New Books in Literary Studies

In 2006 poet Amanda Johnston went in search of community and, when she didn’t find what she was looking for, Amanda built her own. Today, Torch Literary Arts is a resource and a destination for Black women writers and readers across the diaspora. Fueled by wisdom and writings from poets, novelists, and screenwriters, the organization’s exceptional programming and award-winning magazine amplify Black women’s voices, and has featured work from poets like Patricia Smith, Yona Harvey, and Toi Derricotte, screenwriters and playwrights like Jonterri Gadson, Charla Lauriston, and Lisa B. Thompson, and novelists like Tayari Jones, Crystal Wilkinson, and Sapphire.

And at a time when Amanda is preparing for Torch’s 20th Anniversary celebration, “A Gathering of Flames,” she is also celebrating the publication of a new book in her capacity as the 61st Texas Poet Laureate, Praisesong for the People: Poems from the Heart and Soul of Texas (Host Publications, 2025), showcasing original praise poems commissioned from poets across the state, and seeking to uplift diverse and intersecting populations across age, gender, and BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, differently-abled, and immigrant communities.

You can find Amanda at her website, on Instagram, and on Threads. And check out Torch Literary Arts, Torch Magazine, and follow the organization on Instagram, Facebook, and Threads.

Want to hear more from Amanda about the journey to Torch’s 20th Anniversary? Check out our continued conversation on Substack.

Subscribe, like, follow, and rate Additions to the Archive with Sullivan Summer on Instagram, Substack, and wherever you get your podcasts.
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Kevin P. Reilly is President Emeritus and Regent Professor with the University of Wisconsin System, having served as President from 2004-13. Kevin grew up in Manhattan and the Bronx, and went on to earn his B.A. at the University of Notre Dame, and his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota, all in English. He has published on higher education policy and accreditation, autobiography and biography, and in Irish Studies.

In this interview he discusses his most recent book, Gregory Ghosts: Haunting Irishness (Peter Lang, 2026), a creative non-fiction intervention into Irish literary studies.

This book is a kind of Irish ghost story. In it the ghosts of Lady Augusta Gregory (1852-1932) and eight of her family members and colleagues look back over their lives—and sometimes forward beyond them—to try to make sense of them, their times, and one another. Theirs were all turbulent lives played out on the western edge of Europe at a time of great change.Lady Gregory helped shape that change at a pivotal moment in Ireland’s development into a modern nation state. The author’s fresh approach questions and complicates the image of her as a prim Victorian workhorse. Setting her in the midst of the personal chatter of her departed family, lovers, friends, and collaborators brings home how the historical Irish moment found her just when it needed her.

Gregory Ghosts: Haunting Irishness is published with Peter Lang, as part of their Re-imagining Ireland series

Aidan Beatty is a lecturer in the history department at Carnegie Mellon University and the President of the American Conference for Irish Studies

Transcript here
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Monday, June 22—William Kennedy is to Albany what Joyce is to Dublin and Faulkner to Mississippi, a fictional alchemist who transforms his native place into novels at once deeply evocative of their setting and movingly universal in their human resonances. In The Albany Trilogy, just out from Library of America, three of Kennedy’s masterpieces—including his beloved novel Ironweed—take readers from the gutter to the statehouse in narratives of brokenness, resilience, and unexpected grace set against the backdrop of one of America’s most storied underdog cities.

Join Kennedy himself, one of only a handful of living authors in the LOA series, and his longtime friend Paul Grondahl, editor of the LOA edition, for a special, intimate, and wide-ranging conversation about craft, Albany as a protagonist, and what’s next for this titan of American letters, at work on his next book at ninety-eight years old.
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The American Dream at its best is an ethical ideal and a moral
compass. If respected and sustained, it can guide the United States
through Trump 2.0. Anchored in the US Constitution, Saving the American Dream: Meditations for Dark Times (Wipf and Stock, 2026) features
meditations for dark times. Meditations are intentional acts of focused
attention.Its fundamental premise is that individuals moved to communal
action by warned awareness and committed resistance are indispensable
to meet challenges that grow by the day. Guidance from reliable American
writers—philosophers, historians, novelists, poets, essayists,
religious thinkers—maps the way.
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Great books don't happen by accident. Sarah Crichton, one of publishing's most respected voices and the founder of Sarah Crichton Books at FSG, joins host Sarah Russo for an unfiltered conversation about what it takes to acquire, edit, and launch books that last. They cover everything: crashing books in secret, fighting for the right jacket design, discovering A Long Way Gone by child soldier, Ismeal Beah, the differences between being a publisher and an editor, what to understand about hiring a developmental editor, and more. Whether you're an author, aspiring editor, or publishing professional, this episode is a masterclass.

For more information on Sarah Crichton’s work, visit her website: Sarah’s website or connect with her on LinkedIn

Books mentioned in this episode:

“Cyberwar” by Kathleen Hall Jamieson

“A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier” by Ishmael Beah

“What Is the What” by Dave Eggers

“A Mighty Heart” by Mariane Pearl, co-written with Sarah Crichton

“Portrait of a Marriage: A Memoir” by Judy Crichton and Jennifer Crichton

“Fierce Attachments” by Vivian Gornick

“The Odd Woman and the City” by Vivian Gornick

“M Train” by Patti Smith

Key Moments

00:44 — How Magazine Editors Think About Readers Sarah Crichton explains how her magazine background gave her a superpower most book editors lack: never forgetting the reader exists.

02:27 — What It Really Means to "Crash" a Book Sarah C. breaks down the secret, adrenaline-fueled process of rushing a book to publication in weeks instead of years.

05:09 — The Editor vs. Publisher Divide (And Why It's Disappearing) Hear about the traditional difference between an editor and a publisher — and why the line between them is blurring

07:22 — How She Turned a Rejected Manuscript into a National Phenomenon

Sarah C. tells the story of discovering “A Long Way Gone” by Ishmael Beah — a book passed over by every publisher — and how a deliberate cover strategy and the first-ever Starbucks book pick turned it into a classroom staple.

14:58 — What Sarah Looks for in a Manuscript (and Why a Great Title Matters More Than You Think)

Sarah reveals what makes her sit up when reading a submission, and the brutal reality of how critics decide what to review.

17:08 — Developmental Editors, Self-Publishing, and "Hitting the Lottery" Sarah gets candid about the economics of book doctoring, shares the story of self-publishing her late mother's memoir, and explains the role of a developmental editor.
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