Scene report by me with help from my ten-year-old daughter 💫
What I Saw and Heard at Phoebe Bridgers' No-Phones MSG Show (to the Best of My Recollection)
For the first time since Phoebe Bridgers began performing new music this year, journalists were permitted to write about her MSG show last night. But there were rules.
gq.com
These series that Brad edits are so good. A bunch of really interesting writers with different voices on one filmmaker. Highly recommend!!
bradley babendir@therealbradbabs.bsky.social · 3mo agostarting tomorrow! subscribe so you don’t miss anything! thisisanewsletter.substack.com
ICYMI: I chatted with the publishers of HAGFISH, a great small press that reissues underread women authors.
Lincoln Michel@thelincoln.bsky.social · 4mo agoI talked to Julia Ringo and Naomi Huffman of the very cool small press HAGFISH that focuses on literary resurrections of underread women authors. countercraft.substack.com/p/interview-...
this summer, i ran a newsletter series on PTA leading up to the release of OBAA. the contributors were are all so smart and made the project so much better than i hoped or deserved. if you’re looking for OBAA writing this morning, i think you’d like this review roundup:
The One Battle After Another Mega Newsletter
The final entry in The Ranks of the Freaks, a this is a newsletter series.
thisisanewsletter.substack.com
If you are in Baltimore, I’m talking with @somers.bsky.social about her excellent novel THE TEN-YEAR AFFAIR at Greedy Reads (the one on Remington) on Thursday night (that's tomorrow). Be there or be square:
After 20 years, I've been laid off at The Washington Post. substack.com/home/post/p-...
I’ve Been Laid Off. I’m Not Done.
After 20 years at The Washington Post, I’m suddenly on my own — and still writing about books.
substack.com
Big news that I'm delighted to no longer be keeping a secret: Next week I join @wired.com as a senior writer! As everyone knows, this is a top-tier publication and indispensable record of digital life today. I'll be covering internet culture in all forms, as I have for almost 15 years now.
Talking Biz News@talkingbiznews.bsky.social · 6mo ago@milesklee.bsky.social hired by @wired.com as a senior writer: talkingbiznews.com/media-news/w...
As someone who devoured this book over the holidays, I'm delighted to hear her next book may return to the same town and fill in some of those gaps.* *Double entendre intended
Erin Somers@somers.bsky.social · 6mo agoI was profiled by the Sydney Morning Herald 🐨
I was profiled by the Sydney Morning Herald 🐨
The first great book club novel of 2026 is here
This is adultery, rebranded for people who have air fryers and money anxieties.
smh.com.au
📚✨ Love to read? Join the NEPM Book Club! 📅 Next meet-up: Thursday, Jan. 29 at 7 p.m. 📖 Book: "The Ten Year Affair" by Erin Somers 🎤 Special Q&A with the author! Don't miss out! Sign up now at nepm.org/bookclub
The Ten Year Affair is a witty, emotionally-charged exploration of marriage, family life and the roads not taken, that ultimately asks: do we really want our fantasies to come true? 'Somers's wit is as cool, caustic and dry as liquid nitrogen' TONY TULATHIMUTTE
Happy publication day to this wondrous stack of books! The Writing Life – Annie Dillard The Swedish Art of Ageing Well – Margareta Magnusson The Wardrobe Department – Elaine Garvey Grace – Chika Unigwe The Ten Year Affair – Erin Somers Available in-store and online! uk.bookshop.org/lists/out-to...
This fall, I had the pleasure of re-reading Karl Ove Knausgaard’s work for the New York Times. I’m grateful for the assignment, the brilliant editing, and Knausgaard, for giving me so much to think about, as always: www.nytimes.com/article/karl...
The Essential Karl Ove Knausgaard
nytimes.com
Reading and enjoying @somers.bsky.social's fantastic novel, THE TEN YEAR AFFAIR, which is funny, messy, and heartfelt. Reminded me of this great interview she did with @thelincoln.bsky.social at his must-read COUNTER CRAFT newsletter: countercraft.substack.com/p/processing...
Processing: How Erin Somers Wrote The Ten Year Affair
The author on comic writing, reading drafts aloud, and being "lower than a worm" while writing
countercraft.substack.com
Save the date for MEDIUM RARE’s launch @strandbooks.com in NYC on MARCH 4 alongside two of the best writers alive @somers.bsky.social & Elizabeth Winkler After my debut events were all on Zoom in 2021, I could not be more excited for this 🏀🪽 @melvillehouse.bsky.social
“After her intensely smart Portrait of a Mirror, A. Natasha Joukovsky goes for another retelling, this time landing on the myth of Icarus by way of a Washington lobbying firm, college basketball and pipe dreams.” Thank you @ourculture.bsky.social! ourculturemag.com/2026/01/03/o...
Our Culture’s Most Anticipated Books of Winter 2026 - Our Culture
It’s the best time of the year! Winter straddles the end of one year and the beginning of a new one, which means it’s both a time of reflection and new beginnings. After we covered 27 books and author...
ourculturemag.com
favorite novels published this year: Minor Black Figures by Brandon Taylor / The Ten Year Affair by Erin Somers / Pilgrims by Devin Kelly / Audition by Katie Kitamura
Funniest gift I got yesterday was THE TEN-YEAR AFFAIR by @somers.bsky.social, not since it's funny (though it is!) but because I mentioned it to my wife as a book I wanted, who mentioned it to my mother-in-law, who got me a book with a cover blurb "the best book about infidelity since Madame Bovary"
"These are not extraordinary people, these are not unique circumstances. We could be them—which is what makes these otherwise quiet, funny novels feel so dangerous." Annie Berke considers timelines not taken in “The Ten Year Affair” and “Wreck” https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/theres-no-telling/
Fun!
The Tournament of Books@tournamentofbooks.com · 8mo agoIt’s here! The shortlist for the 2026 Tournament of Books, presented by @fieldnotesbrand.bsky.social (We’ll also need your vote by midnight ET on Dec. 18 for which book you think should get a second shot at the 2026 Rooster!) www.tournamentofbooks.com/the-2026-sho...
For @gqmagazine.bsky.social, I spent the summer talking to stay at home dads about what their lives are like. Huge thanks to everyone who spoke to me and to the magazine for handling the piece with such care.
Dads Are the New Moms. How’s That Going?
American men are doing more parenting than at any other time in modern history. What does that really mean for work, marriage, friendship, and sex?
gq.com
My first book pubs today, and among other things it is a love letter to Chicago — the city and the communities that have been a tenth muse for me. Margaret C. Anderson's story is also, I hope, a reminder that good art requires taking big risks. www.simonandschuster.com/books/A-Dang...
I am such an admirer of Patrick Nathan’s writing, so I was thrilled to read his incredible essay about my book and the infidelity novel.
The Horror of the Husband
Anna novels, Emma novels, and the original romantasy: fiction about affairs
patricknathan.substack.com
So well deserved. THE TEN YEAR AFFAIR is funny and poignant and everything you want in a great novel.
Erin Somers@somers.bsky.social · 8mo agoLitHub’s Best Books of the Year. Thank you @literaryhub.bsky.social!!
