Jeremy Wang-Iverson

“All my work is outsider literature. It explores the question of who belongs to community and who is outside it” –Chantal James, author of “Fes Is a Mirror”
open.substack.com/pub/wangiver... @chantalalive.blacksky.app

“Sun Ra: Do the Impossible” debuts tonight on PBS.

Great companion reading below from Michael Lowenthal @pbs.org @ohiostatepress.bsky.social @rafertess.bsky.social

"The possible has been tried and failed. Now it’s time to try the impossible."
— Sun Ra

As @roncharles.bsky.social told Adam for his piece in @worldlittoday.bsky.social : ““There are more people who have walked on the moon than write book reviews for a living,”

"Book reviewing can be labor intensive ... and it takes a very special, refined skill and one that gets better with wider reading. It’s not something that can be done well on cheap labor, and along the line, the pipeline for training reviewers has diminished."

Sam sacks? I think @adamm0rgan.bsky.social was looking into this question as well

The state of book publicity now My Q&A with Carrie Olivia Adams

substack.com/@derekkrisso... @uchicagopress.bsky.social

What Playing With Sun Ra in College Taught Me About Myself Sun Ra claimed to hail from Saturn, but he and his far-out band, the Intergalactic Arkestra, still suffered the hassles of earthly travel. Because of a snafu, they would arrive on campus a day earl…

Michael Lowenthal on jazz, musicianship, and learning from playing Sun Ra in college.

Well, I've slowly started a new blog (!) focusing on some recent history of leftist #Boston #publishers, specifically those in or connected to my own South End neighborhood. I've like to get into their founding and the context for it. Check it out and provide any leads, please. #publishing #books

A staggering statement from former Washington Post editor Marty Baron: "This ranks among the darkest days in the history of one of the world's greatest news organizations."

Bezos has killed the Washington Post's books pages. John Williams is a mensch, and a good and loyal friend, to me, to @backlisted.bsky.social and to anyone who loves literature and reading. Now more than ever, you know where not to buy your books, or anything else for that matter.

"Michael Lowenthal finds himself over the course of ten inquisitive, incisive memoirs. … Lowenthal never definitively “finds himself” which, of course, is the point." PLACE ENVY out from #MadCreekBooks next month! @passportmag.bsky.social @jwi.bsky.social passportmagazine.com/passports-be...

Call your senator for me about all this. Because I don't have one. Because I'm in DC. Smooches.

From novelist to literary agent My Q&A with Madison Smartt Bell

Over at Book Work, Jeremy Wang-Iverson interviews Madison Smartt Bell about making the transition from novelist to literary agent.

Especially interesting: the list of book projects Bell is working to place now.

derekkrissoff.substack.com/p/from-novel...

"One of the translation’s most valuable elements is McDowell’s decision to retain certain Spanish words in order to emphasize the way the Spanish treat the Mexicans as outsiders."

Cory Oldweiler on “Eating Ashes.” https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/brenda-navarro-eating-ashes-spanish-novel-review/

Speculative nonfiction My Q&A with Michael Lowenthal, author of "Place Envy"

Link: open.substack.com/pub/derekkri...

New on Book Work: an interview with Michael Lowenthal. His first essay collection “Place Envy” is out on Feb. 11 @derekkrissoff.bsky.social @rafertess.bsky.social @ohiostatepress.bsky.social

I chair the acquisitions meeting of @reaktionbooks.bsky.social, an independent publisher. We're open to unsolicited book proposals: history, art, music, film, food, animal studies and any great indefinable non-fiction book ideas you might have. Check out the list and get in touch.

The Winds of Maracaibo by María Elena Morán: 9780593803936 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books A propulsive family drama, the story of a woman determined to recover her kidnapped daughter in the ruins of Chávez’s social revolution—the fast-paced English-language debut of an award-winning...

Coming in July www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/775386...

Renee Nicole Good, murdered by ICE, was a prize-winning poet. Here’s that poem. Renee Nicole Good, 37, mother to a six-year-old boy, was murdered earlier today by an ICE agent in Minneapolis, a few blocks from her home. According to the Minnesota Star Tribune: [An ICE agent] s…

lithub.com/renee-nicole...

The afterlife of Michael McDowell How "Blackwater" conquered Europe

open.substack.com/pub/derekkri...

Página Dos Christmas Special with my interview on “Blackwater” (in Spanish; starts at 1:21) www.rtve.es/play/videos/... @paginados.bsky.social @blackiebooks.bsky.social

A Year in Reading: 2025 The Millions has been on hiatus for the last year, so we’ve had to scale back our editorial output to just our seasonal Most Anticipated lists. But we couldn’t let 2025 go by without bringing out our ...

themillions.com/2025/12/a-ye...

Thanks to Kurt Stengel for designing our holiday card this year

The afterlife of Michael McDowell How "Blackwater" conquered Europe

An interesting publishing story. Thanks to el gran @lawrenceschimel.bsky.social for the photo from his library!
open.substack.com/pub/derekkri... @blackiebooks.bsky.social

Precedent Points to a US War Crime in the Caribbean Allan J. Lichtman revisits the World War II case that established naval commanders' duty to protect shipwrecked survivors.

Precedent Points to a US War Crime in the Caribbean by Allan J. Lichtman @projectsyndicate.bsky.social prosyn.org/0fayuHr

JBC Book­shelf: Winter 2026 As we approach the winter equinox, we’re making use of longer evenings for more reading!

It's great to see Michael Lowenthal's PLACE ENVY (February 2026 from Ohio State University Press) on this list! I have ARCs available for reviewers. @jewishbookcouncil.bsky.social @jwi.bsky.social @kristener.bsky.social @joy-castro.bsky.social www.jewishbookcouncil.org/pb-daily/jbc...

Thanks. Yes @valancourtbooks.bsky.social has done incredible work!

The afterlife of Michael McDowell How "Blackwater" conquered Europe

An interesting publishing story. Thanks to el gran @lawrenceschimel.bsky.social for the photo from his library!
open.substack.com/pub/derekkri... @blackiebooks.bsky.social

Hannah Arendt Is Not Your Icon

Great piece to mark the 50th anniversary of Hannah Arendt's death by @jenszalai.bsky.social - we are very lucky that she has continued to write about ideas and new non-fiction for the @nytimes.com all these years: www.nytimes.com/2025/12/05/b...