Ilana Masad
@ilanaslightly.bsky.social
Writer and critic for hire. Author of the novels "All My Mother's Lovers" and "Beings"; co-editor of "Here for All the Reasons", coming May 5 2026
Pre-order links (and hopefully other stuff soon): https://linktr.ee/ilanaslightly
Pre-order links (and hopefully other stuff soon): https://linktr.ee/ilanaslightly
Pinned
Ilana Masad
@ilanaslightly.bsky.social
· Jan 14
Here for All the Reasons: Why We Watch the Bachelor
Why We Watch the Bachelor
bookshop.org
How are we doing book promo right now other than dropping links and feeling sheepish?!?
bookshop.org/a/20948/9781...
bookshop.org/a/20948/9781...
Reposted by Ilana Masad
The world is what it is but books continue! Agents + writers: looking for deeply researched and imaginative nonfiction manuscripts about the South, for publication in 2027/28. Literary nonfiction, personal/reportage & cultural criticism are highly welcomed. DMs open for pitches or meg@hubcity.org.
February 10, 2026 at 5:27 PM
The world is what it is but books continue! Agents + writers: looking for deeply researched and imaginative nonfiction manuscripts about the South, for publication in 2027/28. Literary nonfiction, personal/reportage & cultural criticism are highly welcomed. DMs open for pitches or meg@hubcity.org.
Who owns Gallup because clearly someone is being pressured by the admin, right?
February 14, 2026 at 7:56 PM
Who owns Gallup because clearly someone is being pressured by the admin, right?
Reposted by Ilana Masad
excited to have an essay in this! Love the bachelor? Hate the bachelor (like I did, until the golden bachelor)? You know what to do!
How are we doing book promo right now other than dropping links and feeling sheepish?!?
bookshop.org/a/20948/9781...
bookshop.org/a/20948/9781...
Here for All the Reasons: Why We Watch the Bachelor
Why We Watch the Bachelor
bookshop.org
February 14, 2026 at 4:33 PM
excited to have an essay in this! Love the bachelor? Hate the bachelor (like I did, until the golden bachelor)? You know what to do!
Reposted by Ilana Masad
A brilliant novel!
Happy Valentine's Day! If you're into queer love and also women having an active sexuality even once they become mothers, even after they (*gasp*) go through menopause, my first novel, ALL MY MOTHER'S LOVERS, has all of that and more!
bookshop.org/a/20948/9781...
bookshop.org/a/20948/9781...
All My Mother's Lovers: A Novel
A Novel
bookshop.org
February 14, 2026 at 4:21 PM
A brilliant novel!
Happy Valentine's Day! If you're into queer love and also women having an active sexuality even once they become mothers, even after they (*gasp*) go through menopause, my first novel, ALL MY MOTHER'S LOVERS, has all of that and more!
bookshop.org/a/20948/9781...
bookshop.org/a/20948/9781...
All My Mother's Lovers: A Novel
A Novel
bookshop.org
February 14, 2026 at 4:19 PM
Happy Valentine's Day! If you're into queer love and also women having an active sexuality even once they become mothers, even after they (*gasp*) go through menopause, my first novel, ALL MY MOTHER'S LOVERS, has all of that and more!
bookshop.org/a/20948/9781...
bookshop.org/a/20948/9781...
To all the gigs I've had before...
...where the hell are you
...where the hell are you
February 13, 2026 at 5:00 PM
To all the gigs I've had before...
...where the hell are you
...where the hell are you
Reposted by Ilana Masad
As the inbox piles up with "Best New X of the Year, Month, Week, Day, Hour—" marketing, I whisper quietly to myself: "I want the worst of the year. The worst of yesterday, today, tomorrow. The layabouts, lunkheads, and losers."
It's always a bold new voice this, a daring debut that... Once in a while I'd love a meek and uncertain new voice, a cowering debut
February 13, 2026 at 4:57 PM
As the inbox piles up with "Best New X of the Year, Month, Week, Day, Hour—" marketing, I whisper quietly to myself: "I want the worst of the year. The worst of yesterday, today, tomorrow. The layabouts, lunkheads, and losers."
It's always a bold new voice this, a daring debut that... Once in a while I'd love a meek and uncertain new voice, a cowering debut
February 13, 2026 at 4:36 PM
It's always a bold new voice this, a daring debut that... Once in a while I'd love a meek and uncertain new voice, a cowering debut
Zoom's "smoothing" feature is really fucking with my sense of my own aging face
February 12, 2026 at 11:00 PM
Zoom's "smoothing" feature is really fucking with my sense of my own aging face
Reposted by Ilana Masad
Who's a fan of reality TV? Contributor @ilanaslightly.bsky.social edited HERE FOR ALL THE REASONS: WHY WE WATCH THE BACHELOR! And it's available for pre-order now! 🌹 buff.ly/l9KTyj1
February 11, 2026 at 6:15 PM
Who's a fan of reality TV? Contributor @ilanaslightly.bsky.social edited HERE FOR ALL THE REASONS: WHY WE WATCH THE BACHELOR! And it's available for pre-order now! 🌹 buff.ly/l9KTyj1
Reposted by Ilana Masad
I am so incredibly honored that @yrfatfriend.bsky.social - author, activist, co-host of one of my favorite podcasts - has blurbed the Bachelor anthology I co-edited 😍
She says: "As a longtime conflicted member of Bachelor Nation, this is the Bachelor book I've been waiting for."
She says: "As a longtime conflicted member of Bachelor Nation, this is the Bachelor book I've been waiting for."
February 10, 2026 at 4:44 PM
I am so incredibly honored that @yrfatfriend.bsky.social - author, activist, co-host of one of my favorite podcasts - has blurbed the Bachelor anthology I co-edited 😍
She says: "As a longtime conflicted member of Bachelor Nation, this is the Bachelor book I've been waiting for."
She says: "As a longtime conflicted member of Bachelor Nation, this is the Bachelor book I've been waiting for."
Reposted by Ilana Masad
It is so fun and smart!! In a time when nothing is fun OR smart!!!!
Preorder here: bookshop.org/p/books/here...
Preorder here: bookshop.org/p/books/here...
February 10, 2026 at 6:28 PM
It is so fun and smart!! In a time when nothing is fun OR smart!!!!
Preorder here: bookshop.org/p/books/here...
Preorder here: bookshop.org/p/books/here...
I am so incredibly honored that @yrfatfriend.bsky.social - author, activist, co-host of one of my favorite podcasts - has blurbed the Bachelor anthology I co-edited 😍
She says: "As a longtime conflicted member of Bachelor Nation, this is the Bachelor book I've been waiting for."
She says: "As a longtime conflicted member of Bachelor Nation, this is the Bachelor book I've been waiting for."
February 10, 2026 at 4:44 PM
I am so incredibly honored that @yrfatfriend.bsky.social - author, activist, co-host of one of my favorite podcasts - has blurbed the Bachelor anthology I co-edited 😍
She says: "As a longtime conflicted member of Bachelor Nation, this is the Bachelor book I've been waiting for."
She says: "As a longtime conflicted member of Bachelor Nation, this is the Bachelor book I've been waiting for."
by which I mean it implied that the book I'm writing has zero audience lololol
February 9, 2026 at 6:51 PM
by which I mean it implied that the book I'm writing has zero audience lololol
maiden, mother, crone, other
a working theory of novel marketing
leighstein.substack.com
February 9, 2026 at 6:48 PM
why does the nyt want us to be joyless and lacking energy
Cafes across the U.S. are embracing the low- and no-caffeine lifestyle, with options that are a far cry from dusty tea bags and rewarmed decaf. nyti.ms/3XKlqoj
February 9, 2026 at 5:40 PM
why does the nyt want us to be joyless and lacking energy
Relatedly - nonparents, do you ever pick up novels about people in the throes of early parenting or is that a huge turn off?
OK parents who read:
Do you feel like you'd want to read about the experience of being a new parent when you're not a new parent anymore?
Or do you look for escapism and/or something more akin to your current parenting experience once you have time to read again?
Or something else?
Do you feel like you'd want to read about the experience of being a new parent when you're not a new parent anymore?
Or do you look for escapism and/or something more akin to your current parenting experience once you have time to read again?
Or something else?
February 9, 2026 at 4:13 PM
Relatedly - nonparents, do you ever pick up novels about people in the throes of early parenting or is that a huge turn off?
OK parents who read:
Do you feel like you'd want to read about the experience of being a new parent when you're not a new parent anymore?
Or do you look for escapism and/or something more akin to your current parenting experience once you have time to read again?
Or something else?
Do you feel like you'd want to read about the experience of being a new parent when you're not a new parent anymore?
Or do you look for escapism and/or something more akin to your current parenting experience once you have time to read again?
Or something else?
February 9, 2026 at 4:08 PM
OK parents who read:
Do you feel like you'd want to read about the experience of being a new parent when you're not a new parent anymore?
Or do you look for escapism and/or something more akin to your current parenting experience once you have time to read again?
Or something else?
Do you feel like you'd want to read about the experience of being a new parent when you're not a new parent anymore?
Or do you look for escapism and/or something more akin to your current parenting experience once you have time to read again?
Or something else?
The Rainbow Fish is about the distribution of wealth, in this essay I will
February 8, 2026 at 4:09 PM
The Rainbow Fish is about the distribution of wealth, in this essay I will
Reposted by Ilana Masad
fuck this lady, fuck the nyt reporter, fuck all of this. fuck amazon for introducing the KU page read model that makes this possible, fuck our tech overlords.
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/08/b...
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/08/b...
The New Fabio Is Claude
www.nytimes.com
February 8, 2026 at 1:35 PM
fuck this lady, fuck the nyt reporter, fuck all of this. fuck amazon for introducing the KU page read model that makes this possible, fuck our tech overlords.
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/08/b...
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/08/b...
the jump scare when your ex turns up in your inbox as the editor of a major political publication
February 6, 2026 at 6:46 PM
the jump scare when your ex turns up in your inbox as the editor of a major political publication
Reposted by Ilana Masad
Looking for a good book rec? Contributor @ilanaslightly.bsky.social shares her most anticipated LGBTQ+ books of 2026! buff.ly/kugX0DV
February 6, 2026 at 4:45 PM
Looking for a good book rec? Contributor @ilanaslightly.bsky.social shares her most anticipated LGBTQ+ books of 2026! buff.ly/kugX0DV
And maybe the music is really loud and startling especially when you're sitting somewhere quiet, like a library
i really wish every time i went to a website a little video would start playing in the corner. maybe an advertisement. maybe with the close button really small button almost inscrutable. with music!
February 6, 2026 at 3:36 AM
And maybe the music is really loud and startling especially when you're sitting somewhere quiet, like a library
Reposted by Ilana Masad
an absolutely brutal read, but an illuminating one.
I studied the latest Epstein files. As a woman, this is what I felt
They show a hidden world oiled by porn-saturated misogyny. I spent two days reading them
www.thetimes.com
February 4, 2026 at 3:02 PM
an absolutely brutal read, but an illuminating one.
Agreed! And also... Many freelancers cannot sustain our careers regardless of what we're covering because of outlets like WaPo shuttering half their business 🫠🙃
A lot of people cannot just start a paid newsletter or become freelancers to sustain their careers. The sports, metro, and international desks did work that requires *team* resources, like legal checks, documents, access to archives, and long-term beat experience.
February 5, 2026 at 7:44 PM
Agreed! And also... Many freelancers cannot sustain our careers regardless of what we're covering because of outlets like WaPo shuttering half their business 🫠🙃