New Books Network Podcast

High Theory April 1, 2022

Welcome to High Theory!

Kim Adams and Soronik Bosu

Welcome to High Theory! High Theory is a podcast in which we get high on the substance of theory. And we ask the three standard questions, to each other, and …

African American Studies December 8, 2022

The Matter of Black Living

The Aesthetic Experiment of Racial Data, 1880–1930

Autumn Womack

Hosted by Laura Stark

Autumn Womack is a professor of English and of African American Studies at Princeton University. Her new book, The Matter of Black Living: The Aesthetic Experiment of Racial Data, 1880–193 …

Indian Religions December 8, 2022

Words for the Heart

A Treasury of Emotions from Classical India

Maria Heim

Hosted by Raj Balkaran

Words for the Heart: A Treasury of Emotions from Classical India (Princeton UP, 2022) is a captivating treasury of emotion terms drawn from some of India’s earliest classical languages. Inspired …

Writ Large December 8, 2022

On Virginia Woolf’s "Mrs Dalloway"

A Discussion with Dora Zhang

Dora Zhang

Hosted by Zachary Davis

In the early 20th century, Europe and North America were undergoing a radical transformation. Scientific, technological, and political changes disrupted many traditional forms of life. The growth of cities opened …

Burned by Books December 6, 2022

If I Survive You

Jonathan Escoffery

Hosted by Chris Holmes

Jonathan Escoffery is the author of the linked story collection, If I Survive You, a New York Times Editor’s Choice and an Indie National Bestseller. If I Survive You was …

Writ Large December 6, 2022

On "1001 Nights"

A Discussion with Paulo Lemos Horta

Paulo Lemos Horta

Hosted by Zachary Davis

Humans love stories. And no collection of stories is more beloved worldwide than the Middle Eastern folk tales known as One Thousand and One Nights. The original collection only contained …

Genocide Studies December 5, 2022

Primo Levi and Ka-Tzetnik

The Map and the Territory

Yochai Ataria

Hosted by Yakir Englander

Primo Levi and Ka-Tzetnik: The Map and the Territory (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022) is about Primo Levi and Ka-Tzetnik, both Auschwitz survivors and central figures in the shaping of Holocaust memory …

Writ Large December 5, 2022

On James Baldwin's "The Fire Next Time"

A Discussion with Josef Sorett

Josef Sorett

Hosted by Zachary Davis

The writer and activist James Baldwin grew up in a majority white America that saw white American lives as standard and universal, and Black American lives as different and particular …

Iberian Studies December 3, 2022

Women, Mysticism, and Hysteria in Fin-De-Siècle Spain

Jennifer Smith

Hosted by Carmen Gomez-Galisteo

Women, Mysticism, and Hysteria in Fin-De-Siècle Spain (Vanderbilt UP, 2021) argues that the reinterpretation of female mysticism as hysteria and nymphomania in late nineteenth and early twentieth century Spain was …

Burned by Books December 2, 2022

They're Going to Love You

A Novel

Meg Howrey

Hosted by Chris Holmes

Meg Howrey is the author of the novels They're Going to Love You, The Cranes Dance, and Blind Sight. She is also the coauthor, writing under the pen-name Magnus Flyte …

Writ Large December 2, 2022

On Charlotte Brontë's "Jane Eyre"

A Discussion with Sharon Marcus

Sharon Marcus

Hosted by Zachary Davis

The Victorian era is known for its class rigidity and moral strictness. In her 1847 novel Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë gave us a robust, layered character who pushes against cultural …

Russian and Eurasian Studies December 2, 2022

Amanat

Women's Writing from Kazakhstan

Zaure Batayeva and Shelley Fairweather-Vega

Hosted by Agathe Guy

A man is arrested for a single typo, a woman gets on buses at random, and two friends reunite in a changed world.... Diverse in form, scope and style, Amanat …

Science Fiction December 1, 2022

Leech

Hiron Ennes

Hosted by Brenda Noiseux

“Soft sci-fi, gothic body horror” is how Hiron Ennes describes their debut novel, Leech (Tordotcom, 2022). But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Set in an isolated winter chateau …

Literary Studies November 30, 2022

Literature and the Environment

Critical and Primary Sources

Stephanie LeMenager and Teresa Shewry

Hosted by Gargi Binju

Bringing together 100 essential critical articles across 4 volumes, Literature and the Environment: Critical and Primary Sources (Bloomsbury, 2021) is a comprehensive collection of the most important academic writings on ecocriticism and …

Writ Large November 30, 2022

On Dante Alighieri's "Divine Comedy"

A Discussion with Nassime Chida

Nassime Chida

Hosted by Zachary Davis

When he was in his late 30s, the Italian poet Dante Alighieri got himself into some serious political trouble and was exiled from his beloved Florence. While in exile, he …

Burned by Books November 28, 2022

Math for the Self-Crippling

Ursula Villarreal-Moura

Hosted by Chris Holmes

Ursula Villarreal-Moura is the author of Math for the Self-Crippling (2022), selected by Zinzi Clemmons as the Gold Line Press fiction contest winner, and Like Happiness (forthcoming with Celadon Books) …

Literary Studies November 28, 2022

Queer Velocities

Time, Sex, and Biopower on the Early Modern Stage

Jennifer Eun-Jung Row

Hosted by John Yargo

In a pathbreaking new book, today’s guest, Jennifer Eun-Jung Row, asks how delay and haste in early modern French theater subverts the temporality of heteronormative politics and sexuality. Professor Row …

Writ Large November 28, 2022

On George Orwell's "1984"

A Discussion with Priya Satia

Priya Satia

Hosted by Zachary Davis

In 1948, English author George Orwell wrote what would become one of the defining novels of the 20th century, 1984. He was writing in the years following WWII and the …

Writ Large November 25, 2022

On George Eliot's "Middlemarch"

A Discussion with Nicholas Dames

Nicholas Dames

Hosted by Zachary Davis

By the time we reach middle age, our lives have taken certain paths. Sometimes these paths are close to what we imagined in our youth. But more often, they’re dramatically …

Literary Studies November 25, 2022

Fairy Tales in Contemporary American Culture

How We Hate to Love Them

Kate Christine Moore Koppy

Hosted by Carmen Gomez-Galisteo

In the twenty-first century, American culture is experiencing a profound shift toward pluralism and secularization. In Fairy Tales in Contemporary American Culture: How We Hate to Love Them (Lexington Books …