🍯 When Making a Pot

Alexandra Oliva on her bestselling novel—and this month's book club pick—THE RADIANT DARK...revisiting my 2012 conversation with indie lit princess Elizabeth Ellen...& more...

Jul 08, 2026

Twenty-seventh newsletter of 2026.

🚨Earlier this week, I posted a short essay entitled ‘The Hidden Curriculum of Being a Writer.’ And a friendly reminder that The Craftwork Library is now live—a new members-only archive of conversations devoted to the craft of writing, the business of publishing, and the creative life. Check it out!

▶️ On the podcast: I had a fascinating conversation with Alexandra Oliva, author of the novel The Radiant Dark (SJP Lit)—the official July pick of the Otherppl Book Club. We talked about her immersive research process, the possibility of extraterrestrial visitations, and so much more.

▶️ On the podcast: A trip into the archives and a replay of Episode 99—my 2012 conversation with Elizabeth Ellen, editor of Hobart and SF/LD Books, and author of the novel American Thighs.

👉🏼 Coming up on Thursday: a brand new installment of Brad & Mira for the Culture. Mira has emerged from the darkness.

🎧 Listen/subscribe via Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

1. Brady Brickner-Wood on the rise of the ‘as seen on TikTok’ sticker in the world of contemporary publishing—and what it means for writers.

2. ‘We’re trained in obedience and rule-following from a very young age. We need equivalent practice in breaking rules, in recognizing when a rule or law is unjust and needs to be broken, and in acting in accord with that recognition.’ Mandy Brown reflects on James C. Scott’s ‘anarchist calisthenics.’

3. And speaking of elegant rule-breakers: the great Naomi Klein now has her very own Substack.

4. Workers at Hachette Book Group have voted to establish ‘the largest union in trade book publishing history.’

5. As America turns 250, William T. Vollmann offers a primer on a free people’s government.

6. Don Beck shares a list of 20 sci-fi novels for lovers of literary fiction.

7. Vasily Grossman was an out-of-shape novelist writing for a propaganda machine during the deadliest conflict in history. Somehow, he remade what war reporting could be. Madeleine Wulfahrt reports.

8. Adam Steiner, in Zona Motel, on David Foster Wallace, Jordan Peterson and the Infinite Promise Of Pain. (Note: Zona Motel is now available in print!)

9. ‘Once you have a machine think and write for you, you’re cooked as a species.’ Sophie McBain profiles author Dave Eggers, whose new novel, Contrapposto, is now available.

10. Taffy Brodesser-Akner did a cold plunge—and lived to tell about it.

This month the book club is reading The Radiant Dark, the new novel by Alexandra Oliva.

INSTANT USA TODAY BESTSELLER • A People Best Book of the Month • An Apple Best Book of the Month

“Just as engrossing as the mysteries swirling in outer space.”—The New York Times Book Review

In the wake of First Contact, one mother upends her life and her children’s futures, as humanity reckons with its place in the universe.

Tracing five decades of love, loss, ambition, and self-discovery, The Radiant Dark is “Daring and expansive, soul-stirring, and precise, this is a novel about love and belonging.” (Eliana Ramage, author of To the Moon and Back).