Attack of the Book People IV is on the way. Readers this time: Cynthia Weiner, @erikaswyler.bsky.social, @ambersparks.bsky.social, Bill Lessard, @tobiascarroll.bsky.social, Alex Behr, and Farooq Ahmed! @lelandcheuk.bsky.social (aka Cheukles) and I (aka KGB) will emcee. March 5, 2026. Deets on att'd.
A headshot of Kurt Baumeister
“Humanity’s reliance on absolutism seems to be a degenerate response to a natural, legitimate—perhaps even say hardwired—desire for ‘answers.’” Leland Cheuk talks absolutism and Norse gods with Kurt Baumeister. https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/theyre-not-simply-phantoms/
Picked my best books of the year for @NPR and this was one of them!
really excited to launch the newest residency at Upstart & Crow, which is specifically for parent-writers and includes a childcare stipend in addition to a residency grant and space to work. the residency I have dreamed of! applications open this weekend: upstartandcrow.com/programs/par...
Paperback book. The cover is a tan paper texture with red writing and a mosquito illustration in the middle. The title “the morgue keeper” and author name “Ruyan Meng” is in all caps and red.
Cover design for THE MORGUE KEEPER (7.13 Press, October 15, 2025). @lelandcheuk.bsky.social
Today is pub day for THE MORGUE KEEPER by Ruyan Meng, 7.13 Books #35. Asian Review of Books calls it “devastating.”
Karissa Chen, bestselling author of HOMESEEKING, calls it “chilling” and “Kafkaesque.”
It’s a cautionary tale for authoritarian times
bookshop.org/p/books/the-...
It's been tough going for small publishers for a while, but they continue to publish a lot of the most exciting new work, and are the main supporters of the short story as a form. Support indie publishing when you can!
www.thebookseller.com/comment/open...
Reminder that my debut collection was reissued almost two years ago with three new stories, kinda like how Dischord would package LPs and 7"s onto CD editions in the 90s. bookshop.org/p/books/tran...
ICYMI, there's new fiction by me at Heavy Feather Review this week! heavyfeatherreview.org/2025/07/03/c...
We asked some of our trusted critics which upcoming books they are most looking forward to. Here are the fiction and nonfiction titles they picked.
I wrote this! 👇🏾
I was so happy to edit this review of ZEAL, by @mjerkins.bsky.social, which our critic @lelandcheuk.bsky.social says is a page-turner that readers will also learn from. A compelling historical romance centering Black love. www.bostonglobe.com/2025/04/16/a...
They’re one of my all-time favs as well. Just got tix to see them and LCD Soundsystem in Sept in LA cuz I’m an old dude. The new vid is hilarious.
youtu.be/-27a1ugJX8U?...
Fun to meet @lelandcheuk.bsky.social whose @713press publishes AAPI fiction at the Women's National Book Association. Buoyed by the publishers and agents who heard my pitch and said, “Keep on going!” So grateful to be repped by a great agent.
Cover features a waiting area for a subway, yellow walls, orange seats and green piping. The title and author placed to look like the name of the subway station
Cover design for the reissue of TRANSITORY by Tobias Carroll @tobiascarroll.bsky.social (7.13 Press, December 2023) @lelandcheuk.bsky.social
Congrats to @samanthaschoech.bsky.social on the pub day of her debut collection MY MOTHER'S BOYFRIENDS! The San Francisco Chronicle calls it "beautifully alive." Vendela Vida calls it "Witty and utterly enchanting." Order it now!
tinyurl.com/ff62pkhr
book cover featuring a photograph of a car driving away on a road winding through tall trees. At the level of the treetops is a UFO shining a light down. The whole thing is awash in a sort of orange yellow glow.
Feeling a lot of trepidation and fear and also gathering strength for the years of fighting ahead. One way I'm doing that is by celebrating good things when I can. So please celebrate the beautiful cover of my novel, BEINGS, which is now up everywhere.
(pre-order links in bio 💜🙏)
McNulty!! And the Novelist!
Publishers Marketplace deal report for my novel, BEINGS, being published by Bloomsbury. It reads: Author of ALL MY MOTHER'S LOVERS Ilana Masad's BEINGS, braiding together an account of the first American alien abductees, who claimed to have encountered ETs in the New Hampshire mountains in 1961, with the letters of a forgotten lesbian science-fiction writer and the frantic observations of a modern-day archivist obsessed with both these stories, to Mo Crist at Bloomsbury, for publication in fall 2025, by Eric Simonoff at William Morris Endeavor (NA).
I am so ridiculously pleased to share, finally, that I have a new novel coming out in about nine months called BEINGS and it's about aliens and loneliness and queerness and archives.
Eee!
January 1 to March 1: we're OPEN for submissions! Short story and flash fiction collections, submit at splitlippress.submittable.com
Wipe the sleep from your eyes: it's a NEW YEAR, and we're now OPEN for your short fiction collections! Our new SS/FF editor (will be revealed tomorrow) + our incredible reading team can't wait to see what incredible books y'all have been working on--send 'em!!! splitlippress.submittable.com/submit
low-key driven nuts by the attention/monetary power of prestige writer substacks and how they just promote other prestige writer substacks
(i don't even have skin in the game on this as i am terrible at maintaining my newsletter, but it's just annoying)
Fellow freelancers, we're stronger together!!!
Eight years ago, a budding scientist gave a commercial airline pilot a gift that would link the two for life.
Since then, they'd met in person and linked up on social media. But when she boarded a flight a week ago, she didn't expect to see him.
Then an announcement came over the PA system.
I'm so thrilled to be part of this anthology, Smashing the Tablets, edited by @saralippmann.bsky.social and @snrogoff.bsky.social. Queering/fucking with sacred texts is a truly Jewish practice and I'm so proud of the short story of mine that's in this book. Pre-order!
bookshop.org/p/books/smas...
Is this the bardo? Am I in the fucking bardo?
My husband has been in the hospital for a low white blood cell count, zero neutrophils, and plenty of opportunistic infections with no end in sight. I’m raising money to help pay for my lodging, which I’m doing to be closer to the hospital. NO PRESSURE at all, but if you’d like: gofund.me/23f3543a
Applications now open for the Community of Writers Summer Workshop in Olympic Valley, way up in the Sierras of California. Runs July 7-July 14. Check out the staff roster and see if the workshop is right for you.
communityofwriters.org/workshops/wr...
We don't often recommend journalistic pieces. But we think you all should read this powerful, important work by Patrick Fealey in @esquire about his life as a homeless writer. Please make time this holiday weekend for "The Invisible Man."
Me not a fan either! Can’t even go to the supermarket without people assuming you’re making turkey and gravy. I’m not that American, sorry! :)
Calling all translators! We're building a Bluesky starter pack for emerging and established translators—so that we can follow each other and be in community together on the World Wide Web. If you want to be included, add yourself to this thread, and share this post far and wide with your networks :)
