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Isle McElroy

@islemcelroy.bsky.social
133 followers 43 following 35 posts

Author of SATELLITE. March 30, 2027. Also The Atmospherians and People Collide.

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Isle McElroy @islemcelroy.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Picked up my SATELLITE galleys! You can preorder it here: www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/829544...
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Katie Heindl @wtevs.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
wrote about arch manning laughing at assault, steve sarkisian and men like him deciding how everyone around them gets to inhabit space or a given moment, and the expectation on women to rise above it all
basketballfeelings.com
Fortune’s dominion
Arch Manning laughs about assault, Steve Sarkisian walks off on Holly Rowe, and the expectations on women to rise above it all.
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Isle McElroy @islemcelroy.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
I start teaching at the Columbia mfa today. Here’s the AI statement from my syllabus. Feel free to borrow.
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Isle McElroy @islemcelroy.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Introducing Other Lives: An interview series with artists and entertainers about the lives never lived. I went first.
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Isle McElroy @islemcelroy.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Very pleased to share the UK cover of SATELLITE. Out March 11, 2027
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Isle McElroy @islemcelroy.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
SATELLITE has a cover! You can read about it and the novel in People Magazine. people.com/isle-mcelroy...
people.com
Isle McElroy’s ‘Satellite’ Is a Fresh Take on Marriage and Desire — See the Cover! (Exclusive)
A caretaker finds solace in TV, until she discovers a channel featuring a woman who looks and acts just like her, living a far more liberated life in Isle McElroy’s ‘Satellite.’ See the cover here.
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Isle McElroy @islemcelroy.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
I wrote about the erotic trolley problem for Feeld: do you like someone enough to catch their cold feeld.co/magazine/ple...
feeld.co
Germ Theory by Isle McElroy
Isle McElroy reflects on the intimacy of a virus shared between lovers, and comes to a surprising diagnosis. Only on AFM.
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Isle McElroy @islemcelroy.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
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Isle McElroy @islemcelroy.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
As someone with a really good sense of direction, I had a hard time relating to the terror of Backrooms
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patrick @redford.bsky.social · 15/04/2026
The NBR playoff mega-preview is out now, starring @seankuhn.bsky.social @highkin.bsky.social @kylietcheung.bsky.social @ichotiner.bsky.social @eamonwhalen.bsky.social @jacobrosenberg.bsky.social @islemcelroy.bsky.social @maitreyiaa.bsky.social @toley.bsky.social. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/n...
podcasts.apple.com
Nothing But Respect
Sports Podcast · Updated Weekly · The last uncompromised podcast hosted by Patrick Redford and Harry Krinsky.
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Hugh Ryan @hughryan.bsky.social · 09/04/2026
The Provincetown Book Festival is where I met so many writers I love and have been blessed to be in community with ever since. Thank you @islemcelroy.bsky.social for this shout out to MY BAD as one of your favorite books of 2026 so far!
Hugh Ryan - My Bad

May 26, 2026

I met Hugh a couple years ago at the Provincetown Book Festival, where I heard him read from The Women’s House of Detention: A Queer History of a Forgotten Prison. I know him mostly as a historian, and I was excited to read My Bad, Ryan’s memoir of queer life in the 90s. I loved being inside this book, and inside Ryan’s early exploration through queerness. He has an eye for historical details, which feel especially relevant in this book, where Ryan deftly draws connections between larger social forces and his personal journey. I normally hate the word journey, but that is what’s happening here. What makes this memoir really stand out is Ryan’s honest assessment of himself. I’m reminded of Melissa Febos, who also lovingly takes a scalpel to her past actions–both Ryan and her write with the rare courage of honesty, highlighting both their accomplishments and the small but significant shames that make up a life. Ryan doesn’t veer away from those moments, and by doing so, he has written a book that feels so smart and embracing. I can’t wait for this to be in the world
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The Shipman Agency @shipmanagency.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
In which novelist @islemcelroy.bsky.social asks Where do we even begin? Some thoughts and potential answers here intheworkroom.substack.com/p/where-to-b...
intheworkroom.substack.com
Where To Begin?
Isle McElroy's upcoming workshop unpacks novel openings
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Isle McElroy @islemcelroy.bsky.social · 16/03/2026
I wrote about Jordy Rosenberg’s excellent new novel, Night Night Fawn, for @theatlantic.com. www.theatlantic.com/books/2026/0...
theatlantic.com
A New Direction for the Trans Novel
Jordy Rosenberg’s Night Night Fawn is autofiction told from a sidelong distance.
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The Believer @thebeliever.net · 13/03/2026
"I prefer [characters who] stumble over what they have yet to learn about themselves. They’re the most compelling because they are human." —from @islemcelroy.bsky.social's National Magazine Award-nominated column Character Studies www.thebeliever.net/character-st...
thebeliever.net
Character Studies: Cardinal Lawrence in Conclave - Believer Magazine
Perhaps it should come as no surprise that one of the most common problems a novelist faces when creating fictional characters is the problem every person must face: the struggle to know thyself. In a...
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Isle McElroy @islemcelroy.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
Very surprised and excited to see that my Character Studies column for @thebeliever.net is a finalist for the National Magazine Awards!
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Isle McElroy @islemcelroy.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
Pretty stoked about this!
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Isle McElroy @islemcelroy.bsky.social · 26/12/2025
Loved returning home to find handwritten novel edits from on my editor
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Isle McElroy @islemcelroy.bsky.social · 19/12/2025
My 2025 Grift Guide is here. Featuring Fast Casual Art, Pluribus, Smash Burgers, Literary Parties, and more!! open.substack.com/pub/thescoop...
open.substack.com
2025 Grift Guide
All Culture is Fast Casual Now
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Isle McElroy @islemcelroy.bsky.social · 11/11/2025
Thursday, I’m teaching a class on how to write compelling novel openings. You can sign up here! @shipmanagency.bsky.social www.theshipmanagency.com/classes/craf...
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Seven Stories Press @sevenstories.bsky.social · 06/11/2025
The latest round of @nymag.com's Best Books of 2025 includes SAD TIGER! Thanks to @islemcelroy.bsky.social for their thoughtful writeup.
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Isle McElroy @islemcelroy.bsky.social · 25/10/2025
The Channel is a Publisher’s Weekly Book Deal of the Week!
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The Shipman Agency @shipmanagency.bsky.social · 21/10/2025
Very excited to share that @islemcelroy.bsky.social has just sold their next novel and I can NOT wait!!!
Announcement that novelist Isle McElroy has sold their next book, called The Channel.
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Isle McElroy @islemcelroy.bsky.social · 21/10/2025
Very excited to be publishing my 3rd novel, THE CHANNEL, with Lindsey Schwoeri at Viking!! Coming to you summer 2027.
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Maris Kreizman @maris.bsky.social · 25/09/2025
My way of coping with all of the madness is focusing on what I can do to make my community a little bit stronger. So excuse me for all of the earnestness, but I wrote about ways we can all pitch in to support a thriving literary culture. lithub.com/how-to-be-a-...
lithub.com
How to Be a Good Literary Citizen (in Seven Easy Steps)
Last Sunday I spent hours at the Brooklyn Book Festival, a too rare occasion for me to pull myself away from the internet for an entire afternoon. As I looked around at the crowd on their way to pa…
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Isle McElroy @islemcelroy.bsky.social · 04/09/2025
Loved writing the afterword for the reissue of Jacqueline Harpman’s ORLANDA, a brilliant leap of a body swap novel. A sexy, smart, and beguiling companion to her hit I WHO HAVE NEVER KNOWN MEN. Pick up a copy on September 30!
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Roz @rozmilner.bsky.social · 19/07/2025
With this Isle McElroy announced themselves as a compelling writer who can write a stunning gender swap/mystery novel from multiple points of view. I think it’s a tour de force
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Isle McElroy @islemcelroy.bsky.social · 09/08/2025
Some thoughts on Weapons and a lecture about empathy in fiction I delivered at Tin House open.substack.com/pub/thescoop...
open.substack.com
Weapons Rips. Empathy Slips.
Zach Cregger's new film and my Tin House Summer Workshop lecture on the limits of empathy.
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Isle McElroy @islemcelroy.bsky.social · 01/08/2025
I wrote about Sorry, Baby and some thoughts on teachers sleeping with students open.substack.com/pub/thescoop...
open.substack.com
Loser Shit
On Sorry, Baby and The Loser Component
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The Shipman Agency @shipmanagency.bsky.social · 12/06/2025
Isle McElroy is the author of the novels People Collide and The Atmospherians. They wrote the Best Sex I've Ever Read Column for Vulture and taught a class on Desire and Sex Writing at the Sarah Lawrence MFA program.
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The Shipman Agency @shipmanagency.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
Isle McElroy is the author of the novels People Collide and The Atmospherians. Their criticism and essays regularly appear in Vulture, The Atlantic, Esquire, and elsewhere. They are a Shearing Fellow at the Black Mountain Institute and currently teach in the MFA Program at Sarah Lawrence College.
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New York Magazine @nymag.com · 02/07/2025
At 34, writer Leah Rae Hulgin learned that being single and being widowed are not quite the same thing. She and her husband Evan met in their early 20s. After eight years of marriage, Evan was diagnosed with stage-four pancreatic cancer at 30 years old. Seven months after his diagnosis, Evan died.
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Isle McElroy @islemcelroy.bsky.social · 23/06/2025
I wrote about how to have better sex for @thecut.com www.thecut.com/article/bett...
thecut.com
27 Ways to Have Much Better Sex
We asked real-life hot people and other experts about how to have a better time boning.
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Zoë van Dijk @creepcaptain.bsky.social · 10/05/2025
An e-mail from someone asking about my work sent me on a little trip down memory lane and I remembered this piece for Hazlitt that I still like for a short story by Isle McElroy
Illustration in muted greens, reds and neutral browns. A quiet, empty and boarded up town is dominated by the giant figure of a teenager sprawling, oversized, across the landscape towards the horizon, their body in forced perspective with their ankle laid through the center of town square, red and throbbing and covered in tendril like arteries. In the distance, they hang their head over a small lit cabin, a trail of smoke coming from its chimney.
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Isle McElroy @islemcelroy.bsky.social · 21/05/2025
For @vulture.com, I anticipated some summer books www.vulture.com/article/new-...
vulture.com
28 Books We Can’t Wait to Read This Summer
Whether you want to make sense of reality or escape it — through climate fiction, searing memoirs, and tight thrillers.
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Isle McElroy @islemcelroy.bsky.social · 18/05/2025
Excited to be named a 2025-26 Shearing Fellow at the Black Mountain Institute. I’ll be living in Vegas for 9 months, working on my 3rd novel, I’m So Happy You’re Here. www.unlv.edu/news/release...
unlv.edu
Black Mountain Institute Announces 2025–26 Fellows
UNLV’s literary institute launches two new fellowship programs.
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