Show & Tell: Award Season Is Open for Business
This is Show & Tell where I tell you some things I loved from the week and the one thing I hated, plus round up everything else going on around these parts. The first half of Show & Tell is free to all. The adoration and hateration are for paid subscribers only.
I had a great birthday week and want to say a huge thank you to everyone who said nice things to/about me. I appreciate you very much. I am a Leo so telling me you love me really works. I’m not quite done celebrating, but what’s the harm in extending the love fest?
I’m back talking about my loves for this week, including a recipe, a sporting surprise, and book awards at-a-glance. Plus, a truly annoying and stunning development in the book space that falls firmly in my hate for the week.
Speaking of paid subs, you’ve got less than two weeks to access my Nonfiction Reading Guide from 2026. On September 22nd it goes away into the archive forever. Don’t wait, do it right now while you’re thinking about it.
Note for the editor: I will not be doing a Show & Tell on Monday August 3rd. I’ll be on a little trip and don’t want to spend my vacation writing. There will be a post this Friday and next Friday though.
This Week in The Stacks
The World Cup ended and I’m still sad about it.
I had four of my friends—Rachel Lindsay, Sam Sanders, Becca Tobin, and —interview me for my 40th birthday. It’s out of the ordinary, and super special.
My brother, Brady Thomas, has been begging to come on the podcast since 2018. And since I’m such a mature and loving baby sister, I gave him his shot this week on a bonus episode1 all about recapping the World Cup.
Books I Read This Week
Etna by Paul Yoon
Etna is a dog, and the narrator of this novel, who worked to find people and explosives in an unnamed war. After the war, Etna wants to go home to the coast and the book follows him on his journey. Yoon smartly employs tight prose to voice Etna, leading to a slim novel devoid of excess. There were a few beautiful scenes and tableaus throughout the book that really made me pause and think about the complexities of living through war. Did the use of the dog’s POV feel absolutely necessary? For me, no. But I am a person who reads and loves books about war. The destruction and humanity of it all is what I am drawn to. I am also not really a dog person. This book was going to be a stretch for me, and the truth is I was pleasantly surprised. I more than liked it. For readers who cannot handle the intensity of reading about war, it might provide a gentler entry point that lands some emotionally resonate punches.
Fave of the Week
Housekeeping
This Friday, July 31st, I’ll be in NYC on stage with , , and for Mo’s farewell show as the poet-in-residence at Lincoln Center. We’re doing a little literary game show, and it’s free. There is a dance party after with a DJ! More details here.
This month on Here & Now I shared some of the best audiobooks of the year. The full conversation can be found by clicking the yellow play button at the top left of the page. The written list includes a few more books I loved on audio that we couldn’t fit in the chat.
Things I Love…
Books
The 2026 Literary Award Season has officially started with the release of the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize longlist. This prize has had some storied2 winners like Viet Thanh Nguyen, Tommy Orange, Raven Leilani. This years longlist features 19 books. I’ve read two (Whidbey and Upward Bound) with two more on my TBR (Fallow and The Four Wives and Five Deaths of Richard Milford). I was surprised a few books didn’t make the list (The Great Wherever and The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman). I am thrilled one particularly buzzy book didn’t make the list (you know the one).
What I love more than any of the books on the list (or not) is what this list signals. The commencement of the 2026 award season! And the Booker Prize is hot on their tail, their longlist drops on Tuesday, July 28th.
If you want to look ahead at some of the bigger prizes3 and their schedules for announcing lists and awarding prizes through the end of the year, I got you.
2026 Literary Award Calendar
July 21 - Center for Fiction First Novel Prize longlist
July 28 - Booker Prize longlist
August 284 - Kirkus Prize finalists
September 8 - Giller Prize longlist
September 13-15 National Book Award longlists5
September 22 - Booker Prize shortlist
October 5 - Giller Prize shortlist
October 6 - National Book Award finalists (all five categories)
October 7 - Kirkus Prize awarded
October 8 - Nobel Prize in Literature awarded
November 16 - Giller Prize awarded
November 18 - National Book Awards awarded
December 4 - Center for Fiction First Novel Prize awarded
December 146 - National Book Critics Circle longlists
December 177 - PEN America Literary Awards longlists
Then we move into 2027 where even more prizes will award their faves of the 2026 season. Many of those dates haven’t been made public, but you can look forward to the NBCC and PEN awarding their prizes in March, the Los Angeles Times announcing in February and awarding in late April, and the Pulitzer ending the season with their announcement of their winners and finalists in early May.
Which of these awards are you most excited about? Will you read through any of the longlists or shortlists this year? Do you even care about literary awards?
Internet Things
Since we’re talking about book awards this week, it felt very serendipitous that Roxanna Asgarian posted this incredible nonfiction book award index. I could spend hours here. It looks like they have plans for fiction in the future, which, YES! Bring on the water8.
Sports
My brother is very into sports, and I mean all sports. This man watches everything. And since he and his family have been staying with us for the last two weeks, we all are very into all sports. My home is now an elite level Tour de France watching household. I somehow can name like 10 cyclists, which is up from the zero I could name on July 129. I would die for each and everyone of them. Congrats to Tadej Pogačar on his win. I always believed in you, bro.
I am also told Lebron James made news this week. It wasn’t really covered in the media though, so I guess I missed it.
Food
One of the best parts of having family in town was having my amazing sister Sarah cook meals for/with me. She made this chicken thighs and couscous when we were in Boston in April, and I asked her to do it again this trip because it is that good.
Substack
Not me sharing my own shit here. Not the point of this section. But, hear me out. This note was fun to see the things other people were loving and reading this week. I’d love for you to click the above post and share your fave. It doesn’t have to be about books, actually bonus points if it isn’t about books.
