The Year in Reading
I read 51 books last year. That makes it a little difficult to pick favorites, but I noticed some thematic highlights.
Short Stories for Bad Times
I only read two short fiction collections this year, but luckily for me they were both bangers.
Good Night, Sleep Tight – Brian Evenson
If Brian Evenson has a new collection out, I read it. He always hits that weird fiction / literary fiction sweet spot for me. Predictably, I loved it.
Liberation Day – George Saunders
Favorites from this collection were “Liberation Day”, “Ghoul”, and “Elliot Spencer”.
It’s So Over
I read a lot of science fiction about pre- and post-apocalyptic Earth. Let’s say it’s for research.
After World – Debbie Urbanski
Excellent and refreshingly experimental, but you may need to be in the right headspace to read it. Post-apocalyptic fiction at its bleakest.
Hum – Helen Philips
Motherhood, climate and economic anxiety, surveillance culture, and AI. If you read it and like it, check out Philips’ The Need.
Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang – Kate Wilhelm
A 1970s classic I’d never read, this in some ways is less a post-apocalyptic novel and more of a meditation on identity, individualism, and family structure. Also, clones with hive mind psychic powers.
Terrible Worlds (Ironclads, Firewalkers, and Ogres) – Adrian Tchaitovsky
I thoroughly enjoyed all three of these novellas, but Firewalkers was probably my favorite.
We’re So Back
Let literary fiction be weird!
Headshot – Rita Bullwinkel
Skittering, off-putting prose that tells a series of stories through a girls’ boxing championship. I loved it.
Y/N – Esther Yi
Engages intimately with the particular derangements of fan culture. “Y/N”, short for “your name”, originated as a device in fan fiction that invites the reader to insert themselves into the narrative. In this case, our “Y/N” is a distinctive character who draws us into her dream-like pursuit of Moon, the unobtainable object of her affection.
I Who Have Never Known Men – Jacqueline Harpman
Short, strange, and devastating.
The Empusium – Olga Tokarczuk
Olga does it again! This book does absolutely wild things with perspective and narration that had me reeling.
Books About Books
This started as a project to finally read certain 1990s classics, and I ended up ambling along this theme all year.
The Name of the Rose – Umberto Ecco
Amazed that this was a bestseller given how esoteric it is. Proof that if you write something attuned to your very particular special interests (monasteries, labyrinths, medieval religious schisms), you will succeed.
If On A Winter’s Night A Traveler – Italo Calvino
It’s a classic for a reason. Incredible opening in which the book instructs you how to properly read it. The overarching plot is ultimately a little goofy, but the genre shifts in the stories-within-the-story were technically impressive.
Possession: A Romance – A.S. Byatt
Were you an English major? Do I have a book for you.
Fingersmith – Sarah Waters
For the Dickens enthusiasts, pornography historians, and sapphics. I’d previously watched a film adaptation of this, and was worried that knowing most of the major plot twists in advance would dampen my enjoyment of reading the novel. It didn’t.
The Night Ocean – Paul LaFarge
H.P. Lovecraft, histories true and false, and relationships that go spectacularly wrong.
The Year in Writing, By the Numbers
4 short stories completed
3 edited for submission / 1 set aside
1 new story in progress
~42,000 words of notes and sketches across two competing novel concepts
17 submissions
9 form rejections
2 personal rejections
1 withdrawal
1 acceptance (thanks, Electric Spec!)
3 pending
Goals for 2026
My goal for 2026 is not to do more, but to slow down and engage more deeply. Some of this involves creating little personalized curricula for myself, to wander and explore through my reading. I want to spend less time on chasing contemporary titles and instead dig deep with older work and classics, ranging from Le Guin and Hammett to Dostoevsky and Melville. I kicked off my 2026 reading with The Brothers Karamazov and a book of Harlan Ellison stories, and it’s a pleasure to engage with voices from different times.
I’m also getting a small in-person writing group going again, my first in years, and I’m looking forward to that community and accountability.
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