The Book Beat

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Monday, 11 August 2025

Climate fiction and Neurodivergent narratives — The rise of conscious storytelling

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Something’s shifting in the novels. The stories feel sharper somehow, as if they know they’re not just here to entertain. They’re here to nu...
Thursday, 7 August 2025

Is fan fiction the new slush pile? What editors are really looking for

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There was a time when fan fiction lived in the shadows, tucked into forums, buried in tags, dismissed as derivative, and looked down upon. I...
Wednesday, 6 August 2025

Joan Didion’s packing list and the illusion of preparedness

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It’s the holiday season. You’re packing for your trip. There is no better time to revisit this: two skirts. Two jerseys. A bottle of bourbon...
Sunday, 3 August 2025

How long before AI writes a Bestseller? A Literary Thought Experiment

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How long before AI writes a New York Times bestseller? It’s a question that lingers like a subplot, unresolved, faintly unsettling, impossib...

Emily Henry and the craft of commercial fiction

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It’s not just that Emily Henry writes bestsellers. It’s that she writes the kind of commercial fiction people want to reread, smart, emotion...
Saturday, 2 August 2025

Four debuts that disturb and dazzle: New voices to read now

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There is nothing better when it comes to books than discovering a favourite new writer, and this summer has seen the arrival of several stri...
Friday, 1 August 2025

Hidden Pages: Graham Greene and the joy of literary discoveries

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I love a literary discovery like the newly found short story by Graham Greene, Reading at Night. It adds an intriguing footnote to a major l...

Dua Lipa and Helen Garner: When pop culture meets literary depth

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Dua Lipa’s book club selection of This House of Grief brought Helen Garner’s work into the mainstream spotlight and sparked an unexpected li...
Wednesday, 30 July 2025

Publishers and platforms: How Substack, AI & email newsletters are redefining fiction in 2025

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In 2025, a quiet transformation is reshaping literary publishing. Authors are increasingly bypassing traditional deals to connect directly w...

The Booker Prize 2025: Subtle power and global resonance

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This year's Booker Prize longlist pulses with quiet intensity. From the return of Kiran Desai after a 19-year silence to Maria Reva'...
Monday, 28 July 2025

Writing with machines, owning your voice, and where the ethical lines are drawn

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We’ve crossed a threshold. What used to be the stuff of speculative fiction is now a line item in the writing process: AI is here, and it’s ...
Saturday, 26 July 2025

Burn Bright, Burn Brief —The quiet power of short novels and why less is suddenly more

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In a world of infinite scrolling and 800-page epics, something strange is happening, books are shrinking.  Not in value or complexity, but i...