Laura McGrath
@lbmcgrath.bsky.social
Professing literature in Philadelphia. Writing MIDDLEMEN: Literary Agents & the Making of American Fiction (April ‘26).
laurabmcgrath.substack.com
laurabmcgrath.substack.com
Barnes & Noble is running a preorder sale for members! Snag MIDDLEMEN (my most anticipated book of 2026!) for 25% off with code PREORDER25.
Middlemen: Literary Agents and the Making of American Fiction|Hardcover
A revealing account of how agents have shaped book publishing and the literary canon from the 1950s to todayMiddlemen rewrites literary history from the perspective of one of its most important but le...
www.barnesandnoble.com
December 31, 2025 at 3:21 PM
Barnes & Noble is running a preorder sale for members! Snag MIDDLEMEN (my most anticipated book of 2026!) for 25% off with code PREORDER25.
Guess how many times we’ve watched MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO this flu-infested holiday break. Then double it.
December 29, 2025 at 8:17 PM
Guess how many times we’ve watched MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO this flu-infested holiday break. Then double it.
Show me your holiday bakes!! 1/3 cakes in my kitchen today. A raspberry swirl cheesecake!
December 24, 2025 at 8:10 PM
Show me your holiday bakes!! 1/3 cakes in my kitchen today. A raspberry swirl cheesecake!
Reposted by Laura McGrath
It is about this: because so many people do not give a shit about romance, shit gets tried in romance first.
You should pay attention to romance publishing news and care about it, because they will try that shit here first.
You should pay attention to romance publishing news and care about it, because they will try that shit here first.
December 24, 2025 at 2:52 AM
It is about this: because so many people do not give a shit about romance, shit gets tried in romance first.
You should pay attention to romance publishing news and care about it, because they will try that shit here first.
You should pay attention to romance publishing news and care about it, because they will try that shit here first.
Was about to post something snarky and cute and self-effacing about how I didn’t make Oprah’s Most Anticipated Books of 2026 list (har har) but THEN I learned from said list there’s a new Tana French in 2026 and now I’m not even on my own most anticipated list anymore.
December 23, 2025 at 4:57 PM
Was about to post something snarky and cute and self-effacing about how I didn’t make Oprah’s Most Anticipated Books of 2026 list (har har) but THEN I learned from said list there’s a new Tana French in 2026 and now I’m not even on my own most anticipated list anymore.
I'm excited to share the most wonderful blurbs I received for MIDDLEMEN.
December 22, 2025 at 2:19 PM
I'm excited to share the most wonderful blurbs I received for MIDDLEMEN.
Yes, indeed!!
December 22, 2025 at 1:16 PM
Yes, indeed!!
Reposted by Laura McGrath
Un grand livre.
December 22, 2025 at 12:46 PM
Un grand livre.
Reposted by Laura McGrath
More details to come but…
🎉🎉 I just learned that my book has won the first ever Biennial Book Prize from MELUS, the Society for the Study of Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States! I’m over the moon! 🎉🎉
cup.columbia.edu/book/writing...
🎉🎉 I just learned that my book has won the first ever Biennial Book Prize from MELUS, the Society for the Study of Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States! I’m over the moon! 🎉🎉
cup.columbia.edu/book/writing...
Writing Backwards | Columbia University Press
Winner, 2026 Barbara Perkins and George Perkins Prize, International Society for the Study of NarrativeFinalist, 2025 SHARP Book History Book Prize, Society ... | CUP
cup.columbia.edu
December 19, 2025 at 3:05 PM
More details to come but…
🎉🎉 I just learned that my book has won the first ever Biennial Book Prize from MELUS, the Society for the Study of Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States! I’m over the moon! 🎉🎉
cup.columbia.edu/book/writing...
🎉🎉 I just learned that my book has won the first ever Biennial Book Prize from MELUS, the Society for the Study of Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States! I’m over the moon! 🎉🎉
cup.columbia.edu/book/writing...
Very smart move by self, 16 weeks ago, to schedule haircut for the morning after grades due. Well done.
December 19, 2025 at 12:55 PM
Very smart move by self, 16 weeks ago, to schedule haircut for the morning after grades due. Well done.
Reposted by Laura McGrath
Lord, please never let me be hated by someone as skilled as that Vanity Fair photographer. Let all my haters be incompetent.
December 17, 2025 at 9:58 PM
Lord, please never let me be hated by someone as skilled as that Vanity Fair photographer. Let all my haters be incompetent.
Reposted by Laura McGrath
Very happy to introduce a new tool, BookReconciler!
You can take spreadsheets with book data and add subject headings, descriptions, ISBNs, HathiTrust IDs, & more. You can also cluster editions & variations of the same "Work."
Led by @thisismattmiller.com and supported by @post45data.bsky.social.
You can take spreadsheets with book data and add subject headings, descriptions, ISBNs, HathiTrust IDs, & more. You can also cluster editions & variations of the same "Work."
Led by @thisismattmiller.com and supported by @post45data.bsky.social.
December 17, 2025 at 9:37 PM
Very happy to introduce a new tool, BookReconciler!
You can take spreadsheets with book data and add subject headings, descriptions, ISBNs, HathiTrust IDs, & more. You can also cluster editions & variations of the same "Work."
Led by @thisismattmiller.com and supported by @post45data.bsky.social.
You can take spreadsheets with book data and add subject headings, descriptions, ISBNs, HathiTrust IDs, & more. You can also cluster editions & variations of the same "Work."
Led by @thisismattmiller.com and supported by @post45data.bsky.social.
I get that they’re silly, but I don’t care: I’m weeping over my blurbs.
December 18, 2025 at 12:16 AM
I get that they’re silly, but I don’t care: I’m weeping over my blurbs.
If you'd asked me which agent was most likely to publish a memoir, I'd probably have guessed Emanuel. If you were to ask me which agent I would MOST LIKE to publish their memoirs... well, I'd have a very different answer.
December 9, 2025 at 6:47 PM
If you'd asked me which agent was most likely to publish a memoir, I'd probably have guessed Emanuel. If you were to ask me which agent I would MOST LIKE to publish their memoirs... well, I'd have a very different answer.
I’m teaching YA Lit for the first time this spring. I thought it would be a fun assignment, fill a dept need, and help us attract majors. But I’m beginning to see this class as really politically radical and profound, meeting our moment in important ways. I think this is what hope feels like?
December 5, 2025 at 1:04 AM
I’m teaching YA Lit for the first time this spring. I thought it would be a fun assignment, fill a dept need, and help us attract majors. But I’m beginning to see this class as really politically radical and profound, meeting our moment in important ways. I think this is what hope feels like?
It Happened to Me: kindergartener began saying “6-7” for the first time and I lost my shit in target.
December 3, 2025 at 1:48 PM
It Happened to Me: kindergartener began saying “6-7” for the first time and I lost my shit in target.
Reposted by Laura McGrath
Our School of Information Sciences is running four searches, and we can hire more than four candidates. Here’s the first link, for a job that might appeal to people working in history of information, history of science, or digital humanities. +
Assistant/Associate/Full Professor in Information, Culture & Society - School of Information Science
Duties & Responsibilities
illinois.csod.com
November 6, 2025 at 4:58 PM
Our School of Information Sciences is running four searches, and we can hire more than four candidates. Here’s the first link, for a job that might appeal to people working in history of information, history of science, or digital humanities. +
Finals week approaches! Tell me about your most immersive/propulsive light-ish but smart read of the year to get me through grading!
November 24, 2025 at 11:43 PM
Finals week approaches! Tell me about your most immersive/propulsive light-ish but smart read of the year to get me through grading!
Reposted by Laura McGrath
Thrilled to make my debut in @newyorker.com today with this piece on Trump’s new foster care exec order, which pairs an initiative to help kids aging out of the system with efforts to put the religious rights of foster parents above the civil rights of LGBTQ+ youth: www.newyorker.com/news/the-led...
For Trump, “Fostering the Future” Looks a Lot Like the Past
By putting the religious rights of potential foster parents above the civil rights of L.G.B.T.Q. youth, a new executive order reënacts the original sin of the child-welfare system.
www.newyorker.com
November 23, 2025 at 2:52 PM
Thrilled to make my debut in @newyorker.com today with this piece on Trump’s new foster care exec order, which pairs an initiative to help kids aging out of the system with efforts to put the religious rights of foster parents above the civil rights of LGBTQ+ youth: www.newyorker.com/news/the-led...
Grad students asked me recently why I write collaboratively, and I struggled to give an answer better than “I have extremely smart friends and I love to hang out and talk about books with them,” but that’s really it.
Lots of fun presenting with @lbmcgrath.bsky.social and @jdporter.bsky.social at this week’s fabulous conference on the world of audiobooks! Thanks to @corinnanorue.bsky.social and @millicentweber.bsky.social for organizing. And watch this space for more on “Echoing: A Theory of the Audiobook”!
November 17, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Grad students asked me recently why I write collaboratively, and I struggled to give an answer better than “I have extremely smart friends and I love to hang out and talk about books with them,” but that’s really it.
Reposted by Laura McGrath
Lots of fun presenting with @lbmcgrath.bsky.social and @jdporter.bsky.social at this week’s fabulous conference on the world of audiobooks! Thanks to @corinnanorue.bsky.social and @millicentweber.bsky.social for organizing. And watch this space for more on “Echoing: A Theory of the Audiobook”!
November 17, 2025 at 7:54 PM
Lots of fun presenting with @lbmcgrath.bsky.social and @jdporter.bsky.social at this week’s fabulous conference on the world of audiobooks! Thanks to @corinnanorue.bsky.social and @millicentweber.bsky.social for organizing. And watch this space for more on “Echoing: A Theory of the Audiobook”!
To all the parents of elementary schoolers “disguising turkeys” this weekend: godspeed.
November 15, 2025 at 5:25 PM
To all the parents of elementary schoolers “disguising turkeys” this weekend: godspeed.
Had my first book-related anxiety dream last night, in which a literary agent I interviewed accused me of getting him wrong. The good news is, the reality certainly will not be worse than my subconscious imagines! The bad news is, I guess this is my life until April.
November 12, 2025 at 1:12 PM
Had my first book-related anxiety dream last night, in which a literary agent I interviewed accused me of getting him wrong. The good news is, the reality certainly will not be worse than my subconscious imagines! The bad news is, I guess this is my life until April.
Reposted by Laura McGrath
I devoured @lbmcgrath.bsky.social’s Middlemen over the weekend! This is such a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the marketplace of contemporary literature (and reminded me of all the lunches I heard about but never attended as a summer intern at Carlisle and Company (now Inkwell)
November 11, 2025 at 6:37 PM
I devoured @lbmcgrath.bsky.social’s Middlemen over the weekend! This is such a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the marketplace of contemporary literature (and reminded me of all the lunches I heard about but never attended as a summer intern at Carlisle and Company (now Inkwell)
Murphy’s Law, but for moms*: uour child WILL get sick and need to be picked up from daycare in the day if an important event you’re coordinating.
*parent who has a “more flexible” work schedule
*parent who has a “more flexible” work schedule
November 11, 2025 at 5:30 PM
Murphy’s Law, but for moms*: uour child WILL get sick and need to be picked up from daycare in the day if an important event you’re coordinating.
*parent who has a “more flexible” work schedule
*parent who has a “more flexible” work schedule