Literary Conversations

Essays on the culture of books.

Long form editorial essays from the GrowthSpark team on the ideas shaping publishing and reading today.

The future of publishing

How the industry is changing, and what remains stubbornly, wonderfully unchanged.

Reader psychology

Why we pick up the books we pick up, and why we finish so few of them.

Why historical fiction matters

The case for spending more time in centuries that are not our own.

Building lasting author careers

Not the launch, the decade after it.

Book clubs and community

Why the room a book is discussed in matters as much as the book itself.

Independent publishing

The imprints, editors, and authors quietly changing the industry from the outside.

The importance of storytelling

A defense of the oldest technology in human history.

Literary Conversations are published on a slower cadence than our features. Each essay is written to be worth the reader's time.