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David Gutowski @largeheartedboy.bsky.social · 2h

"Assembled Audience is a book I wrote over four years from 2019 to 2024, about the ways people gather together..." Erika Meitner shared a playlist for her poetry collection Assembled Audience largeheartedboy.com/2026/09/30/e...

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David Gutowski @largeheartedboy.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

"The book is definitely setting-dependent, so it made sense to create a playlist that draws on the rich musical traditions of Alabama and the Appalachian mountains." Scott Gould shared a playlist for his novel Beneath a Fallen Sky at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/09/29/s...

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David Gutowski @largeheartedboy.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

“I may not mention songs or cite catchy pop lyrics in the story, but the book references so many places specific to musical life in the Bay Area...” Tomas Moniz shared a playlist for his novel The King of Aloe Vera at Largehearted Boy. largeheartedboy.com/2026/09/28/t...

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David Gutowski @largeheartedboy.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

"New Skin is so demented, and so is Mr. Bungle." Sarah Wang shared a playlist for her debut novel New Skin at Largehearted Boy. largeheartedboy.com/2026/09/27/s...

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David Gutowski @largeheartedboy.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

"Music is core to this novel, and although I mostly listen to ambient music while writing, these are the songs that make up its DNA, freckled with nostalgia but facing the future." Ankur Thakkar shared a playlist for his novel Blow Yourself Up at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/09/25/a...

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David Gutowski @largeheartedboy.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

"Many traditional lullabies used scary elements to make sure children stayed safe and still in bed. It is an interesting combination of comforting and frightening." Regina McBride shared a playlist for her novel Stranger From Across the Sea at Largehearted Boy. largeheartedboy.com/2026/09/24/r...

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David Gutowski @largeheartedboy.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

"What does madness sound like?" Jody Chan shared a playlist for their poetry collection Madness Belongs to the People at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/09/24/j...

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David Gutowski @largeheartedboy.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

"In putting together my playlist, I wanted to give a sample of some of my favorite ghostly music." May-Lee Chai shared a playlist for her essay collection My Hungry Ghosts at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/09/23/m...

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David Gutowski @largeheartedboy.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

"My new novel, Incarnate, is story about a Faustian bargain made by a young woman who wants to be a breakout success on social media." Alma Katsu shared a playlist for her novel Incarnate at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/09/22/a...

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David Gutowski @largeheartedboy.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

"Here are songs for haunted houses and ruined gardens and endless afternoons." Norah Labiner shared a playlist for her novel Morocco at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/09/22/n...

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David Gutowski @largeheartedboy.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

"So much of the process of writing this book occurred in silence, and yet, I always longed to evoke a sense of the soundscape of the asylum.” Doireann Ní Ghríofa shared a playlist for her novel Said the Dead at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/09/21/d...

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David Gutowski @largeheartedboy.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

"The frontier is an imaginary place and always has been, a fact that allowed what I listened to while writing Observer to be as wide-ranging as the people in the American West." Nicholas Russell shared a playlist for his debut novel Observer at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/09/18/n...

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David Gutowski @largeheartedboy.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

“I’m very feeling-centered in my work; you could call me a largehearted girl.” Isabelle Correa shared a playlist for her poetry collection Portrait of a Person Who Pushes Love Away in Fear of Losing It at Largehearted Boy. largeheartedboy.com/2026/09/17/i...

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David Gutowski @largeheartedboy.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

"...this playlist is a direct reflection of what I was forced to listen to during some of the most impressionable years of my life." Genevieve Plunkett shared a playlist for one of the year’s most impressive debut novels, The Lonely Girl's Vegetable Patch largeheartedboy.com/2026/09/15/g...

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David Gutowski @largeheartedboy.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

"...the book has lightness, too, because darkness and misery can be funny if you look for it, and because childhood is strange and magical and incomprehensible." Brittany Perham shared a playlist for her memoir Executrix at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/09/15/b...

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David Gutowski @largeheartedboy.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

“You’ll find the playlist touches grief but doesn’t stay there…” Nina Schuyler shared a playlist for her novel Open the Floodgates at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/09/15/n...

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David Gutowski @largeheartedboy.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

“Music, like writing, has helped me come to terms with the fact that pathology is what I make of it.” Matthew Wong Foreman shared a music playlist for his debut novel Sunset at Lion Rock at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/09/15/m...

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David Gutowski @largeheartedboy.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

"The revised playlist succinctly reflects the heart of my novel—two women overcoming angst and striving toward hope with a heavy helping of family drama." Erin Miller Reid shared a playlist for her debut novel But for Fortune at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/09/14/e...

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David Gutowski @largeheartedboy.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

"In my novel, pop culture proves to be diabolical, but not so with these songs." Camille Acker shared a playlist for her debut novel A Very Special Episode at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/09/09/c...

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David Gutowski @largeheartedboy.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

"My playlist is comprised of songs that soundtrack the ATLien’s journey, but also the seven years I spent writing the rest of the book..." Marcus Wicker shared a playlist for his poetry collection Dear Mothership at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/09/09/m...

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David Gutowski @largeheartedboy.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

"Perhaps because at my core I am a musician and a former performing pianist who became a critic and author, I almost never listen to music when I’m writing. Music is too powerful for me." Anthony Tommasini shared a playlist for his book Voice of a Century largeheartedboy.com/2026/09/08/a...

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David Gutowski @largeheartedboy.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

"Considering the role of jazz in noir, I thought to move beyond superficial aesthetic and make the genius of John Coltrane the structural engine of my protagonist’s entire world" Andre Hardy shared a playlist for his novel Tear the City Down at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/09/04/a...

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David Gutowski @largeheartedboy.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

"One of my favourite writers is Joni Mitchell. Every line is magnificent. Lay back in the darkness of the dock, and let the words spill over you." Laurie Petrou shared a playlist for her novel The Rayburn Affair at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/09/03/l...

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David Gutowski @largeheartedboy.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

“Yearn, baby, yearn. I wanted to make a playlist that wandered alongside my book.” Hieu Minh Nguyen shared a playlist for his poetry collection Staying Still at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/09/02/h...

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David Gutowski @largeheartedboy.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

"This book is about continuing a relationship after death, about staying in conversation with someone who is no longer alive." Emerson Whitney shared a playlist for their memoir O Mother at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/09/01/e...

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David Gutowski @largeheartedboy.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

"What compositions might channel new kind of literary mystery where the investigator is not a detective but a sound scientist?" Eugen Bacon shared a playlist for her novel Crimson in Quietus at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/08/31/e...

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David Gutowski @largeheartedboy.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

“Music, like literature, is a form of translation – it takes the roiling surge of feeling in the human breast and converts it into sound.” Katy Simpson Smith shared a playlist for her novel The Maltese Version at Largehearted Boy. largeheartedboy.com/2026/08/22/k...

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David Gutowski @largeheartedboy.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

"In the canon of art by immigrant daughters trying their best to be worthy of love, Mitski’s 'Best American Girl' is a crown jewel..." Malavika Kannan shared a playlist for her debut novel Unprecedented Times at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/08/20/m...

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David Gutowski @largeheartedboy.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

"Mud on the Moon spans nearly a century and two continents, from my father's Philippines to his adopted Alaska to the America I grew up in..." Nita Noveno shared a playlist for her memoir Mud on the Moon at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/08/19/n...

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David Gutowski @largeheartedboy.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

"In Precious Ugly I needed to build a music bubble around my character, Clementine—thirteen, pregnant and living in a conversion van..." Rae Cline shared a playlist for her debut novel Precious Ugly at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/08/18/r...

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David Gutowski @largeheartedboy.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

"...sometimes, when I can’t find the right words to give to a character, I play a little song instead. And that reminds me that sometimes, there aren't any words. There is just music." Téa Mutonji shared a playlist for her novel My Person at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/08/17/t...

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David Gutowski @largeheartedboy.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

"Music plays a big role in the book, and it was a big part of my journey when writing the book." P Paramita shared a playlist for her debut novel Appetite at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/08/14/p...

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David Gutowski @largeheartedboy.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

"Some songs were indispensable at the start, when I had only the seed of an idea; I’d listen to them on repeat walking around the Sacramento grid to sink into the right mood for a productive insomnia." Devyn Defoe shared a playlist for her novel Burnside at largeheartedboy.com/2026/08/11/d...

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David Gutowski @largeheartedboy.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

“I keep a playlist going every time I’m working on a book. I play it mostly when I’m driving and the highway lulls me into a kind of waking dream where I enter the the world of the new book...” Miciah Bay Gault shared a playlist for her novel The Nobody Code largeheartedboy.com/2026/08/11/m...

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David Gutowski @largeheartedboy.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

"There is no liberation without music, pure and simple." Seb Doubinsky shared a playlist for his novel Liberation Now! at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/08/10/s...

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Reposted by David Gutowski

Elizabeth Spiers @espiers.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

Just to brighten up this thread: here are five books by women that I've read recently and loved:

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David Gutowski @largeheartedboy.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

"...the playlist I construct for each book project are songs from particular times of my life, its muscles and sinew evoke mood." Alysia Li Ying Sawchyn shared a playlist for her essay collection I Have This Thing for Flowers at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/08/07/a...

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David Gutowski @largeheartedboy.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

"Here are the songs of forgotten babies, crab-monsters and unexpected violence that informed Queen Mab." Emily McBride shared a playlist of lullabyes & fairy tale songs for her debut novel Queen Mab at Largehearted Boy.

largeheartedboy.com

Emily McBride’s Book Notes music playlist for her novel Queen Mab – Largehearted Boy

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David Gutowski @largeheartedboy.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

"Music plays a part in the story..songs about innocence, longing, connection, grief, hope, and the messy process of growing up." Emil Wilson shared a playlist for The Nightingales largeheartedboy.com/2026/08/05/e...

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David Gutowski @largeheartedboy.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

"First off, Upstate New York people rock together and you’re going to get that vibe throughout this playlist. We all came from those same woods where no one could see us." Sam Farhi shared a playlist for his debut novel The Sapsuckers at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/08/04/s...

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David Gutowski @largeheartedboy.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

"When I was writing Furious Violet, I made two different playlists..." Sarai Walker shared a playlist for her novel Furious Violet largeheartedboy.com/2026/07/29/s...

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David Gutowski @largeheartedboy.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

"I write to explore the texture of different emotions, and listening to music is another way to access those textures." Lizzie Buehler shared a playlist for her debut novel The Obsessed at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/07/28/l...

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David Gutowski @largeheartedboy.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

"My novel The Flayed Man is a monster story in a literal sense..." Chloe Lauter shared a playlist for her debut novel The Flayed Man at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/07/27/c...

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David Gutowski @largeheartedboy.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

"I make playlists for friends, family, moods, parties, road trips, and of course, I make them for my books. Nothing gets me into the world of a project faster than music." Rowan Beaird shared a playlist for her novel Tenderness at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/07/22/r...

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David Gutowski @largeheartedboy.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

"Included in this playlist are songs I was listening to while drafting The Moon Papers, as well as some lunar summer tunes the book evokes…." Emmalea Russo shared a playlist for her novel The Moon Papers at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/07/21/e...

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David Gutowski @largeheartedboy.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

"As I fashioned these documents into a book, the music of that era played nonstop in my head, often intruding on the narrative." Laura Kalpakian shared a playlist for her memoir Undesirable: The Vietnam War and a Father's Battle for Justice at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/07/20/l...

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David Gutowski @largeheartedboy.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

"I wrote much of Whole, Holy, Hot to full albums set to play on repeat...to let its atmosphere shape the space I was writing from." Chrissy Martin shared a playlist for her poetry collection Whole, Holy, Hot at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/07/17/c...

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David Gutowski @largeheartedboy.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

"The following selections by contributors to Black Summers reflect that tension between sentimental longing and racial strife. Mostly, they land upon Black joy." Desiree Cooper and contributors shared a playlist for the anthology Black Summers at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/07/16/d...

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David Gutowski @largeheartedboy.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

"While I was writing Paradise Pawn, I made a playlist of songs that make me feel emotional about change for various reasons." Meg Richardson shared a playlist for her debut novel Paradise Pawn at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/07/15/m...

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David Gutowski @largeheartedboy.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

"I often say that for indigenous peoples, the world ended once. We live on the other side of the apocalypse." Nephi Craig shared a playlist for his memoir Our Knives Will Save Us at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/07/14/n...

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