Penina Roth

Animation, Adaptation, and the Fantastic Sometimes a live-action literary adaptations isn't the way to go

Last month I talked about animated literary adaptations, and now I've published the text online... tobiascarroll.substack.com/p/animation-...

Fresh insights on race and gender, sex and power, and love and loss will give readers plenty to chew on. Both/And Edited by Denne Michele Norris (HarperOne) $27.99 In this stunning anthology, Norris, editor-in-chief of Electric Literature, brings together 17 essays on trans life in America, by writers such as Akwaeke Emezi and Raquel Willis. Across the collection, the complex and multifaceted experiences of trans people of color are rendered vividly, and the pieces urge political action in the present while offering a beacon of hope for a more just future. Want to Burn This Place Down Maris Kreizman (Ecco) $26.99 “In a country plagued by problems in which individual grit is not nearly enough to prevail over rotten systems,” Lit Hub columnist Kreizman writes, “working hard begins to feel more like a Sisyphean task than a practical solution.” Tempering her anger with wryness and lots of Xennial nostalgia, Kreizman bucks the stereotypical trend of growing more conservative with age with this fierce and witty collection.

My very first gift guide appearance, if you wanna stuff a stocking or two... Along with @thedennemichele.bsky.social.

www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/...

The Watchlist: September 2025 - Words Without Borders This International Translation Day, Tobias Carroll recommends poetry by Afghan women, fiction from Croatia and Mozambique, and more.

I have a new rundown of recent books in translation up at @wwborders.bsky.social!

The 10 Books You Should Be Reading This October Including an Anthony Bourdain anthology and an ode to running

Recommended some October books at InsideHook... www.insidehook.com/books/books-...

▶️NOW PLAYING

🎧 Available wherever you get your podcasts.

@jasondiamond.bsky.social

The Maris Review, vol 74 What I read this week Beings by Ilana Masad I was just the right age in 1987, when Whitley Streiber's Communion was published, to spend sleepless nights worrying if the space alien depicted on the...

I wrote about @ilanaslightly.bsky.social's stellar new novel and about reading widely, and I managed to call two different writers "friends of the newsletter" because I'm tired. www.themarisreview.com/the-maris-re...

Can't wait!!! it will be epic!👍

I am not sure if everyone gets how special this night will be

Readings Might Be Turning Into America’s New Favorite Pastime - Electric Literature Many people arrive looking to meet someone and enjoy a shared cultural experience

“Everyone needs an excuse to gather, a structured place to connect to both new and familiar faces offline."

Going to go ahead and say this is the Brooklyn social event of the fall.

Looking forward to seeing you! 😀

Paperback Writer A Reason to See You Again is out today!

My paperback of my tenth (!) book is out today so I wrote about all the lives of a book. 1000wordsofsummer.substack.com/p/paperback-...

Monday, Oct. 20, 8pm: The Franklin Park Reading Series celebrates the paperback release of @jamiattenberg.bsky.social’s novel A Reason to See You Again! Jami will be joined by stellar authors @jasondiamond.bsky.social @maris.bsky.social @karissachen.bsky.social Lauren Morrow & Nikkitha Bakshani.

Carol Burnett Plays On The ninety-two-year-old comedy legend has influenced generations of performers. In a string of recent TV roles, she has been co-starring with some of her closest comedic heirs.

From roles in “Better Call Saul,” “Hacks,” and “Palm Royale,” Carol Burnett is having something of a late-career resurgence. But the 92-year-old comedy legend has already influenced generations of performers. Rachel Syme Profiles the icon.

"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...

This is today!! RSVP for free to get the Zoom link 😊

Festival Day - Brooklyn Book Festival

We can’t wait for Festival Day THIS SUNDAY at Borough Hall and surrounding areas! 8 stages and 250 publishers. You won’t want to miss our incredible panels and events running from 10:00am to 6:00pm.

Visit our website for more info on the #BKBF25 weekend!

brooklynbookfestival.org/event_type/f...

Today: Sterlin Harjo on his new Tulsa noir show; Angela Flournoy's new novel; Making sense of estate management; High School speech and debate documentary

Live at noon on 93.9 FM, AM820 or @wnyc.org

We had an amazing time at Franklin Park's @bkbookfest.bsky.social Bookend Event, cohosted by Franklin Park Reading Series & World Trans Forum! Huge thanks to mesmerizing readers Amie Barrodale @zefrrr.bsky.social Chet'la Sebree @emializh.bsky.social & ❤️to our incredible audience! 📆Next event 10/20.

"...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.

"Not taking dance lessons is a common mistake among men. They fail to realize that dancing is one of the few things a man can learn when he’s young that will come in handy later. Men who know how to dance—even a few basic steps—will never end up sad and alone, with nobody to play with, because women will always be looking for that rare man who can dance. They’ll take him to night clubs and parties and on cruises, and they’ll go all mushy after a simple waltz." from "Gotta Dance," Collected in I Used to Be Charming

Eve Babitz knows how to end male loneliness.

Poet Evie Shockley joins Franny Choi, Chet’la Sebree, and Rob Arnold for “What the Poem Makes Possible” at the Brooklyn Book Festival. This event will be on September 21 at 10am at Center Stage!

For more info, head to brooklynbookfestival.org/event/what-t...

#evieshockley #brooklynbookfestival

TONIGHT, 7PM, at Franklin Park: @bkbookfest.bsky.social Bookend Event with Amie Barrodale, Zefyr Lisowski, Chet’la Sebree, and Emily Zhou! 🍹Happy Hour🍺until 8pm, book raffle. #FreeAdmission!

Huge congrats to Franklin Park Reading Series superstars @angelaflournoy.bsky.social and Karen Russell and all the nominees for the National Book Award for Fiction!

MONDAY, 7PM: Excited for our @bkbookfest.bsky.social ⭐Bookend Event⭐, cohosted by the Franklin Park Reading Series & World Trans Forum! Readings + panel w/Amie Barrodale, @zefrrr.bsky.social, Chet'la Sebree, and @emializh.bsky.social, 🍻happy hour🍷 until 8pm +📚raffle! tinyurl.com/3cdj3ure #Free #BKBF

The question took Carr back to a harrowing moment. "In the hours after the attacks of Sept. 11," he said, "I was at the corner of Church and Chambers. Building 7 was on fire and then fell. A wall of debris and smoke came rushing up the street, and I dove under a car. I found myself looking into the eyes of a pigeon there and having an interspecies moment. 'Are we O.K.? Is the world ending? Are we, um, birds of a feather?' When the moment and wall of crud passed and I collected myself, I noticed a copy of Strunk and White's 'The Elements of Style,' the ur-text of our profession, under the car. It was marked in ink as a Port Authority copy, and I knew it had blown out of their offices at the World Trade Center. I observe none of its edicts - I am a turgid, digressive writer - but love its aspiration and clarity. I put it under glass still containing the dust of that day along with a copy of something I wrote for New York magazine that was the only decent thing I wrote out of all that confusion and mayhem. I treasure its presence in my home even as I leave its advice under glass."

Every year, I am reminded of this story of David Carr’s about finding a copy of “Elements of Style” that blew out of the WTC

We had a blast at the Franklin Park Reading Series Fall Kickoff! Huge thanks to our mesmerizing readers Marie-Helene Bertino, @cleyvisnatera.bsky.social, @thedennemichele.bsky.social, Halle Butler, @crystalhanak.bsky.social, and @xbennyboo.bsky.social!
🗓️Monday, 9/15: #BKBF Bookend! 618 St. Johns Pl.

If These Walls Could Talk - Brooklyn Book Festival What happens behind closed doors can never be learned – unless someone inside screams loud enough to be heard. In the first novel of Stephen Graham Jones’ dual publication of The Babysitter Lives/ Kil...

Thrilled to be moderating a Brooklyn Book Festival panel this year with @sgj.bsky.social, @ambersparks.bsky.social, and Christine Li! brooklynbookfestival.org/event/if-the...

#ClipOfTheDay: In this episode of The Interview, a podcast from the New York Times, Arundhati Roy speaks about government censorship, the role of the artist amidst crisis, and the challenges of writing about her mother in her new memoir, Mother Mary Comes to Me. at.pw.org/InterviewRoy

I often think about the afterword to carolyn chute's first novel, in which she writes that she knew the book wasn't finished after it came out the first time, and completely redid it on the sentence level before getting it reprinted. I wish I could do that lol