Talking Writing brings new audiences to literary work,
republishing selections that originally appeared in print.
The TW Reading Series showcases print work that deserves a wider audience. Because TW's nonprofit mission is to expand readership for literature and journalism online, we occasionally reprint excerpts from books and other journals published by small or university presses.
Our selection process is based on what TW editors like and upcoming themes in the magazine. We take suggestions from readers, contributing writers, and publishers.
New titles appear as they're published throughout the year.
2012–2013 List
- "Liliane's Balcony: Part Two" by Kelcey Parker, from Liliane's Balcony: A Novella of Fallingwater, Rose Metal Press.
- "Escape from Frog Island" by Fred Setterberg, from Lunch Bucket Paradise: A True-Life Novel, Heyday Press.
2014 List
- "Grandma's Tales" by Andrew Lam from Birds of Paradise Lost: Stories, Red Hen Press.
- "A Guy in a Metal Suicide-Box" by William Least Heat-Moon from Writing Blue Highways: The Story of How a Book Happened, University of Missouri Press.
- "Hadestown" by Kim Triedman from Hadestown: A Prose Poem, CW Books.
- "The Tea Party of Lewis Carroll" by William Todd Seabrook from The Imagination of Lewis Carroll, Rose Metal Press.
2015 List
- "The Craft of Flash Novella Writing" by Meg Pokrass from My Very End of the Universe: Five Novellas-in-Flash and a Study of the Form, Rose Metal Press.
- "Sparkly Plans, Grease, and Luck" by Meg Pokrass from Here, Where We Live in My Very End of the Universe, Rose Metal Press.
- "Notebook for a Novel" by Stacy Carlson from In Pieces: An Anthology of Fragmentary Writing, Impassio Press.
- "Viola's Speech" by James Tadd Alcox from Does Not Love, Curbside Splendor Publishing.
- "Rewiring Our Interior Lives" by Douglas Coupland from Kitten Clone: Inside Alcatel-Lucent, Visual Editions (Writers in Residence Number 3).
- "Rachel Carson Was Not Alone" by Shealeen A. Meaney from Women's Review of Books (January/February 2015).
- "The Land I'll Never Own" by Peter H. Kahn, Jr., from Ecospychology (March 2009).
- "We've Got to Move" by Sanderia Faye, from Mourner's Bench, University of Arkansas Press.
2018 List
- "What Writing About Trauma Can Do" by Jen Cross, from Writing Ourselves Whole, Mango Publishing (2017).
2019 List
- "Memory Ghosts" by Maria Romasco Moore, from Ghostographs: An Album, Rose Metal Press (2018).
- "D Is for Decomposition" by David Carlin and Nicole Walker, from The After-Normal: Brief, Alphabetical Essays on a Changing Planet, Rose Metal Press (2019).
- "Today in 7th Period" by Steve Henn from Indiana Noble Sad Man of the Year, Wolfson Press (2017).
2020 List
- "The Sophist's Dilemma" and "The Sophist's Cellar" by Peter Bethanis from the Wallace Stevens Journal (Spring 1996) and Tar River Poetry (Spring 1996), respectively.
- "A Curious Animal" by Troy Farah from Spillers #3, an anthology from Four Chambers Press.
- "BMX Racers on My Wall" by Yi Shun Lai from Pin Ups, a Little Bound Book from Homebound Books (2020).
- "Dropping Ashes" by Bonnie Neubauer from the anthology What Remains, Gelles-Cole Literary Enterprises (2019).
2021 List
- "More Girl Than Girl" by David Biddle, novel excerpt from Old Music for New People, The Story Plant (2021).
2022 List
- "Beautiful People in the Brain of the Beholder" by Anjan Chatterjee, a chapter from Brain, Beauty, and Art: Essays Bringing Neuroaesthetics in Focus, Oxford University Press (2021).
