TBR: How to Disappear and Why by Kyle Minor

Established in 2018, TBR [to be read] is a semi-regular, invitation-only interview series with authors of newly released/forthcoming, interesting books.  

 

Give us your elevator pitch: what’s your book about in 2-3 sentences?

 

These essays are interested in all varieties of disappearance: Voluntary, involuntary, coerced, professional, intellectual, transcendent, mortal. Ghosts of dead friends, driving Uber after Hollywood work dried up, narcissism in writers, social class and upward mobility, the Polish diplomat Jan Karski who failed to stop the Holocaust, folk art and synesthesia and transcendence, Bernard Moitessier and c. diff. and the sickness that might find its way into our song.

 

Which essay did you most enjoy writing? Why?

 

The real pleasure was writing “Junk Temples,” a novella-length essay-in-digressions toward the end of the book that is intensely interested in the notion of transcendence in art and the idea of how we make temples out of all kinds of things, including junk, and ascribe elevated meaning to them. I got to visit the folk artist Howard Finster’s Paradise Gardens, a couple of acres of his life’s work in junk collage and painting on everything, which is located right across the street from a state prison, and in a neighborhood full of Rottweilers chained to rickety stakes in every other front yard. And I got to spend time in the work of Henry Darger, who left behind one of the largest books ever assembled, which has at its center a phalanx of Charmin-girl angels with penises fighting a Civil War in some kind of troubled heaven. And I got to think about the nature of love and forgetting and music and books alongside Susan Sontag and William Goyen and a lot of poets, all through an overlay of synesthetic color and light.

 

 And which essay gave you the most trouble, and why?

 

The most difficult essay was the one at the end, “The Sickness and the Song,” which is an attempt at a personal reckoning with what art and writing are for, and how narcissism distorts, and what matters in life, even if you are chasing art. I was thinking about an around-the-world boat race in which the Frenchman Bernard Moitessier was in the lead, but he quit because the sailing—the water, the wind, the sky, the fish—had come to matter more than the race.

 

Tell us a bit about the highs and lows of your book’s road to publication.

 

I injured my brain a little playing hockey, and for a little while I had some trouble reading. Then I got sad. Then there were some complications with clearing permissions. The book was a little late to press. By then, the world had changed again, and it started to mean new things it hadn’t meant when I wrote it. Maybe it was for the best.

 

What’s your favorite piece of writing advice?

 

Quit this shit and go to medical school, so you can make enough money to eat.

 

My favorite writing advice is “write until something surprises you.” What surprised you in the writing of this book?

 

I think I might have found a path out of despair and into hope.

 

Who is your ideal reader?

 

You.

 

*****

 

READ MORE ABOUT THIS BOOK: http://sarabandebooks.org/

 

ORDER THIS BOOK FOR YOUR OWN TBR STACK:  https://shop.skylarkbookshop.com/search?q=how%20to%20disappear%20and%20why

 

READ AN ESSAY FROM THIS BOOK, “The Uber Diaries”:  https://newohioreview.org/2019/10/02/the-uber-diaries/ 

 

 

 

 

 

TBR: Echoes Carry by Serena Agusto-Cox

Established in 2018, TBR [to be read] is a semi-regular, invitation-only interview series with authors of newly released/forthcoming, interesting books.  

 

We don’t expect an elevator pitch from a poet, but can you tell us about your work in 2-3 sentences?

 

Echoes Carry is a collection throughout which familial and ancestral echoes weave through each poem in subtle and stark ways. It raises the question of how much we are influenced by our families and friends, including ancestors or distant relatives we’ve never met face-to-face. Tangentially, it seeks to understand the connections humans have with one another.

 

What boundaries did you break in the writing of this book? Where does that sort of courage come from?

 

I wouldn’t say I’ve broken any boundaries per se, but I wanted to create a collection that could speak to readers, not just academic readers. I wanted my audience to see the possibilities in their own lives and the connections they may have to family, friends, ancestors, without really knowing that their influence has been present since the beginning. It’s something I’ve thought a lot about. The human condition and where we get the impulse to choose one action or feeling over another and how much of that can be nature and how much can be nurtured. Even things that seem unique to us, like writing poems, can be something that our ancestors did before us, and we may never know. The possibilities are endless.

 

Tell us a bit about the highs and lows of your book’s road to publication.

 

The high is seeing a print copy in a box that you open at your house with your child videotaping the unboxing. Yes, I did this social media craze. Why? Because I want to share that joy, if not with the internet world, at least with my child. Definitely a fun moment: videotaping goofy mom. The lows are the length of time between when you’ve finally got the manuscript where you want it and you send it out over and over and over ad nauseum to places that reject it. You have to put your energy into another creative project or that process will depress you.

 

What’s your favorite piece of writing advice?

 

I think Billy Collins once said, “Write the poem only you can write.” That’s probably the best advice you can have with regard to poetry. But I’ve also taken Stephen King’s advice to heart about manuscripts. In On Writing, he mentioned that manuscripts should have a period of rest in a drawer. I believe he says six weeks, but sometimes, my poetry manuscripts have needed far longer than six weeks.

 

My favorite writing advice is “write until something surprises you.” What surprised you in the writing of this book?

 

It wasn’t the writing that surprised me or the collection of poems or the ordering of poems. What surprised me was the fun I had creating a book cover on Canva. Yes, I had help with the design, but the vision is all mine. I loved that creative part of the process. It was unexpected. Thinking about all the possibilities suggested by others and by the publisher, but knowing what I wanted to see and then being able to create it was the biggest surprise.

 

How did you find the title of your book?

 

The title of the book is a modification of a line in one of the poems. I’ll leave that mystery for readers to uncover.

 

Inquiring foodies and hungry book clubs want to know: Any food/s associated with your book? (Any recipes I might share?)

 

Food is everywhere in this book, and you might find part of a recipe in the collection.

 

*****

 

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THIS AUTHOR: https://savvyverseandwit.com/

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THIS PUBLISHER:
Here's the publisher's website: https://www.beltwayeditions.com/new-releases/echoes-carry

 

ORDER THIS BOOK FOR YOUR OWN TBR STACK: https://amzn.to/4kBoBsM or https://bookshop.org/p/books/echoes-carry-serena-agusto-cox/e70f1a6b6a9abb6f?ean=9781957372204&next=t

 

READ THIS AUTHOR’S SUBSTACK: https://savvyverseandwit.substack.com/

 

TBR: The Last Supper by Wendy J. Fox

Established in 2018, TBR [to be read] is a semi-regular, invitation-only interview series with authors of newly released/forthcoming, interesting books.    

 

 

Give us your elevator pitch: what’s your book about in 2-3 sentences?

 

The Last Supper follows three months in the chaotic life of Amanda, who has just turned 40, has two young children, and is searching for something more in her life. She's failed at being a momfluencer, she's failed at MLM entrepreneurship, and she’s living in terror of what to make for dinner. Desperate for something more than the isolated world of her suburban home, but consumed by parenting, her illusory stability collapses when the cracks in her marriage finally split open so wide she sees a way out, and a pathway to reclaim her own creative and economic agency.

 

Which character did you most enjoy creating? Why? And which character gave you the most trouble, and why?

 

The character I most enjoyed creating was the mother in the novel—Camille is a successful attorney who specializes in family law and clawed her way into financial stability after being a single parent. The reason I felt energized when I was in her perspective is because she’s a successful woman who is not defined by caregiving relationships. She’s just who she is and doesn’t really care what other people think about her.

 

The character who gave me the most trouble—and I think this will track for other writers—was the protagonist, Amanda. She is the hinge the door of the novel hangs on, and it is from her perspective the plot unfolds.

 

With the most space and time with a protagonist, there’s also more chance for narrative discontinuity or character motivation issues to arise. She goes through a period of awaking in the novel, and while I think it is fair to say all writers of literary fiction or character-driven fiction want to represent the change that occurs, sometimes I have to work on not being didactic or too interior.

 

Still, from a process perspective, I enjoy the building of a character, inclusive of the hard parts. (This is why I don’t understand would-be creatives leaning on generative AI.)

 

If you can’t sit with your characters and really think about them, what’s the point?

 

While sure, it can be difficult, there’s also so much joy in figuring out a tricky sentence, so much satisfaction in revising a critical scene.

 

How I have come to think about AI chatbots (which you didn’t ask about but is on my mind all the time) is that chatbots are all output, in contrast to creative writing being largely about input.

 

Tell us a bit about the highs and lows of your book’s road to publication.

 

This is my fifth book, so at this point I can mostly roll with anything. That said, for me there is always the high of getting to contract with a manuscript, and the low of worrying about it.

 

The thing that has not changed at all—the thing I roll less well with is worrying how the book will be received.

 

I often say to people that I have this conundrum of: What if nobody reads it? And then: Oh crap, what if they do?!

 

Writing and publishing are just two different animals.

 

However, I do want to say to anyone out there shopping a manuscript: you might (will probably) at some point have a weird interaction with an agent, an editor, a publisher that will shake you. You might wake up in the middle of the night wondering if you wasted the last five years or more of your life.

 

It’s fine. Not every editor will get you. Lots of agents won’t. Do your work.

 

When you find the right publishing partner/model, you will know.

 

The lows are getting through the doubt. The highs are knowing you honored your work—whether it is published or not.

 

What’s your favorite piece of writing advice?

 

Over a decade ago, before I had a single book in print, I went to a panel where Andre Dubus III talked about the need for tension in every narrative.

 

That idea has crystallized over the years into really thinking about stakes.

 

On the panel, Dubus III said something like “If there’s no tension, who cares?” I think about that a lot.

 

My favorite writing advice is “write until something surprises you.” What surprised you in the writing of this book?

 

I love your writing advice.

 

What surprised me in writing The Last Supper was the way the manuscript changed over time. At first, I was writing from a character sketch, then I was developing in earnest. The beginning versions were very different, both in tone and plot.

 

But! That’s part of the whole point of the process. Which is also, again, why I can’t get down with AI, as there’s no process there.

 

How did you find the title of your book?

 

I am notoriously bad at titles.

 

Once, I turned in a book to my publisher called “Office Stories” – and talk about a snooze in the title department (thank goodness I was already under contract). And definitely no tension there, à la Dubus III. With some help, the title of the book became What If We Were Somewhere Else, which does have tension and also is appropriately descriptive of what it feels like to work in an office.

 

The title for The Last Supper came from a highly trusted reader.

 

I’m pretty transparent as a person and a writer, but my beta titles for what became The Last Supper are too embarrassingly bad for even me to share publicly.

 

Inquiring foodies and hungry book clubs want to know: Any food/s associated with your book? (Any recipes I might share?)

 

There is a lot of food in this book. The protagonist is trying to organize dinner every night to feed her children and husband. Sometimes it works, but mostly it does not: think mistaking vanilla yogurt for sour cream for a taco topper, burned meat of every variety, backup meals of microwaved nuggets.

 

I have feelings about food, and when I worked a tech job, absolutely hating to cook was a massive understatement. Now that I have more time, I’m into it. I cook every day.

 

I’m not including recipe from the book, because I like foodies and book clubs.

 

Instead, here is a recipe that my protagonist, Amanda, would love if she had the damn time or brain space to do it. The ingredients are from the back of a Bob’s Red Mill flour bag. The instructions are mine.

 

Still, this emblematic of certain type of thinking about cooking: basic pantry items can really yield deliciousness, but again, that’s all predicated on time.

 

Overnight No Knead Bread

 

Ingredients:

 

3 cups bread flour

¼  teaspoon active dry yeast

½ teaspoon salt

1 ½ cup warm water

 

Directions:

 

Before you go to bed, mix up all the ingredients in a bowl to form a shaggy dough. Cover it with a clean kitchen towel and stash in the warmest part of your abode.

 

Then go to bed!

 

In the morning, after you have slept for hopefully 6 – 8 hours (if you slept longer, even better)*, generously flour your hands and form the dough into something loaf-like. Don’t overthink the shape! It’s not a competition. Return your dough to the bowl and cover with the same towel.

 

Put your baking vessel in the oven and pre-heat to 450F. A Dutch oven works well, but anything that is oven-safe is fine.

 

Wait 30 minutes so the dough can proof again after you just handled it, and to ensure the oven is properly hot.

 

Use more flour on your hands to retrieve your loaf or loaf-adjacent dough-shape from the bowl and plop it onto the hot baking vessel.

 

Cover and cook for 30 minutes.

 

Uncover and cook for 10- 12 minutes to crisp up the outsides.

 

*Don’t even worry if you forget about this dough for over a day. It is very forgiving.

  

*****

 READ MORE ABOUT THIS AUTHOR: www.wendyjfox.com

 

ORDER THIS BOOK FOR YOUR TBR STACK: https://www.sfwp.com/books/lastsupper

 

READ AN EXCERPT FROM THIS NOVEL: https://writerschronicle.awpwriter.org/TWC/2026-february/preview/20-The-Last-Supper.aspx

 

 

 

TBR: The Sky Will Hold by Elizabeth Hazen

Established in 2018, TBR [to be read] is a semi-regular, invitation-only interview series with authors of newly released/forthcoming, interesting books.

  

We don’t expect an elevator pitch from a poet, but can you tell us about your work in 2-3 sentences?

 

I tend to write my way through challenges – both internal ones and external ones – so a lot of my poems have to do with questions of identity and purpose as well as with navigating complicated relationships. My recent work also concerns parenting a young adult son, helping him find meaning in the world when I struggle to do so myself. I like to play with form, so a lot of my poems adhere to formal constraints of some kind.

 

Which poem/s did you most enjoy writing? Why?

 

I had a lot of fun writing the gloses. This is an obscure Spanish form that takes four lines – a “cabeza” - from an existing poem. Those lines then each become the final lines of four 10-line stanzas. Lines 6, 9, and 10 rhyme. In general, I enjoy working in form – it takes me out of my emotional brain and puts me in that logical, puzzle-solving brain. I think this is good for creating some distance from the subject, allowing me more objectivity. The form also encourages a dialogue with the poem from which the cabeza is taken, and I loved spending time with those works.

 

Tell us a bit about the highs and lows of your book’s road to publication.

 

The publication process for The Sky Will Hold took longer than expected. Initially, Alan Squire Publishing was going to release this collection in March 2025. They published my first two collections and we were excited to work together on this one, but for various reasons in the spring of 2024, ASP decided to go on hiatus. I was disappointed and discouraged and spent a few months convinced that I would never find a publisher, but ultimately Riot in Your Throat took the book. The delay allowed me to add a few poems to the manuscript that I think make the collection stronger, so it all worked out in the end.

 

What’s your favorite piece of writing advice?

 

The older I get, the more I appreciate the advice that many of my teachers have given over the years – and that is simply to have fun with it. I’ve been writing for long enough that I see little reason to continue unless it brings me joy, so I have been trying to get back to that original sense of discovery and wonder that made writing appeal to me in the first place.

 

My favorite writing advice is “write until something surprises you.” What surprised you in the writing of this book?

 

I don’t think of myself as a very optimistic person, but I increasingly believe that my purpose in writing is to highlight the beauty and connection I see in the world. When I read through the collection, I am surprised and pleased to see that many of the poems are actually pretty hopeful.

 

How did you find the title of your book?

 

Rose Solari, a fabulous poet and teacher and the publisher of my first two books, came up with the title. She was helping me with the order of the poems, and we were chatting about title options, and she suggested The Sky Will Hold. The more I thought about it, the more I felt that it was the right title.

 

*****

 

READ MORE ABOUT THIS AUTHOR: Elizabeth Hazen Official – My WordPress Blog

 

READ MORE ABOUT THIS BOOK: The Sky Will Hold by Elizabeth Hazen - Riot in Your Throat Press  

 

ORDER THIS BOOK FOR YOUR OWN TBR STACK: The Sky Will Hold by Elizabeth Hazen - Riot in Your Throat Press

 

READ A POEM FROM THIS BOOK, “Approximations”: Elizabeth Hazen "Approximations" — THE SHORE

 

 

 

 

TBR: Bodies in Bags by Jamey Gallagher

Established in 2018, TBR [to be read] is a semi-regular, invitation-only interview series with authors of newly released/forthcoming literary books of interest.

 

Give us your elevator pitch: what’s your book about in 2-3 sentences?

 Bodies in Bags is a grit lit/crime collection so visceral you can smell it. A bad cop in New Hampshire dealing with the consequences of shooting an intruder, a drifter who wakes up next to her dead companion in Atlantic City, a veteran fleeing to South Jersey after an impulsive crime: these are stories of desperation and recompense, told in tough and sometimes tender voices. The stories deal with issues of masculinity, consequences, violence, and uncontrollable impulses.

 Which story did you most enjoy writing? Why? And which story gave you the most trouble, and why?

 

Of all the stories in Bodies in Bags, I think “Night Moves” might have been the most enjoyable to write. The setting takes me back to a volunteer position at a hospital I had when I was a teenager. The world feels familiar, and the main character is someone I like a lot, a woman like some of the women I worked with at the hospital: tough but kind. The story “Dream a Little Dream” probably gave me the most trouble. It took me so long to finish. I had the character and the opening scene for years, and I must have started three or four novels based on that opening before finally coming up with a shape and a voice that I’m proud of.

 

 Tell us a bit about the highs and lows of your book’s road to publication.

 

This is the second book of short stories I’ve published in two years. For both books, many of the stories go back a ways. Once I had found the shape for my first collection, I realized that I had a bunch of noir/grit lit pieces that all seemed to hang together. After years of facing rejection, this book was pretty easy to get out there, thanks to the support and faith of Ross Tangedal at Cornerstone Press.

 

What’s your favorite piece of writing advice?

 

I tend to think all writing advice is pointless, unless it works. As a young writer, I was lucky enough to be in a writing group run by Andre Dubus III. Many things Andre said stuck with me, but I particularly remember him talking about perseverance. “If you put it under a magnifying glass long enough, eventually it’s going to catch fire.”

 

My favorite writing advice is “write until something surprises you.” What surprised you in the writing of this book?

 

The best stories are almost entirely surprises. As a writer, especially when I’m between stories, I’m always listening for voices and waiting to hear one that works. This collection features a lot of voices that surprised me. I have no idea why they feel real to me or where they came from.

 

What’s something about your book that you want readers to know?

 

I think readers should know what they’re getting into. This book is definitely not for everyone, but, for people who like things dark, I think it will provide exactly what you’re looking for. It doesn’t flinch.

 

Inquiring foodies and hungry book clubs want to know: Any food/s associated with your book? (Any recipes I might share?)

 

I can’t share a recipe, but one of the stories features a bar that serves “chicken barb” sandwiches. Only people in the Merrimack Valley know what a chicken barb is: the most delicious sandwich ever, featuring shredded chicken in warm mayonnaise. Nobody can make it the way Norm’s White Horse used to.

 

*****

 

READ MORE ABOUT THIS AUTHOR: https://jameyg0.wixsite.com/jameygallagher

 

ORDER THIS BOOK FOR YOUR TBR STACK:

https://bookshop.org/p/books/bodies-in-bags-stories-jamey-gallagher/477c41adad9df5e1?ean=9781968148355&next=t

 

READ A STORY FROM THIS COLLECTION, “Bodies in Bags”:

http://www.cowboyjamboreemagazine.com/bodies-in-bags-by-jamie-gallagher.html

 

 

 

 

TBR: The Marriage Bed by Tommy Hays

stablished in 2018, TBR [to be read] is a semi-regular, invitation-only interview series with authors of newly released/forthcoming, interesting books. 

Give us your elevator pitch: what’s your book about in 2-3 sentences?

 

A poetry professor at a small college in Asheville, NC, Asa Flowers comes home one stormy evening to find his wife Betsy, inexplicably distraught. As the evening goes on, the couple end up in a heated argument that sends him to sleep out in their garage apartment for the first time in twenty-five years of marriage. The next morning, he wakes to blue sky and an altered world. 

 

Which character did you most enjoy creating? Why? And which character gave you the most trouble, and why? 

 

They’re one in the same for me. Wendy is the college girlfriend of Mitchell, the son of Asa, who is the main character. She was one of the most difficult to write because she and I come from very different backgrounds and have dramatically different beliefs.  She’s conservative and very religious, the daughter of a minister of a small Pentecostal church. However as I spent time with her I discovered how sensitive and compassionate and wise she was. She surprised me a lot over the course of writing and the more time I spent with her and the more I got to know her, the more fond I became of her.

 

Tell us a bit about the highs and lows of your book’s road to publication.

 

I worked on The Marriage Bed off and on for over a decade, writing several drafts between working on two YA novels. My agent at the time never felt my revisions were good enough to send out to publishers.  Finally, much to my hesitation, I had to tell my agent that I had no choice but to look for another agent. That was a hard decision, but it was a very amicable parting. I was grateful to her for all she’d done for me over the years, including selling two novels.  And we’re still friends.  I found another agent who believed in the novel and after a few months she found a wonderful home for The Marriage Bed at Blair, a small but mighty publisher out of North Carolina. I could not be happier. As long and as hard as I had to work on The Marriage Bed, I’m so glad I didn’t give up.   

 

What’s your favorite piece of writing advice?

 

Lower your standards.

 

Thirty years ago, I was in a fiction workshop taught by the writer Allan Gurganus.  Another student in the workshop had asked what to do about writer’s block and Allan said, “Lower your standards.” As a writer, I was critical of my writing, hard on myself often to the point of paralysis. So the idea of lowering my standards, of settling for something less (for the moment anyway), of escorting the editor out of the room and leaving the writer to his own devices, was liberating. 

 

What surprised you in the writing of this book?

 

That I finished it. 

 

How did you find the title of your book?

 

I asked a trusted writer friend if she might think of one.  She went to bed thinking about it.  The next morning it came to her.

 

*****

 

READ MORE ABOUT THIS AUTHOR: www.tommyhays.com

 

ORDER THIS BOOK FOR YOUR TBR STACK: www.malaprops.com

 

 

 

 

TBR: Amerigun by Anne Marie Macari

Established in 2018, TBR [to be read] is a semi-regular, invitation-only interview series with authors of newly released/forthcoming, interesting books.    

 

We don’t expect an elevator pitch from a poet, but can you tell us about your work in 2-3 sentences?

 

Amerigun brings together the tragedy of my brother’s death and the cult of gun worship in this country, where even children are gunned down in schools. Grief, disbelief, discovery, gratitude and love, are what underpin these poems, as I try to hear my brother’s voice again and make sense of his death.

 

What boundaries did you break in the writing of this book? Where does that sort of courage come from?

 

I broke my own personal boundaries in writing about my brother’s death. Over the years I have written a few poems that never really captured the grief and shock surrounding his death. I never planned on writing about him, he was buried inside me and I rarely thought of him. But then the title poem “Amerigun” came to me in such a flood that although I was in the middle of doing something, I had to sit down to try to get down what I was hearing, feeling. That first poem began with anger. How could he have done this to our parents? How could he have been so careless? Was there any kind of death wish that led to this tragedy? Suddenly I had so many questions. Over the course of two years I learned what most of my family already knew about his death. As I wrote that first poem, the fact of him shooting himself and the whole horror of our country’s love affair with guns, came together. One seemed inseparable from the other. Tragedy after sickening tragedy and we continue to protect guns over the lives of children, over all Americans. My personal connection to our national shame gave me a way into the subject of guns and helped me tell my brother’s story, helped me find a way of translating, or bringing back, his voice after forty years of keeping him at bay, of not really acknowledging my own grief. The word Amerigun just came to me. I continue to be shocked by how relevant this subject is, now more than ever.

 

Tell us a bit about the highs and lows of your book’s road to publication.

 

I finished writing Amerigun literally a few days before Trump’s 2024 election. At that moment the poems felt not only personal, but timely. I didn’t expect what was coming, I thought we would finally have a woman president. Once he was elected the poems felt even more pressing and my publisher, Persea Books, agreed to bring out the book rather swiftly. In all, the book, from writing it to its publication, happened rather quickly, especially for me since I can be a slow writer.

 

What’s your favorite piece of writing advice?

 

My advice for writing is also for living. It’s a practice that writing encourages in me, though maybe it’s harder in everyday life—and that is to rest in the unknown, to let work arise out of mystery, out of questions, and not out of certainty or control. Certainty is a killer of art and it’s not much good in life either, it cuts us off from learning and possibility. It might create a sense of safety, but it is illusory and even joyless.

 

My favorite writing advice is “write until something surprises you.” What surprised you in the writing of this book?

 

I was surprised that I had any of these poems in me and then surprised that they kept coming. But especially feeling that in some strange way my brother and I were speaking to each other after forty years.

 

How did you find the title of your book?

 

The title of my book, Amerigun, simply came to me. I heard the word when writing the title poem, which is also the first poem I wrote. It brought together in one word the personal and communal tragedy.

 

***

 

ORDER THIS BOOK FOR YOUR OWN TBR STACK: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/amerigun-anne-marie-macari/1147872403