David Gutowski

"You know happy-sad songs? Songs that sound happy but, if you pay attention to the lyrics at all, will completely devastate you?"

@kristinaten.bsky.social shared a playlist for her story collection Tell Me Yours, I'll Tell You Mine at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2025/10/07/k...

“I don’t listen to music while I write, but it plays a big part in my process while I’m away from my desk...”

Patrick Ryan shared a playlist for his novel Buckeye at @largeheartedboy.bsky.social largeheartedboy.com/2025/10/06/p...

"...people like me are happy to suggest a song for every occasion or for, in this case, each story in a collection..."

David Haynes shared a playlist for his story collection Martha's Daughter at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2025/10/06/d...

"This playlist features both English- and Arabic-language songs to represent the dichotomy of the two cultures and what it’s like living in between."

@deenaelg.bsky.social shared a playlist for her debut novel Dust Settles North at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2025/10/06/d...

"...my mom’s silent treatment seems more like noise music. It’s aggressive. The distortion shifts unpredictably. It feels punishing."

Jeannie Vanasco shared a playlist for her memoir A Silent Treatment at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2025/10/06/j... @tinhouse.bsky.social

"These songs are a combination of soundtrack, characterization, and glimpses into what didn’t make it on the page—as important for my novel-in-omissions as what the reader does get to see."

E. Y. Zhao shared a playlist for her novel Underspin at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2025/10/02/e...

“I realized after I’d put the playlist together that many of these songs have a story behind them of a woman triumphing…”

Mahreen Sohail shared a playlist for her story collection Small Scale Sinners at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2025/10/01/m...

"At a time in which many people are asking how to make their voices heard in the face of large-scale injustice, I hope that the book’s themes and sensibility will resonate..."

Grady Chambers shared a playlist for his novel Great Disasters largeheartedboy.com/2025/09/30/g...

“I spent nearly a decade writing and re-writing this book, and in that time I racked up thousands of records and ticket stubs...”

@mlrio.bsky.social shared a playlist for her novel Hot Wax largeheartedboy.com/2025/09/29/m...

"While music doesn’t play a large role in Oona’s life, it does play an important role in mine, and there are many songs that I will forever associate with the process of writing MARROW."

Samantha Browning Shea shared a playlist for her debut novel Marrow largeheartedboy.com/2025/09/28/s...

"Epic and Lovely is 'alchemizing shit into the most beautiful thing' writ large."

@modaviau.bsky.social shared a playlist for her novel Epic and Lovely at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2025/09/25/m... @wvupress.bsky.social

“In my new novel, Beings, a couple driving home from their honeymoon in 1961 encounters a spaceship that irrevocably changes their lives."

@ilanaslightly.bsky.social shared a playlist for her novel Beings at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2025/09/24/i...

"My debut novel, LITTLE MOVEMENTS, is about dance, which means it’s inevitably about music"

Lauren Morrow shared a playlist for her debut novel Little Movements at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2025/09/23/l...

"...there are songs to which I return when I am working (often instrumental or with few lyrics) and songs that get to the ache of how I felt when writing some of the poems in this manuscript."

Chet’la Sebree shared a playlist for her poetry collection Blue Opening at Largehearted Boy.

"A lot of authors write to background music. Not me. I like it quiet, my concentration entirely on the page. That is, until I began writing tic tic tic..."

@heidiseabornpoet.bsky.social shared a playlist for her poetry collection tic tic tic at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2025/09/18/h...

"I write, unfortunately, by feel. I can often sense there’s some connection or disruption between ideas or events or questions and so I write towards them. It’s incredibly inefficient."

Jeremy B. Jones shared a playlist for his memoir Cipher at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2025/09/16/j...

"This playlist is a score for Someone Else’s Hunger, tracking the speaker’s journey from a place of violence and self-abandonment to empowerment and reclamation..."

Isabella DeSendi shared a playlist for her poetry collection Someone Else's Hunger largeheartedboy.com/2025/09/15/i...

"Music has always been a tremendous part of my life, so it makes sense that plenty of songs show up throughout the collection."

@silashouse.bsky.social shared a playlist for his poetry collection All These Ghosts at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2025/09/13/s...

"To me, music helps snare and distill a kind of emotional resonance, helps put it on the page sometimes..."

@keithrosson.bsky.social shared a playlist for his novel Coffin Moon at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2025/09/11/k...

"His best songs – all of his songs, really – manage to express tenderness, humor, empathy, irony, and an unblinking eye for the facts of life at the same time..."

Tom Piazza shared a playlist for his book Living in the Present with John Prine largeheartedboy.com/2025/09/10/t...

"...there’s no substitute for the incredible emotional rush you get from music and some days I can hardly believe that I’ve been able to write without music pounding in my brain."

@almakatsu.bsky.social shared a playlist for her novel Fiend at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2025/09/09/a...

"Making this list, I discovered that I had far fewer musical associations with Trip than I expected to have."

Amie Barrodale shared a playlist for her debut novel Trip at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2025/09/08/a...

“Music has this uncanny ability to connect us--and literature offers this same resonance.”

Melissa Fraterrigo shared a playlist for her memoir The Perils of Girlhood at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2025/09/05/m...

"...I’m a firm believer in a melody’s ability to carry us along. I tried to pace out the song/poem pairings to approximate a soundtrack for the entire book..."

Gary Jackson shared a playlist for his poetry collection small lives at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2025/09/04/g...

"If I've done a good job writing for the day I feel like Mick Jagger at his sexiest and meanest..."

Zoe Dubno shared a playlist for her debut novel Happiness and Love at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2025/09/03/z...

"This song, with its delicious beat and proclamations about all the sins of one's life, is the vibe I want this collection with Jesus in the title to have."

Melissa Lozada-Oliva shared a playlist for her collection Beyond All Reasonable Doubt, Jesus Is Alive! largeheartedboy.com/2025/09/02/m...

"This is Emiliana’s torch playlist. This is the burned CD she puts on when she’s 55 years-old and wants to go swimming in the nostalgia of her youth..."

Alejandro Puyana shared a playlist for his debut novel Freedom Is a Feast at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2025/08/29/a...

"Around 1990, when I was 12, my musical consciousness kicked in. I heard songs that felt like little portals into worlds so much more appealing than mine."

Amanda Uhle shared a playlist for her memoir Destroy This House at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2025/08/28/a...

"We see, with a kind of shock, what so many young girls have to struggle with—what it takes to strike out on your own, to pursue your dreams..."

Paula Saunders shared a playlist for her novel Starting from Here at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2025/08/27/p...

"Because I’m a junkie for structure, I divided the novel into 4 distinct parts, so I figured I’d do a playlist for each section..."

@sgould.bsky.social shared a playlist for his novel Peace Like a River at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2025/08/27/s... @regalhouse.bsky.social