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
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
Hi publishing folk: I've got an amazing student graduating in December who's looking for an internship! She'd love to work in editorial, focusing on children's, but she's open to anything that'll get her Philadelphia-foot in an NYC-door. Any of you fine folks looking for an assistant?
November 10, 2025 at 4:31 PM
Hi publishing folk: I've got an amazing student graduating in December who's looking for an internship! She'd love to work in editorial, focusing on children's, but she's open to anything that'll get her Philadelphia-foot in an NYC-door. Any of you fine folks looking for an assistant?
Reposted by Laura McGrath
Thinking only of Rosalind Franklin today, and what was stolen from her (and so many other female scientists alongside her).
Rosalind Franklin and the damage of gender harassment
Spurred by a recent report on sexual harassment in academia, our columnist revisits a historical case and reflects on what has changed—and what hasn’t
www.science.org
November 7, 2025 at 7:58 PM
Thinking only of Rosalind Franklin today, and what was stolen from her (and so many other female scientists alongside her).
When your dad finds out that your book is available for preorder…
November 6, 2025 at 1:13 PM
When your dad finds out that your book is available for preorder…
You heard it here, folks. You won't find higher praise.
If you are an agent or want to be an agent or an editor who deals with agents or an author who has an agent or is trying to get one, you need to read this book.
Excited to reveal the cover of my book, MIDDLEMEN: LITERARY AGENTS AND THE MAKING OF AMERICAN FICTION, which is available for pre-order now!
November 4, 2025 at 5:51 PM
You heard it here, folks. You won't find higher praise.
Reposted by Laura McGrath
If you are an agent or want to be an agent or an editor who deals with agents or an author who has an agent or is trying to get one, you need to read this book.
Excited to reveal the cover of my book, MIDDLEMEN: LITERARY AGENTS AND THE MAKING OF AMERICAN FICTION, which is available for pre-order now!
November 4, 2025 at 5:46 PM
If you are an agent or want to be an agent or an editor who deals with agents or an author who has an agent or is trying to get one, you need to read this book.
Excited to reveal the cover of my book, MIDDLEMEN: LITERARY AGENTS AND THE MAKING OF AMERICAN FICTION, which is available for pre-order now!
November 4, 2025 at 4:15 PM
Excited to reveal the cover of my book, MIDDLEMEN: LITERARY AGENTS AND THE MAKING OF AMERICAN FICTION, which is available for pre-order now!
Reposted by Laura McGrath
I cannot effing wait to read this, @lbmcgrath.bsky.social
November 2, 2025 at 5:07 PM
I cannot effing wait to read this, @lbmcgrath.bsky.social
AAAAAH BABY’S FIRST GALLEYBRAG!!!!!
November 1, 2025 at 12:07 AM
AAAAAH BABY’S FIRST GALLEYBRAG!!!!!
This Halloween, I'm dressing as my middle school self's idea of A Cool Adult. (Or: wearing the exact clothes I would've worn in middle school, as a very uncool kid, but now trendy.)
October 31, 2025 at 12:18 PM
This Halloween, I'm dressing as my middle school self's idea of A Cool Adult. (Or: wearing the exact clothes I would've worn in middle school, as a very uncool kid, but now trendy.)
Here's a Very Good Thing in Very Bad Times: my local mom fb group is working to connect members who are losing SNAP benefits with members who can "sponsor" them through the coming weeks. It's really beautiful to see everyone working together to make sure kids in our community aren't going hungry.
October 30, 2025 at 4:04 PM
Here's a Very Good Thing in Very Bad Times: my local mom fb group is working to connect members who are losing SNAP benefits with members who can "sponsor" them through the coming weeks. It's really beautiful to see everyone working together to make sure kids in our community aren't going hungry.
I would love to see more rigorous, popular criticism of contemporary children’s media. Love this, on Miss Rachel, from Sophie Pinkham. thebaffler.com/salvos/speak...
Speak and Sell | Sophie Pinkham
The siren song of Ms. Rachel cannot be understood outside of America’s ongoing impoverishment of families.
thebaffler.com
October 30, 2025 at 12:00 PM
I would love to see more rigorous, popular criticism of contemporary children’s media. Love this, on Miss Rachel, from Sophie Pinkham. thebaffler.com/salvos/speak...
Reposted by Laura McGrath
Thrilled to announce my new book (electronic version out now, print next month) — it proposes a new value theory grounded in the longue durée of literary institutions, 1800–present.
October 29, 2025 at 5:36 PM
Thrilled to announce my new book (electronic version out now, print next month) — it proposes a new value theory grounded in the longue durée of literary institutions, 1800–present.
Today at my (bougie) gym, I was told “A third baby is the new Birkin“ and I just need to get this quote to whoever is currently covering the parenting/economics beat because there’s, um, a lot to unpack here.
October 29, 2025 at 11:46 AM
Today at my (bougie) gym, I was told “A third baby is the new Birkin“ and I just need to get this quote to whoever is currently covering the parenting/economics beat because there’s, um, a lot to unpack here.
Tracking sales figures, it’s very interesting to me that the topics that are doing very poorly in nonfiction are doing very well in fiction. We undersell at our peril.
I think maybe we undersell fiction and storytelling as tools to get us out of some of the jams we’re in.
October 28, 2025 at 3:08 PM
Tracking sales figures, it’s very interesting to me that the topics that are doing very poorly in nonfiction are doing very well in fiction. We undersell at our peril.
So ready for the Barthelme renaissance.
Barthelme rips
Thinking of Barthelme as speculative, or floating within the larger pool of irrealism, is syncing up nicely with some thoughts I’ve been working on with weird genre/canon formation, especially pulling on this excellent thought by Timothy Jarvis and Helen Marshall
October 28, 2025 at 3:03 PM
So ready for the Barthelme renaissance.
Would like someone to curate a “what she’s wearing on tv” website dedicated to Jennifer Aniston in Season 1 of FRIENDS, so it can become my whole personality.
October 28, 2025 at 3:02 PM
Would like someone to curate a “what she’s wearing on tv” website dedicated to Jennifer Aniston in Season 1 of FRIENDS, so it can become my whole personality.
Reposted by Laura McGrath
Long overdue, "Criticism LTD" has a stand-alone webpage with working links to every episode bibliography, etc.
Criticism LTD (2023-2024)
Apple Podcasts Season Link Criticism LTD. Trailer (July 26, 2023) A first look at the eighth season of The American Vandal Podcast, an assessment of the contemporary state of literary criticism and…
mattseybold.com
October 27, 2025 at 6:07 PM
Long overdue, "Criticism LTD" has a stand-alone webpage with working links to every episode bibliography, etc.