviewed @ferrifrigida.bsky.social about her new book OUT THERE IN THE DARK for @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social! And you can read it all right here: buff.ly/8aebBZq

Photo of book Out There in the Dark by Katharine Coldiron

This book is fantastic! I'm not much of a film buff even & I still loved this. So sharp, well crafted, absolutely fascinating. I want to shove it into everyone's hands & shout "Read this! Read this!" So yeah, read this.

@autofocusbooks.bsky.social
@ferrifrigida.bsky.social

#smallpressseptember

Pool Party - Book Submissions Pool Party is open for book submissions!!! We will have two reading periods and publish two books/year. The first reading period runs from now until December 15th, 2025.

📚📚 ANNOUNCING: POOL PARTY BOOKS!!! 📚📚

Pool Party is open for book submissions!!! We will have two reading periods and publish two books/year. The first reading period runs from now until December 15th, 2025. Visit our website for details 🔥

Naomi Washer: On Writing in Books, Psychoanalysis, the Fiction of the Fixed Self, and Her New Autobiography ‘Marginalia’ — Write or Die Magazine Abigail Oswald interviews Naomi Washer about her new book, Marginalia.

Naomi Washer crafted a whole book out of her personal marginalia (out next week from @autofocusbooks.bsky.social), and I had a blast talking to her about it!

writeordiemag.com/author-inter...

I have no less than 4 calendars/planners open, indicative at how horrified I am to realize it is the time to put together a reading event sched for Teen Queen Training. It comes out with @autofocusbooks.bsky.social on Feb 17! Where are my fellow early 2026 authors and SHOULD WE BE COLLABORATING?

To Go Big or Come Home? On the Writing Life With Major and Indie Publishers

Wrote for The Metropolitan Review about the pros & cons of working w/ small indie presses vs. big presses, the journey from almost being a big fancy author to being a medium unfancy author, and mid-career re-evaluation of what I want out of the writing life
www.metropolitanreview.org/p/to-go-big-...