Hi friends.
Welcome to fall. Welcome to the beginning of the end of 2025. Welcome to believing in yourself, believing in your writing, and in the vision you have for your work. Welcome to renewing your faith in this this thing you have begun. Welcome to trusting in your talent and devotion and mission and all the things you want to say to the world through your words, your work. Welcome to the rest of this year and the rest of your life. Welcome to getting this damn book done.
There are more than a few things I am excited about this fall. Getting traction on a new book, for one. My brain is never happy unless it has a project. And I’ve got lots of events and travel coming up. And my paperback for A Reason to See You Again comes out on September 30.
Also I look really fucking cute in a blazer. My fashion time is COMING.
But most important, there’s a lot of good books coming out. So let’s talk about other writers’ work for a second, shall we?
Angela Flournoy’s The Wilderness, (which is already a finalist for the Kirkus Prize!) comes out September 16, and my buddy Jason Diamond’s Kaplan’s Plot comes out September 9. Both books feel very generational to me, as in about generations of people and capturing a specific moment in time, and they feel big and ambitious, but also humane. You could walk into a bookstore and buy both and have plenty to chew on for a while. I am thrilled to be in conversation with Jason at his Chicago launch where we will talk about everything Chicago on September 19 at Volumes. (Angela will also be widely touring.)
Tricia Lockwood’s Will There Ever Be Another You publishes the following week, on September 23, and it is about, amongst other things, long Covid, tending to loved ones, and taking mushrooms, and it is absolutely brilliant. (You can read a profile of her in The New Yorker here.) I will be hosting a party for Tricia on September 27 at my house in New Orleans and she will also be all over the damn place this fall, and I have heard she will be reading new poems along the way, too.
Delaney Nolan’s debut Happy Bad, which I blurbed and called “a hell of a book” publishes October 14, and I am excited to be interviewing her for her launch in New Orleans at Garden District Books. You can read her starred (!) Kirkus Review here. Also receiving a starred Kirkus is Jade Chang’s funny and vibrant What A Time to Be Alive, her anticipated follow-up to the much-beloved The Wangs vs. the World, which comes out September 30. (Neither of these people have tour dates for me to link to, will someone please make them throw up some on the internet, thank you.)
I am also interested in reading the always insightful and witty Susan Orlean’s writing memoir Joyride (October 9), personal fave Bryan Washington’s Palaver (November 4), and Megha Majumdar’s A Guardian and a Thief (October 14), which is also a finalist for the Kirkus Prize! (And I heard there was a new Lily King novel coming out, if any publicists from Grove Atlantic are reading this letter.)
I did not even scratch the surface of new books. Lit Hub always puts together a thorough list every year, if you’re looking for more suggested reading. I also really recommend getting out there and attending events in person no matter where you are so check your local bookstore’s events listings.
There’s always something to be gleaned from listening to an author read from or discuss their own work—even if you don’t agree with them. And it’s important to support and connect with your literary community, be it the author themselves or simply your local bookstore or library.
And hey, maybe take a chance on a debut! What else are you doing on a Tuesday?
Let’s get out there and buy some books this fall.
Jami
You are reading Craft Talk, the home of #1000wordsofsummer and also a weekly newsletter about writing from Jami Attenberg. I’m also on bluesky and instagram.
