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David Gutowski @largeheartedboy.bsky.social · 11h

"I generally don’t write to a soundtrack. I rely on rhythm in my prose, and playing music interferes with that internal metronome."

@kenliu.bsky.social shared a playlist for his novel All That We See or Seem at @largeheartedboy.bsky.social largeheartedboy.com/2025/10/14/k...

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David Gutowski @largeheartedboy.bsky.social · 1d

"Much like considering the food and clothes of the time, I find that thinking about the musical world that shaped my characters is a really useful texture to help ground me in the worldbuilding of the story."

Anbara Salam shared a playlist for The Salvage largeheartedboy.com/2025/10/13/a...

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David Gutowski @largeheartedboy.bsky.social · 2d

"Sister Creatures is a novel in thirteen haunted chapters, and it only makes sense that the playlist features thirteen songs."

Laura Venita Green shared a playlist for her debut novel Sister Creatures at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2025/10/12/l... @unnamedpress.bsky.social

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David Gutowski @largeheartedboy.bsky.social · 5d

"The minute I focus on music, I can no longer focus on anything else—including writing."

Tamar Shapiro shared a playlist for her debut novel Restitution at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2025/10/09/t...

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David Gutowski @largeheartedboy.bsky.social · 6d

"Fiction writers always reveal themselves in their work, whether they mean to or not. I’m obsessed with music, and it’s the main way I have shown my hand in all three of my novels..."

@lisaborders.bsky.social shared 3(!) playlists for Last Night at the Disco largeheartedboy.com/2025/10/08/l...

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David Gutowski @largeheartedboy.bsky.social · 7d

"You know happy-sad songs? Songs that sound happy but, if you pay attention to the lyrics at all, will completely devastate you?"

@kristinaten.bsky.social shared a playlist for her story collection Tell Me Yours, I'll Tell You Mine at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2025/10/07/k...

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David Gutowski @largeheartedboy.bsky.social · 8d

“I don’t listen to music while I write, but it plays a big part in my process while I’m away from my desk...”

Patrick Ryan shared a playlist for his novel Buckeye at @largeheartedboy.bsky.social largeheartedboy.com/2025/10/06/p...

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David Gutowski @largeheartedboy.bsky.social · 8d

"...people like me are happy to suggest a song for every occasion or for, in this case, each story in a collection..."

David Haynes shared a playlist for his story collection Martha's Daughter at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2025/10/06/d...

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David Gutowski @largeheartedboy.bsky.social · 8d

"This playlist features both English- and Arabic-language songs to represent the dichotomy of the two cultures and what it’s like living in between."

@deenaelg.bsky.social shared a playlist for her debut novel Dust Settles North at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2025/10/06/d...

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David Gutowski @largeheartedboy.bsky.social · 8d

"...my mom’s silent treatment seems more like noise music. It’s aggressive. The distortion shifts unpredictably. It feels punishing."

Jeannie Vanasco shared a playlist for her memoir A Silent Treatment at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2025/10/06/j... @tinhouse.bsky.social

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David Gutowski @largeheartedboy.bsky.social · 12d

"These songs are a combination of soundtrack, characterization, and glimpses into what didn’t make it on the page—as important for my novel-in-omissions as what the reader does get to see."

E. Y. Zhao shared a playlist for her novel Underspin at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2025/10/02/e...

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David Gutowski @largeheartedboy.bsky.social · 13d

“I realized after I’d put the playlist together that many of these songs have a story behind them of a woman triumphing…”

Mahreen Sohail shared a playlist for her story collection Small Scale Sinners at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2025/10/01/m...

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David Gutowski @largeheartedboy.bsky.social · 14d

"At a time in which many people are asking how to make their voices heard in the face of large-scale injustice, I hope that the book’s themes and sensibility will resonate..."

Grady Chambers shared a playlist for his novel Great Disasters largeheartedboy.com/2025/09/30/g...

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David Gutowski @largeheartedboy.bsky.social · 15d

“I spent nearly a decade writing and re-writing this book, and in that time I racked up thousands of records and ticket stubs...”

@mlrio.bsky.social shared a playlist for her novel Hot Wax largeheartedboy.com/2025/09/29/m...

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David Gutowski @largeheartedboy.bsky.social · 16d

"While music doesn’t play a large role in Oona’s life, it does play an important role in mine, and there are many songs that I will forever associate with the process of writing MARROW."

Samantha Browning Shea shared a playlist for her debut novel Marrow largeheartedboy.com/2025/09/28/s...

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David Gutowski @largeheartedboy.bsky.social · 19d

"Epic and Lovely is 'alchemizing shit into the most beautiful thing' writ large."

@modaviau.bsky.social shared a playlist for her novel Epic and Lovely at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2025/09/25/m... @wvupress.bsky.social

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David Gutowski @largeheartedboy.bsky.social · 20d

“In my new novel, Beings, a couple driving home from their honeymoon in 1961 encounters a spaceship that irrevocably changes their lives."

@ilanaslightly.bsky.social shared a playlist for her novel Beings at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2025/09/24/i...

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David Gutowski @largeheartedboy.bsky.social · 21d

"My debut novel, LITTLE MOVEMENTS, is about dance, which means it’s inevitably about music"

Lauren Morrow shared a playlist for her debut novel Little Movements at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2025/09/23/l...

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David Gutowski @largeheartedboy.bsky.social · 26d

"...there are songs to which I return when I am working (often instrumental or with few lyrics) and songs that get to the ache of how I felt when writing some of the poems in this manuscript."

Chet’la Sebree shared a playlist for her poetry collection Blue Opening at Largehearted Boy.

Chet’la Sebree’s Book Notes music playlist for her poetry collection Blue Opening – Largehearted Boy

largeheartedboy.com

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David Gutowski @largeheartedboy.bsky.social · 27d

"A lot of authors write to background music. Not me. I like it quiet, my concentration entirely on the page. That is, until I began writing tic tic tic..."

@heidiseabornpoet.bsky.social shared a playlist for her poetry collection tic tic tic at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2025/09/18/h...

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David Gutowski @largeheartedboy.bsky.social · 28d

"I write, unfortunately, by feel. I can often sense there’s some connection or disruption between ideas or events or questions and so I write towards them. It’s incredibly inefficient."

Jeremy B. Jones shared a playlist for his memoir Cipher at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2025/09/16/j...

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David Gutowski @largeheartedboy.bsky.social · 29d

"This playlist is a score for Someone Else’s Hunger, tracking the speaker’s journey from a place of violence and self-abandonment to empowerment and reclamation..."

Isabella DeSendi shared a playlist for her poetry collection Someone Else's Hunger largeheartedboy.com/2025/09/15/i...

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David Gutowski @largeheartedboy.bsky.social · Sep 13

"Music has always been a tremendous part of my life, so it makes sense that plenty of songs show up throughout the collection."

@silashouse.bsky.social shared a playlist for his poetry collection All These Ghosts at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2025/09/13/s...

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David Gutowski @largeheartedboy.bsky.social · Sep 11

"To me, music helps snare and distill a kind of emotional resonance, helps put it on the page sometimes..."

@keithrosson.bsky.social shared a playlist for his novel Coffin Moon at Largehearted Boy largeheartedboy.com/2025/09/11/k...

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David Gutowski @largeheartedboy.bsky.social · Sep 10

"His best songs – all of his songs, really – manage to express tenderness, humor, empathy, irony, and an unblinking eye for the facts of life at the same time..."

Tom Piazza shared a playlist for his book Living in the Present with John Prine largeheartedboy.com/2025/09/10/t...

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