With Nào and Hoàng’s signature styles of experimentation blending together, the resulting text is a cross narrative exploration of linguistic points that extract worlds populated by squids who are stars, Judith Butler-quoting sex robots, esophagus-swimming minnows, and lachyrimal episodes between cross-species lovers that threaten to last for millions of years.

What It’s About: Pasadena press Red Hen was established in 1994, and has published over 550 books since then. One of this year’s releases is this novel, set in 1973 Louisiana, about a 12-year-old girl who forms an odd connection with a slime mold growing in her backyard.

There’s a lot that holds us back as creative individuals, but today’s guest thinks one question is the death of our creativity: who cares? The work begins when you shift from asking the question to stating, “I care.” As a literary publicist, Kim Dower—also known as Kim-from-L.A.—is celebrating 40 years of putting authors on the map, booking them on shows, and getting their books in the hands of people

Molly Fisk’s WALKING WHEEL revisits struggling newlyweds traveling from Oregon to California in 1875.

Andrew Lam reads Grandma’s Tales, from Watermark, and talks with Martha about his life now after journalism.

In The Little Mermaid, Hans Christian Andersen told a gruesome tale of a mermaid who mutilates herself to take to land. Lara Ehrlich gives a fascinating feminist echo to that bleak fairytale with Bind Me Tighter Still.

Kristen Millares Young will take readers along on her journey of discovery as she publishes her debut memoir this year.

PEOPLE can exclusively reveal the cover of the acclaimed novelist, essayist and journalist’s forthcoming memoir, Desire Lines, out from Red Hen Press this fall.

We: A collection of poetry reflecting coming together across differences

We love the new friends and colleagues we are meeting on the journey of our book, Beyond the Politics of Contempt. This week, we are featuring April Ossmann, who like Doug and Beth, also lives in the Upper Valley of Vermont/New Hampshire. April came to our Dartmouth book event and shared her passion for being together across differences with us. April’s new book, WE (Red Hen Press, 2025) is devoted to bridging the political divide, as are her podcast interviews, and interactive call and response readings, where she talks about why she wrote her book, reads some poems, tells a sample story or two, and invites the audience to share stories of finding common ground, of seeing each other’s humanity.

Welcome April!

Brattleboro Indivisible hosts What Does Democracy Look Like? at the Latchis Theater.

The event celebrates democracy through art, music, poetry and discussion. On exhibit will be work by local artists including, Candace Jensen, Naomi Lindenfeld, Marie-Pierre, and Kat Gooch-Breault. Enter the Main Theatre to enjoy music, poetry and spoken word from April Ossman, Verandah Porche and Patty Carpenter, and other talented voices from our community. 

The Feminist Know-It-All: You know her. You can’t stand her. Good thing she’s not here! Instead, this column by gender and women’s studies librarian Karla Strand will amplify stories of the creation, access, use and preservation of knowledge by women and girls around the world; share innovative projects and initiatives that focus on information, literacies, libraries and more; and, of course, talk about all of the books.

Happy new year, feminist readers! I hope you’ll make it a goal to carve out time to read, and I’m here to share the top books we are excited about this year.

I don’t know what I expected to find when I went to check out the Tournament of Books shortlist, but I was delighted by the selection of books. We’ve got award winners like Flesh by David Szalay, this year’s Booker Prize winner, big names like Angela Flournoy (The Wilderness) and Stephen Graham Jones (The Buffalo Hunter Hunter), and books that fell entirely off my radar like The Burning Heart of the World by Nancy Kricorian. For the uninitated, the Tournament pits fiction books against each other with judges choosing which book advances in the brackets. Previous winners include James by Percival Everrett, Normal People by Sally Rooney, and My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite. Check out the full shortlist and the books that made the play-in round themed, “the Academy, 2025–2026 edition.”

I’m not a big fan of these “best of” lists (I didn’t watch, listen or read everything out there), but of all the new(ish) arts entertainment (or edutainment, as KRS-One would say) I consumed this past year, here’s what helped me most in surviving (and contemplating) the relentless horrors of 2025…

Hosted by Rebecca Evans and Ken Rodgers.
The guest: In vivid, poetic prose Nancy Kricorian’s THE BURNING HEART OF THE WORLD tells the story of a Beirut Armenian family before, during, and after the Lebanese Civil War. Returning to the fabular tone of ZABELLE, her popular first novel, Kricorian conjures up the lost worlds and intergenerational traumas that haunt a family in permanent exile. Leavened with humor and imbued with the timelessness of a folktale, THE BURNING HEART OF THE WORLD is a sweeping saga that takes readers on an epic journey from the mountains of Cilicia to contemporary New York City.

Coming March 6, 2026: the 22nd installment of the Tournament of Books.

…Here’s how the Tournament works. Each weekday, starting March 6, two books from the shortlist are read and evaluated by one of our judges. One book is picked to advance to the next round, and the judge explains how they came to their decision, and then the commentariat—i.e., you—expresses their feelings and thoughts about that decision and the books themselves. And the next day we do it all over again. This goes on through the month of March, until our championship match, when our judges convene to decide which of the finalists wins the Tournament, and with it our prize, the Rooster.