Fiction News & Events

This past June, second-year MFA Writing student Britt Middleton published her debut romantic comedy, American Love Song.

My Stalkers, a new collection of short stories by Adjunct Assistant Professor Catherine Lacey '10, is set to hit shelves in January, 2027. My Stalkers (Macmillan, 2027) features a collection of nine original short stories that deal with women “becoming someone else or no one at all.” 

The novel, published by Little, Brown and Company, tells a multi-generational story which grounds itself in the myth of The Minotaur.

Jinwoo Chong '21, author of the award-winning novel Flux, will release his third novel, Club Nine Tails, with Random House in March 2027–a novel about family, reconciliation, and a cross-country adventure.

Adjunct Assistant Professor Diksha Basu '14, author of Windfall (Ballantine Books, 2018) and The Destination Wedding (Ballantine Books, 2020), has just announced that her next novel, The Affairs of Mala Sen, is forthcoming with Harper Via in 2027. Set against the backdrop of a rapidly changing India, the novel follows a young widow living with her mother-in-law in New Delhi whose world unravels after she discovers her late husband's secrets. 

Switzy, the third novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Girls and The Guest, Emma Cline '13, has been longlisted for the 2026 Booker Prize. A portrait of human mortality, Switzy follows a retired business executive with a degenerative neurological disease as he is shepherded by his assistant to visit friends and family before his medically assisted death in Zurich.

A man has been found slumped over the steering wheel of his BMW, dead, in a South Asian enclave of suburban New Jersey—and the Sharmas are at the center of the case. In Men Like Ours, the darkly comic debut novel by Writing alum Bindu Bansinath '23, coming-of-age meets murder mystery as Anita Sharma, her restless teenage daughter Leila, and the women of the neighborhood are roped into the investigation of their friend's death.

Fresh off the success of their debut novel, a writer wrestles with disillusionment, despair, and mysterious visions in surreal sophomore novel, Lucid Dreams, by Daphne Palasi Andreades '19.

Two books from Columbia alums are featured on this summer reading list from Columbia Magazine. Read more.

The National Book Foundation recently announced its list of the 5 Under 35 honorees for 2026. Among this year’s awardees are two School of the Arts MFA Writing alums, Anika Jade Levy '23, author of Flat Earth, and Stephanie Wambugu '24, author of Lonely Crowds. 

Associate Professor of Writing, Head of the Fiction concentration and horror virtuoso Victor LaValle '98 has adapted his novel The Devil in Silver into a six-episode limited series with AMC+ and Shudder. 

But Octopi Don’t Sing, a chapbook by Li Zhuang '19, has been published by Purple Ink Press.