Laura McGrath

So good! And exactly the note I’m trying to strike (mystery/thriller or not).

On it! Sounds perfect.

On the vacation list!!!

Oh yes. Read em all.

Finals week approaches! Tell me about your most immersive/propulsive light-ish but smart read of the year to get me through grading!

For Trump, “Fostering the Future” Looks a Lot Like the Past By putting the religious rights of potential foster parents above the civil rights of L.G.B.T.Q. youth, a new executive order reënacts the original sin of the child-welfare system.

Thrilled to make my debut in @newyorker.com today with this piece on Trump’s new foster care exec order, which pairs an initiative to help kids aging out of the system with efforts to put the religious rights of foster parents above the civil rights of LGBTQ+ youth: www.newyorker.com/news/the-led...

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Grad students asked me recently why I write collaboratively, and I struggled to give an answer better than “I have extremely smart friends and I love to hang out and talk about books with them,” but that’s really it.

Title slide for “Echoing: A Theory of the Audiobook” by Alexander Manshel, Laura McGrath, and J.D. Porter

A presentation slide featuring an array of different audiobook covers, in various different fictional and nonfictional genres, all narrated by the same audiobook narrator

Lots of fun presenting with @lbmcgrath.bsky.social and @jdporter.bsky.social at this week’s fabulous conference on the world of audiobooks! Thanks to @corinnanorue.bsky.social and @millicentweber.bsky.social for organizing. And watch this space for more on “Echoing: A Theory of the Audiobook”!

To all the parents of elementary schoolers “disguising turkeys” this weekend: godspeed.

Had my first book-related anxiety dream last night, in which a literary agent I interviewed accused me of getting him wrong. The good news is, the reality certainly will not be worse than my subconscious imagines! The bad news is, I guess this is my life until April.

Congratulations, Sarah!!! I downloaded my copy last week, and I'm eager to set this huge pile of grading aside to I can get to it! So excited for you.

Always.

Thank you, Aarthi!! 🥰 I’m so glad you enjoyed!

I devoured @lbmcgrath.bsky.social’s Middlemen over the weekend! This is such a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the marketplace of contemporary literature (and reminded me of all the lunches I heard about but never attended as a summer intern at Carlisle and Company (now Inkwell)

Brutal, Dombrowski.

Murphy’s Law, but for moms*: uour child WILL get sick and need to be picked up from daycare in the day if an important event you’re coordinating.

*parent who has a “more flexible” work schedule

Hi publishing folk: I've got an amazing student graduating in December who's looking for an internship! She'd love to work in editorial, focusing on children's, but she's open to anything that'll get her Philadelphia-foot in an NYC-door. Any of you fine folks looking for an assistant?

Rosalind Franklin and the damage of gender harassment Spurred by a recent report on sexual harassment in academia, our columnist revisits a historical case and reflects on what has changed—and what hasn’t

Thinking only of Rosalind Franklin today, and what was stolen from her (and so many other female scientists alongside her).

Thank you, dear Laurence!!

I’m mostly just flattered that anyone who has spent any time around my children might think that a) they are well behaved, and b) I am qualified to write a parenting book about it

When your dad finds out that your book is available for preorder…

💛💛🙏🏻🙏🏻🥂🥂

Thanks, Whitney!!

Thank you, Jana!!!

You heard it here, folks. You won't find higher praise.

If you are an agent or want to be an agent or an editor who deals with agents or an author who has an agent or is trying to get one, you need to read this book.

Thank you, Gerry! Means so much.

Thanks, Eileen! <3

The Age of the Middleman go behind-the-scenes with literary agents

And, if you're so inclined, head on over to Substack to read a bit about the book, the title, and its pinky pink pink cover.

laurabmcgrath.substack.com/p/the-age-of...