Tajja Isen

I love that, not least because I did it too! (He was wondering what made me laugh so hard)

Love Can Look Like Anything, Even Marriage Comedian and writer Josh Gondelman on choosing a "structurally vanilla" life.

The nice people at Playboy asked me to write something about the good parts about being married, and I was happy to. :)

Fanfiction’s Total Cultural Victory | Defector In 2012, a self-published author of erotic Twilight fanfiction, whose books had gained a large fan base online, was offered a seven-figure contract by a major American publisher. E. L. James’s Fifty S...

This is really smart and thoughtful and satisfying: defector.com/fanfictions-...

💕💕💕

I can finally share that my next book will officially publish in 2027, and that the good folks at @unmpress.bsky.social will be the ones to bring it out in the US! Thrilled and grateful that I get to keep doing this. More soon!!!!

First trade review! Thrilled to see some pre-pub praise for MIDDLEMEN from kirkus.

Just a few spots left in this memoir workshop, which runs from February through November 2026 and is my favorite class to teach. Now holding off on new acceptances until the deadline so I can consider every application that comes in. Apply by Jan. 24! @thewriterscenter.bsky.social

American Cant | Defector Dante Alighieri thought he could write himself out of exile. In 1300, while serving on a governing committee in his beloved Florence, the poet was involved in a factional dispute among city leaders. T...

I read American Canto and I think it’s wonderful. haha jk

I need a cross-show supercut of Walton Goggins saying "yo daddy"

This is *so* good.

a book titled The Dad Rock That Made Me a Woman being held up on the street, a coke sign is visible in the background

my 2025 has been defined by the release of my debut, The Dad Rock That Made Me a Woman. I'm incredibly proud of the work that went into it, & everything that has come of it. Incredibly grateful for the team at @utexaspress.bsky.social for their wholehearted support of me and this project.

It’s Harder and Harder to Be a Magazine on the Internet—Please Help As we hurtle toward the end of a dismally eventful year (yes, we live in interesting times), those of us in what remains of America’s independent media are poring over budgets past, present, and fu…

Proud of the work I've done at @literaryhub.bsky.social and proud to be a human writer, aligned with other human writers. Times is hard, but your support for a site like ours does really mean the world.

lithub.com/its-harder-a...

April - Little Apocalypses by Kaitlyn Teer; July - Close Relationships with Strangers by Krista Diamond!

The 50 Biggest Literary Stories of the Year In 2025, we were surviving, if perhaps not always thriving. We sang along to “Golden” in the grocery store and hung Labubus from our bags. We reheated nachos. We saw Sinners in multiple…

Thank you @literaryhub.bsky.social for naming my publishing essay the 20th biggest literary story of the year! lithub.com/the-50-bigge...

The Maris Review, vol 82 Forgive me for skipping last week's newsletter! I've been reading submissions for for the NYPL Young Lions Fiction Award, and I didn't want to use this space to write about what I read. That will be u...

I keep losing subscribers but I will not stop (for now) writing my damn newsletter! This week's offerings includes a very minor blind item, love for Jennifer Percy and Erin Somers, and a great list of Nuzzi-less newly published titles. www.themarisreview.com/the-maris-re...

If my books are/were on any lists, I would have no idea, but my guess is that they aren’t. My books were *reissued* in April of this year, and I’d be thrilled if you bought a copy, asked your local library to stock them, bought an electronic copy, shared, told your friends, reviewed, etc. Thanks 💚💚💚

you do have to do it in a couple of places but this tutorial makes it easy to go uncheck the boxes that otherwise lets Google's AI read all your shit. or move everything over to protonmail but moving everything over is a giant thing I know.

All My Dead Cats and Other Losses: Practicing Good Grief in a Culture That Fears Mourning Practicing Good Grief in a Culture That Fears Mourning

So uh.

I've spent the last five years working on a book about grief, mourning, who is allowed to grieve and how, and where we go from here, and...

you can now preorder it!

Excited to reveal the cover of my book, MIDDLEMEN: LITERARY AGENTS AND THE MAKING OF AMERICAN FICTION, which is available for pre-order now!

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

"My agent in particular was like, There must be sex in this novel. Please put sex in this novel!'"

I talked to @somers.bsky.social about comic novels, writing "like a worm," and her new novel THE TEN YEAR AFFAIR (out today!) countercraft.substack.com/p/processing...

"an entire layer of middle managers who need to have meetings to feel alive"

Megha Majumdar — A Guardian and a Thief - with Nicole Chung — at Conn Ave Welcome to our new website! We're excited to see you. *** RETURNING USERS WILL NEED TO RESET THEIR PASSWORD FOR THIS NEW SITE. CLICK HERE TO RESET YOUR PASSWORD.***

DC! Join me at @politicsprose.bsky.social on Saturday, 10/18 to celebrate 🎉 National Book Award finalist 🎉 @meghamaj.bsky.social and her hauntingly gorgeous new novel A GUARDIAN AND A THIEF

It's cool to see a trade outlet responding to the sales track piece in a substantive way. It would be even cooler if they credited the writer and/or linked to the piece—especially since the response basically re-reports the original thesis.

Pushing writers to "braid" cultural criticism (or whatever other genre) into memoir has been a net negative for nonfiction and is out of touch with what readers want

The Publishing Industry Has a Gambling Problem | The Walrus Companies keep betting on the next bestseller. Literature is poorer for it

"If buying the debut is a rollicking night at the craps table, then the sophomore project is the sober morning after. Gone is the clean slate."

@tajjaisen.bsky.social for @thewalrus.ca: thewalrus.ca/the-publishi...

screaming

The Publishing Industry Has a Gambling Problem | The Walrus Companies keep betting on the next bestseller. Literature is poorer for it

"If buying the debut is a rollicking night at the craps table, then the sophomore project is the sober morning after. Gone is the clean slate."

Hoo boy, did this @tajjaisen.bsky.social piece ever hit me where I live.

Thank you and I'm sorry!!!

I’m really grateful writers are talking about this. The experience of selling books after a big success v books that didn’t do the same numbers was heartbreaking. I know you’re only as good as your recent booknet numbers but it was still super weird to be treated differently by the same people.