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Tajja Isen

@tajjaisen.bsky.social
1.6K followers 341 following 220 posts

Author of SOME OF MY BEST FRIENDS (2022) and TOUGH LOVE (March 2027) / tajjaisen.com

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Reposted by Tajja Isen
Kristen Martin @kwistent.bsky.social · 41m
“It’s not that people don’t want nonfiction,” the editor says. “They cannot afford a hardcover; they wait a year for the paperback they can afford, and then [it] never comes. What are they supposed to do?” (le sigh)
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Tajja Isen @tajjaisen.bsky.social · 1h
ha, too true (cc @adamm0rgan.bsky.social)
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Tajja Isen @tajjaisen.bsky.social · 1h
"Dozens of junior- and senior-level staff were then “voluntold” to become “AI Champions” and were tasked with discovering use cases in monthly brainstorming sessions with staff across the company." Incredible work by @adamm0rgan.bsky.social www.wired.com/story/book-p...
wired.com
Book Publishers Are Quietly Using More AI. Staff Are Revolting
Workers at three major publishing houses tell WIRED that LLMs are being used for publicity, cover art, back cover copy, and emails, as some execs push junior staff to champion the tech.
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Rachel Kambury @rkambury.bsky.social · 2h
"Without nonfiction being made available in formats within people’s means...the idea that the reading public has been zapped of its political energy begins to look, at a minimum, over-indexed. Maybe people aren’t tired of facts. Maybe they simply can’t afford them." @tajjaisen.bsky.social nails it
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Joel Pinckney @jpinckney.bsky.social · 3h
Really enjoyed this piece, which implicitly suggests another good reason to support small and university presses as much as you can: many of them are the ones willing and ready to take chances on nonfiction books that big five publishers are more than ever too scared to take on.
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Dominique Baker @bakerdphd.bsky.social · 3h
Oh. Lol my offline friends know I'm gonna need a fresh pot of tea to read this.
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Matt Gabriele @profgabriele.com · 3h
this is really good. and mirrors some of the self-defeating attitude I've heard myself
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Nicole Chung @nicolechung.bsky.social · 6h
Let's write together in 2027! If you're looking to jumpstart your memoir/essays project—or are already underway and want ongoing support to maintain momentum or figure out next steps—this @thewriterscenter.bsky.social workshop is for you. We'll meet twice a month starting in Feb. Learn more & apply:
writer.org
Memoir Year w/ Nicole Chung - The Writer's Center
Work on your book with bestselling author Nicole Chung! This intensive workshop is open to writers working on a memoir, memoir-in-essays, or essay collection. You’ll have the opportunity to participat...
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Tajja Isen @tajjaisen.bsky.social · 5h
You may have heard that nonfiction's having a rough time. I investigated for @thewalrus.ca. And it's very true, but not for the reasons you might think. thewalrus.ca/nonfiction-i...
An image of a big red book that says "FICTION" on the cover. Behind it, a smaller book that says "NON-FICTION" tries to peek out.
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Drew Broussard @drewsof.bsky.social · 5h
I got to talk to @tajjaisen.bsky.social for this piece! I just watched a man flinch as I told him that the price of Mark B. Smith's EXIT STALIN is $49.99! The timing is uncanny! (Here's hoping publishers are reading this and thinking about how to do something, anything, because NF *is* in trouble!)
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Tajja Isen @tajjaisen.bsky.social · 5h
You may have heard that nonfiction's having a rough time. I investigated for @thewalrus.ca. And it's very true, but not for the reasons you might think. thewalrus.ca/nonfiction-i...
An image of a big red book that says "FICTION" on the cover. Behind it, a smaller book that says "NON-FICTION" tries to peek out.
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Nicole Chung @nicolechung.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
8 years of All You Can Ever Know 💙🌿 I treasure the conversations I’ve had (& still get to have) because of this book, and continue to be grateful to everyone who’s read it or shared it with others.
bookshop.org
All You Can Ever Know: A Memoir
A NATIONAL BESTSELLERThis beloved memoir "is an extraordinary, honest, nuanced and compassionate look at adoption, race in America and families in general" (Jasmine Guillory, Code Switch, NPR)What doe...
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Maris Kreizman @maris.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
I am a cynical person but I am pretty earnest when it comes to literary prizes. Books need all the help they can get these days, and prizes are one way for unheralded books to get their due. lithub.com/in-defense-o...
lithub.com
In Defense of Literary Awards (and Longlists, and Shortlists)
It’s awards nominations announcement season, which means it’s also snarky opinions about awards nominations season. I love a hot take as much as anyone, but the truth is I have been and remain flag…
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Nicole Chung @nicolechung.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
TOUGH LOVE is the best thing @tajjaisen.bsky.social has written—which, if you know Tajja and her work, is really saying something! I can't wait to reread and discuss it with EVERYONE!!
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Tajja Isen @tajjaisen.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
COVER REVEAL for my new book, TOUGH LOVE. It's a memoir about my habit of falling into intense, complicated relationships with domineering mentors (maybe you can relate?). Now available for preorder! US: www.simonandschuster.com/books/Tough-... Canada: www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/763573...
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Maris Kreizman @maris.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
I did more literary positivity for the new Book Gossip newsletter.
I love a fiction list that no one saw coming. I follow all of these Bookstagrammers and they all made their National Book Awards predictions and none of them even got close. Marlon James is really the only one who was expected to make the longlist for fiction and then actually did. To me, that just means that there are many good books that I, or we, haven't gotten around to yet. When the nominee list is obscure, that means maybe a few more books will get some much deserved attention." —Maris Kreizman, author and critic
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Michelle Cyca @michellecyca.com · 21/09/2026
my kid came home with her Scholastic catalogue last week with a hopeful checkmark next to a vending machine-shaped eraser set (??) anyway for @thewalrus.ca I wrote about why it's bad & weird that our public school libraries rely on a corporation that directly advertises to children in the classroom
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Alexander Chee @alexanderchee.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
I will just add that when I wrote about being Annie Dillard's student, I tried to rescue her class from being lost, as it were. Such as I could. I've taught a lot of what she taught me over the years and most of it has held up.
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Joel Pinckney @jpinckney.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
New one today for @defector.com: in the wake of the most recent declaration of reading's demise, I was curious what booksellers, almost always ignored by the post-literate prognosticators, made of such claims. Here's what they told me:
defector.com
What Do Booksellers Make Of “The End Of Reading”? | Defector
If you haven’t yet encountered the cover story for the August issue of The Atlantic, I have some bad news to share: “The End of Reading Is Here.” It’s an intentionally provocative headline for a sligh...
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Tajja Isen @tajjaisen.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
I won't be paneling at AWP in 2027, but I will be there, with a very new book, and would love to join the lineup of any readings that folks are putting together!
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Jess Zimmerman @jesszimmerman.com · 11/08/2026
I really wish I’d waited to publish this book until AFTER everyone got big into Greek myths but you can’t fault my trendspotting
penguinrandomhouse.com
Women and Other Monsters by Jess Zimmerman: 9780807055540 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books
A fresh cultural analysis of female monsters from Greek mythology, and an invitation for all women to reclaim these stories as inspiration for a more wild, more “monstrous” version of feminism...
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Tajja Isen @tajjaisen.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
Given all the piss and shit inside the Trojan Horse, it's weird they made it into a popcorn bucket
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Tajja Isen @tajjaisen.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
I'm planning a short class that I'm teaching at the Sewanee Writers' Conference this week, and it's reminding me how much I love to be in the classroom and wanna do it so much more than I get to!!!
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Jess Zimmerman @jesszimmerman.com · 18/07/2026
Being brave and reposting praise because I do need clients/a job 😅 (thank you Lindsay ilu)
jesszimmerman.com
Editing
I was formerly an editor at  Quirk Books  (2021–2025), specializing in gift and lifestyle nonfiction as well as genre fiction, and the editor-in-chief of Electric Literature  (2017–2021),...
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Jess Zimmerman @jesszimmerman.com · 15/07/2026
If I hear someone say “meeting in Bronx” I will kick them in nuts
Welcome to West Village? The
'the Is Not Optional, Some New
Yorkers Say.
Some newcomers in the city say they are meeting in Bronx, or living in East Village.
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Michelle Cyca @michellecyca.com · 15/07/2026
get your tickets!
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Tajja Isen @tajjaisen.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
I reviewed Julie Buntin's FAMOUS MEN for @defector.com—a delicious, thorny novel that read me right back. Many thanks to @brandyjensen.bsky.social for edits and for bringing more book reviews into the world! defector.com/famous-men-a...
defector.com
‘Famous Men’ And Ambitious Women | Defector
Is there a story writers love to tell more than the one about how we became ourselves? Give me all of them: Your künstlerromans, your campus novels, your NYCs, your MFAs. I didn’t go to Iowa, but I’ve...
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Jaime Green @jaimealyse.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
god this is such good writing @tajjaisen.bsky.social
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Drew Broussard @drewsof.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
great review of a great book!
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Tajja Isen @tajjaisen.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
feeling almost unbearably seen by these tags defector.com/famous-men-a...
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Tajja Isen @tajjaisen.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
I reviewed Julie Buntin's FAMOUS MEN for @defector.com—a delicious, thorny novel that read me right back. Many thanks to @brandyjensen.bsky.social for edits and for bringing more book reviews into the world! defector.com/famous-men-a...
defector.com
‘Famous Men’ And Ambitious Women | Defector
Is there a story writers love to tell more than the one about how we became ourselves? Give me all of them: Your künstlerromans, your campus novels, your NYCs, your MFAs. I didn’t go to Iowa, but I’ve...
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Brandy Jensen @brandyjensen.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
really great work here from @tajjaisen.bsky.social
defector.com
‘Famous Men’ And Ambitious Women | Defector
Is there a story writers love to tell more than the one about how we became ourselves? Give me all of them: Your künstlerromans, your campus novels, your NYCs, your MFAs. I didn’t go to Iowa, but I’ve...
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Laura McGrath @lbmcgrath.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
One of my favorite games while I waited for publication was imagining which celebrities should narrate which chapter/agent in my book. 🧵
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Tajja Isen @tajjaisen.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
got a new book review dropping next week
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rax ‘levon honkers’ king @raxkingisdead.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
seven years ago catapult published my essay Love Peace and Taco Grease and changed my life ✨ magazine.catapult.co/people/stori...
In 2012, while I was supposedly poisoning my husband, Guy
Fieri was doing the same to the husbands of Times Square. I
read this review the same night I stormed out of my husband's
house in tears, unable to pinpoint how, exactly, a box of
fucking Texas Toasts had undone years of therapy, unable even
to slam the door behind me, unable, really, to speak.
The day I left my husband I devoted myself, with the single-
minded purpose of a Talmud scholar, to the show that made
Guy Fieri famous: Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives.
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Michelle Cyca @michellecyca.com · 11/06/2026
if readers take the time to email me at @thenarwhal.ca, I take the time to reply 💕
Hi Ken,

Thanks for the email. In the era of ChatGPT, it's almost touching to see someone write their racist screed the old-fashioned way! Unfortunately for you, Aboriginal rights are not an "abstract philosophical or political whim" but enshrined in the Canadian constitution, which legal experts say would be nearly impossible to amend — though I guess you can dream! For now maybe just deal with it :) 

I won't be forwarding this to Ms. White.
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Tajja Isen @tajjaisen.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
"If I have to do a day job that's not writing, I want to make a lot more money. And I just want to be frank about that." This is so good, and so infuriating: www.talkscratch.com/colette-shad...
talkscratch.com
Colette Shade on Y2K and the Limits of a Millennial Writing Career: The Scratch Interview
“In order to have a society — frankly, a democracy — we have to have these areas that are protected from the market.”
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Tajja Isen @tajjaisen.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
Surprised to see this piece having a divisive life—I read the book, was confused about the finances, and this piece clarified exactly what didn't make sense to me. www.newyorker.com/books/page-t...
newyorker.com
What’s Missing from Belle Burden’s Best-Selling Memoir, “Strangers”
Belle Burden’s “Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage” tells the story of her divorce and resulting financial imperilment. A review of court documents complicates her narrative.
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Tajja Isen @tajjaisen.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
Love this, and it's relevant to some uh news I'll have soon: hyperallergic.com/the-painted-...
hyperallergic.com
The Painted Book Cover Is Back
The recent shift toward figuration on book covers may reflect a broader desire for physical presence — proof of the artist’s hand in the digital age.
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Tajja Isen @tajjaisen.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
Did she ask ChatGPT about those dreadlocks too
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Helena Fitzgerald @hellafitzgerald.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
if anyone has a useful link for how to turn these features off as comprehensively and as permanently as possible, I think that would be a great resource to share for people like me who have minimal technical knowledge in this field but do have a massive amount of their work stored in google docs
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The Trandalorian @charliejaneanders.com · 19/05/2026

why does google suck now

Google search feels worse today because its core experience has been traded for ad revenue, clutter, and automated summaries. Several systemic changes have contributed to this decline: 

YouTube
·Alex Falcone
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Ad Clutter and Sponsoring: Top results are heavily dominated by pay-per-click ads and sponsored content, forcing authentic organic results further down the page.
AI Overviews: AI summaries frequently occupy the most prominent space above the search results, which can sometimes scrape and surface incorrect information instead of directing you to the original source.
SEO Gaming: A constant arms race between Google and websites optimizing for search engines means that many results are filled with affiliate links and keywords, rather than genuine, high-quality human content.
Reduced Discoverability: Google has heavily deprioritized exact-match boolean searches (like putting phrases in quotes) and natural language queries, meaning it hides the niche human-written content you are actually looking for. 

seo2.onreact.com
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If you are frustrated with the current state of search, you can bypass the clutter by modifying your habits or trying alternative platforms:
Add "Reddit" to Queries: Many users rely on finding actual human discussions by appending site:reddit.com or just "reddit" to their search.
Try Privacy-Focused Engines: Alternatives like DuckDuckGo filter out the heavily bloated tracking and aggressive sponsored widgets.
Consider Paid Search Alternatives: Platforms like Kagi offer ad-free, premium search experiences designed to surface high-quality human content rather than SEO-farmed websites.
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Phillip Maciak @pjmaciak.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
WIDOW'S BAY is Matthew Rhys' best performance since The Americans. Creator Katie Dippold knows exactly how to use him, and how to do everything else, too, it seems. I wrote about the best new show of the year: newrepublic.com/article/2100...
newrepublic.com
Widow’s Bay Is a Menacing and Hilarious Mash-up
At a time when much TV recycles familiar formulas, the Apple TV series feels like something new.
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Tajja Isen @tajjaisen.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
Really feeling the culture-industry churn of "do more with less" this week. Exhausting, disheartening, unsustainable and yet somehow still going.
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Matt Bell @mdbell79.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
I’m so thrilled to share the news that my new novel PENITENT will be published by @doubledaybooks.bsky.social, with Thomas Gebremedhin editing! Thanks as always to my agent Kirby Kim for his wise advice and for finding my book its best possible home. Coming Spring 2028! I can't wait.
Author of APPLESEED and contributor to Best American Mystery Stories and Best American Fantasy Matt Bell's PENITENT, a future-set novel cast in a medieval-like world in which a dutiful subject is called to war by his queen and, after killing seven men, must undertake a grueling journey of atonement-one year of pilgrimage for each life taken-only to find his path complicated by encounters with uncertain allies, hidden enemies, and the queen herself, whose plans grow ever more at odds with his own, forcing a reckoning with faith and violence as he struggles to return to the wife and unborn child he left behind, to Thomas Gebremedhin at Doubleday, by Kirby Kim at Janklow & Nesbit (NA).
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Phillip Maciak @pjmaciak.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
We need to talk about the fact that the nonfiction stacks at Barnes & Noble are no longer alphabetized. I went in today to find a book that I knew was in stock.The bookseller and I walked around the store for 15 min before we found it. I've done some digging, this is on purpose.... 1/x
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Adrienne Celt @celtadri.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
I have a new story up @electricliterature.com about art, childbirth, and being the mouth of the world. Grateful to have been edited by Halimah Marcus one more time! electricliterature.com/oh-no-by-adr...
electricliterature.com
A New Mother Hungry for the World on Her Plate - Electric Literature
“Oh No” by Adrienne Celt, recommended by Halimah Marcus for Electric Literature
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Rachel Kambury @rkambury.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
amidst all the doom and gloom re: the state of nonfiction, the morale boost I get seeing great books published by great colleagues win big can’t be understated
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The Walrus @thewalrus.ca · 01/05/2026
The Walrus has earned twenty-five nominations at this year’s National Magazine Awards, a remarkable honour that speaks to the strength and range of our journalism, art, and client work. Congratulations to all of the nominees! thewalrus.ca/the-walrus-leads-natio…
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