David Gutowski

“Like a great essayist, one called upon to balance research, memoir, and no small amount of fine art, Radiohead is a band of many talents…” The editors' and contributors' of the The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing the Lyric Essay shared a playlist largeheartedboy.com/2026/10/25/t...

"I rarely listen to music when I write. It distracts me from the rhythm and musicality I strive to build into prose. Plus, I have an internal playlist that rarely stops, even when I try my best to quiet it." Seth Fleisher shared a playlist for The Farther Shore largeheartedboy.com/2026/10/25/s...

"Working in solitude, alone in a tiny closet, would have been maddening without music." Matt Kish shared a playlist for his book Moby-Dick in Pictures at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/10/22/m...

"World News from Waverley High is set against the backdrop of national unrest and some of the most vital music ever created." Linda Kass shared a playlist for her novel World News from Waverley High at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/10/22/l...

"I love the difference between authors who have favorite songs on deep background, giving them the feeling of their life, and authors who play particular songs in their head while they write..." James Elkins shared a playlist for Stories, Like Illnesses largeheartedboy.com/2026/10/20/j...

"Without music, this book wouldn’t exist. I’d just have a volcano, but with no place to put it." Bradley Sides shared a playlist for his novella The Volcano Keeper at Largehearted Boy.

"One of my favorite scenes in the book shows Tom being so heartbroken by listening to this song that his wife realizes he is in love with someone else—the person who bought him the record." Silas House shared a playlist for his novel The Tulip Poplars largeheartedboy.com/2026/10/19/s...

"Short stories and songs, especially pop songs, are very similar forms. Both are capable of structural perfection (unlike the novel, an essentially imperfectible form)." Adam O'Fallon Price paired songs with short stories at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/10/19/a...

"What’s reflected here is the music that first shaped me into a poet and songs that have specifically been in conversation with my six poetry collections as I was writing them." Erin Belieu shared a playlist for her poetry collection Cocklebur at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/10/18/e...

"I like a playlist that has a narrative shape." Daniel Pope shared a playlist for his debut novel Go Help Yourself at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/10/16/d...

"What is the sound of longing? Of taking a leap, which may look more like a fall? The music gathered here was playing in the background at some point when I wrote Blue Sunset." Denise Rose Hansen shared a playlist for her novel Blue Sunset at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/10/15/d...

"In the months following my mother’s death in the fall of 2022, I assigned myself the task of writing a story every day." Ben Ehrenreich shared a playlist for his book Hold Still at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/10/15/b...

"...if I’m writing about a particular era, as I have done for both of my books so far, music is vital to accurately capturing the mood of that particular time." Will Maclean shared a playlist for his novel Solace House at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/10/14/w...

"It’s a novel interested in exploring Henry’s radical interiority, his non-sequitur imagination, through an intensely subjective first-person point of view." Lance Olsen shared a playlist for his Henry Darger novel An Inventory of Benevolent Butterflies largeheartedboy.com/2026/10/14/l...

"I love listening to music when I write, and the right piece or album can bring me to a much more inspired, connected, focused place." Lee Bains shared a playlist for his poetry collection Work Lunch at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/10/13/l...

"During the act of writing, I never listen to music. External music is a distraction for me." P.J. Blumenthal shared a playlist for his story collection Self Portraits at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/10/13/p...

"Some of these songs were around while I was writing it. Some feel like the Midwest I know. Some remind me of people I haven’t seen in years. Some just sound like something bad is about to happen." Mallory Smart shared a playlist for Book of David largeheartedboy.com/2026/10/12/m...

"Fail Sons is a book about aging and mortality; fathers, sons, and brothers; failure and grief." Adam Wilson shared a playlist for his novel Fail Sons at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/10/08/a...

"Although I didn't listen to Billie Holiday while writing the novel, her music haunted my imagination throughout the process." Jocelyn Cullity shared a playlist for her novel The Nurse at Baker Hospital at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/10/08/j...

"Although I made a vibes playlist for the book early in my drafting process, I’m one of those people who can’t write to most songs..." Nafissa Thompson-Spires shared a playlist for her debut novel The Four Wives and Five Deaths of Richard Milford largeheartedboy.com/2026/10/07/n...

"Given the dialogic nature of our book it seems only right to have this playlist move back and forth..." David Naimon shared a playlist for his book Ursula K. Le Guin: Conversations on Writing at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/10/07/d...

"I had to set a chapter in hell, of course, and there's an echo of country music in my mind at least to a few of the chapters in the book." Grace Byron shared a playlist for her debut novel Herculine at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/10/06/g...

"Creating playlist is among my top favorite activities. It’s basically my love language. What a fun and stimulating thing to build one around my novel Asbestos, where music plays such an enveloping role." Sébastien Dulude shared a playlist for his novel Asbestos largeheartedboy.com/2026/10/06/s...

"Indeed, because the novel is part detective story and part doomed romance, George Benson’s This Masquerade—whose bluesy melancholy is the perfect accompaniment to a noir tale…" Clifford Thompson shared a playlist for his debut novel Let Us Go Then, You and I largeheartedboy.com/2026/10/05/c...

"Pierre Rousseau felt like a great opener to set the tone of this playlist, capturing the strange etherealness I hope my pen achieved with The Tumor in The Clay." Nick Francis shared a playlist for his graphic novel The Tumor in the Clay at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/10/02/n...

"This soundtrack is like my brain - soft, loud, quiet, and cheerful. Pour yourself a cup of chai as you take a listen." Chital Mehta shared a playlist for her debut novel Have You Seen Romit? at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2026/10/01/c...

"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...

"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...

“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...

"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...

"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...

"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...

"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...

"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...

"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...

"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...

"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...

"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...

“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...

"...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...

"...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...

“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...

“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...

"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...

"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...

"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...

"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...

"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...

"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...

“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...