Reading Around the Margins

"One word gives way to the next with Emily LaBarge"

For the first episode of Season 2, Naomi is joined by writer and art critic Emily LaBarge. We revisit marginalia from her copies of Amy Hempel's The Dog of the Marriage, Joan Didion's The White Album, Sylvia Plath's The Unabridged Journals, and Alice Munro's Who Do You Think You Are? exploring a lineage of library-keeping; book titles lost in translation across continents; forms of intertextual desire; marginalia as a record of life outside the book; the complexity of memory; and the internal rhythms of our prose style, as they develop consciously and unconsciously through our practice of reading and thinking. Reading List The Dog of the Marriage [https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/the-dog-of-the-marriage-stories_amy-hempel/433497/?srsltid=AfmBOoq0g-mLlBlJBmFzmiTCW8cF8GEPgTKUHQbw0aTcL7czp0Og6uC7#edition=3408785&idiq=2881129], Amy Hempel The White Album [https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-white-album-essays-joan-didion/a7700f62bf86cd3d?ean=9780374532079&next=t], Joan Didion The Unabridged Journals [https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-unabridged-journals-of-sylvia-plath-sylvia-plath/f107200eef314774?ean=9780385720250&next=t], Sylvia Plath Who Do You Think You Are? [https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/who-do-you-think-you-are_alice-munro/274305/item/83627195/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=LCE_low_vol_f%2fm%2fs_standard_shopping_customer_aquisition_22591097975&utm_adgroup=&utm_term=&utm_content=754049995133&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=22591097975&gbraid=0AAAAADwY45gWYXvE4lssj0pjDE2he0vac&gclid=CjwKCAjwtvvPBhBuEiwAPMijr4N8fkwsqYvuTWMwKuJLSTyyh14IqMRPs8LpVICrqME4qpVXzAUPiBoCSFoQAvD_BwE#idiq=83627195&edition=65398465], Alice Munro Selection of related essays by Emily LaBarge "Best Book of 1978: Who Do You Think You Are?" [https://granta.com/best-book-of-1978-who-do-you-think-you-are/] "Chantal Akerman's Elusive Interiors: what the filmmaker's portrayal of women reveals--and withholds" [https://yalereview.org/article/emily-labarge-chantal-akerman] "What Wasn't There" [https://www.affidavit.art/articles/what-wasnt-there] Purchase LaBarge's debut DOG DAYS [https://www.emilylabarge.co.uk/work/dog-days] Emily LaBarge is a Canadian writer living in London. Her essays and criticism have appeared in Granta, the London Review of Books, Artforum, mousse, Bookforum, Frieze, The Observer, and The Paris Review, among others. She is a regular contributor to The New York Times and 4Columns. She is the author of Dog Days (Peninsula Press, 2025; Transit and Hamish Hamilton Canada, 2026). Find a copy of Marginalia: an autobiography from Autofocus Books [https://autofocusbooks.com/store/p/marginalia], New York University Press [https://nyupress.org/9781957392394/marginalia/], or your local independent bookstore. Subscribe to Process Notes [https://naomiwasher.substack.com/] for further reflections on reading, subjectivity, and psychoanalysis.

Episode 14: "The Thinking is the Plot with Jeannie Vanasco"

For our final episode of our first season, Naomi is joined by fellow Annie Ernaux enthusiast Jeannie Vanasco for an in-depth discussion on immersion in the reading process, the un-self-consciousness of writing memoir, the question of whether there is a divide between the craft and the personal, and how we make choices about what to leave out when and why. For the Annie Ernaux fans out there, Naomi and Jeannie look closely at Jeannie's marginalia in her copies of Shame [https://bookshop.org/p/books/shame-annie-ernaux/e06a35cb03a20ad4?ean=9781583220184&next=t] and The Other Girl [https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-other-girl-annie-ernaux/b1c4713e46fde7b5?ean=9781644214879&next=t] and their influence on Jeannie's work, particularly The Glass Eye. Shout-out to Seven Stories Press, Ernaux's American publisher -- we're repping your Annie Ernaux hats and shirts and hope you'll make more of them ;) Author Bio: Jeannie Vanasco is the author of A Silent Treatment [https://bookshop.org/p/books/a-silent-treatment-a-memoir-jeannie-vanasco/7df47bc1be3a7326?ean=9781963108453&next=t], which was named a best book of 2025 by NPR and a best nonfiction book of 2025 by Electric Literature. Her other memoirs include Things We Didn’t Talk About When I Was a Girl [https://bookshop.org/p/books/things-we-didn-t-talk-about-when-i-was-a-girl-a-memoir-jeannie-vanasco/0cbe9841689cb7c8?ean=9781951142032&next=t]—a New York Times Editors' Choice and a best book of 2019 by TIME, Esquire, Kirkus, among others—and The Glass Eye [https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-glass-eye-a-memoir-jeannie-vanasco/6adefe269b155f14?ean=9781941040775&next=t], which Poets & Writers called one of the five best literary nonfiction debuts of 2017. Born and raised in Sandusky, Ohio, she lives in Baltimore and is an associate professor of English at Towson University. Her fourth book is under contract with Tin House, publisher of her other memoirs. Marginalia: an autobiography is out now! Order it from Autofocus Books [https://autofocusbooks.com/store/p/marginalia] or your favorite, cool bookstore (like Unnameable Books [https://unnameablebooks.square.site/], Book Club Bar [https://www.bookclubbar.com/preorders/naomi-washer-marginalia], Exile in Bookville [https://exileinbookville.com/], Literati [https://literatibookstore.com/], Third Place Books [https://www.thirdplacebooks.com/], Skunk Cabbage Books [https://www.skunkcabbagebooks.com/events/3608620251003], Interabang Books [https://interabangbooks.com/book/9781957392394], and more)! Subscribe to her Substack, Process Notes [https://naomiwasher.substack.com/], for further thoughts and reflections.

Episode 13: "Lori Feathers on the hypnotic style of abundant books"

Naomi is joined by bookseller and podcaster Lori Feathers to discuss her reading of The Hunger of Women [https://interabangbooks.com/book/9781913505868] by Marosia Castaldi, translated by Jamie Richards (And Other Stories, 2023). They explore the impact of this rhythmic, hypnotic prose, the embedded references to books from other cultures, and the lineage of ‘abundant’ books that drives so much of Lori’s reading. Reading List: Miss Mackintosh, My Darling [https://interabangbooks.com/book/9781628973952] by Marguerite Young Palinuro of Mexico [https://interabangbooks.com/book/9781628975635] by Fernando del Paso Ducks, Newburyport [https://interabangbooks.com/book/9781771963077] by Lucy Ellmann Lori Feathers is a writer and podcaster in Dallas, Texas, and a co-owner/founder of Interabang Books [https://interabangbooks.com/] where she is the store’s book buyer. She is creator of “The Big Book Project” [https://thebigbookproject.substack.com/] on Substack, and co-hosts the critically acclaimed books podcast, “Across the Pond.” [https://www.buzzsprout.com/1728150] Lori is founding Chair of the Republic of Consciousness Prize, US and Canada [https://www.republicofconsciousnessprize-usa.com/], a prize honoring the work of small publishers, and co-founder of the Inside Literary Prize [https://www.innovatingjustice.org/inside-literary-prize/] for incarcerated persons. For six years she served on the elected board of the National Book Critics Circle. Her writing can be found at Literary Hub, Words Without Borders, Los Angeles Review of Books, and Southwest Review. Marginalia: an autobiography is out now! Order it from Autofocus Books [https://autofocusbooks.com/store/p/marginalia] or your favorite, cool bookstore (like Unnameable Books [https://unnameablebooks.square.site/], Book Club Bar [https://www.bookclubbar.com/preorders/naomi-washer-marginalia], Exile in Bookville [https://exileinbookville.com/], Literati [https://literatibookstore.com/], Third Place Books [https://www.thirdplacebooks.com/], Skunk Cabbage Books [https://www.skunkcabbagebooks.com/events/3608620251003], Interabang Books [https://interabangbooks.com/book/9781957392394], and more)! Subscribe to her Substack, Process Notes [https://naomiwasher.substack.com/], for further thoughts and reflections.

Episode 12: "Lauren Elkin on reading the world afresh with Georges Perec"

Naomi is joined by Lauren Elkin for a conversation on the permission-giving qualities of Georges Perec's Species of Spaces and Other Pieces, how reading Perec made her into a writer, and what it's like to re-see the world in the way he encourages us to do. Weaving through Elkin's own experiments in seeing with her book No. 91/92: diary of a year on the bus [https://bookshop.org/p/books/no-91-92-a-diary-of-a-year-on-the-bus-lauren-elkin/c3c3e032ea59ee8f?ean=9781635901535&next=t] and the ways we live in and through our homes with her novel Scaffolding [https://bookshop.org/p/books/scaffolding-a-novel-lauren-elkin/61b8ab25a94b8ce0?ean=9781250397744&next=t], we land in her current home in London where her accumulated stacks of books are grouped by subject, and we get a taste of how a new stack is building toward a particular new project. Reading List Species of Spaces and Other Pieces [https://bookshop.org/p/books/species-of-spaces-and-other-pieces-georges-perec/46bf123c146028cf?ean=9780141442242&next=t], Georges Perec An Attempt at Exhausting a Place in Paris [https://bookshop.org/p/books/an-attempt-at-exhausting-a-place-in-paris-georges-perec/72126700a172eacb?ean=9780984115525&next=t], Georges Perec The House in Paris [https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-house-in-paris-elizabeth-bowen/a17e57bfd75f2f5f?ean=9780385721257&next=t], Elizabeth Bowen The Daughter's Seduction: Feminism and Psychoanalysis [https://bookshop.org/p/books/feminism-and-psychoanalysis-the-daughter-s-seduction-professor-jane-gallop/8cef5a0f75e5d7e4?ean=9780333294727&next=t], Jane Gallop Lauren Elkin is the author of several critically-acclaimed books, including Scaffolding [https://bookshop.org/p/books/scaffolding-a-novel-lauren-elkin/61b8ab25a94b8ce0?ean=9781250397744&next=t], Art Monsters [https://bookshop.org/p/books/art-monsters-unruly-bodies-in-feminist-art-lauren-elkin/b5740413023e31e0?ean=9781250338013&next=t], and Flâneuse [https://bookshop.org/p/books/fl-neuse-women-walk-the-city-in-paris-new-york-tokyo-venice-and-london-lauren-elkin/c0a36e35e7e56908?ean=9780374537432&next=t]. Her essays on art, literature, and culture have appeared in the London Review of Books, the New York Times, Granta, Harper's, Le Monde, Les Inrockuptibles, and Frieze, among others. An award-winning translator, she lives between Paris and London. Marginalia: an autobiography is out now! Order it from Autofocus Books [https://autofocusbooks.com/store/p/marginalia] or your favorite, cool bookstore (like Unnameable Books [https://unnameablebooks.square.site/], Book Club Bar [https://www.bookclubbar.com/preorders/naomi-washer-marginalia], Exile in Bookville [https://exileinbookville.com/], Literati [https://literatibookstore.com/], Third Place Books [https://www.thirdplacebooks.com/], Skunk Cabbage Books [https://www.skunkcabbagebooks.com/events/3608620251003], and more)! Subscribe to her Substack, Process Notes [https://naomiwasher.substack.com/], for further thoughts and reflections.

Episode 11: "Miranda Mellis on character study as an act of love"

Miranda Mellis joins Naomi for a discussion that indexes Michael Eigen’s book The Psychoanalytic Mystic. They discuss the resonance between annotation and free association; the experience of narrating oneself in analysis, losing the thread, doubling back, and having one’s speech be received by the other; the index as a branching form, a poem of the subjective reader; writing as social practice through collective annotation; and how sometimes a text pours salt in the wound while sometimes it serves as a balm. Miranda Mellis [https://mirandamellis.com/] is the author of the novel Crocosmia [https://nightboat.org/book/crocosmia/] (Nightboat Books); three novellas, The Revisionist [http://skewedink.com/Mellis_Revisionist.htm], The Spokes [http://solidobjects.org/], and The Quarry; and a short-story collection, None of This Is Real [http://www.sidebrow.net/books/none-of-this-is-real-miranda-mellis]. Her poetry and nonfiction books and chapbooks include The Revolutionary [https://albionbooks.net/the-revolutionary/], Demystifications [http://www.solidobjects.org/books.php?id=21], Unconsciousness Raising, and Materialisms. She is the co-author of two book-length dialogues: The Instead with Emily Abendroth and Passing Through with Rick Moody (forthcoming, Solid Objects 2026). With Tisa Bryant and Kate Schatz, she was a founding co-editor at The Encyclopedia Project. She grew up in San Francisco and now lives in the woods of the Pacific Northwest where she is a professor at The Evergreen State College. Read her intermittencies at: You Are in Love with the Impossible [https://youareinlovewiththeimpossible.substack.com/]. She is on tour in support of Crocosmia through November, with upcoming readings this week:  * 10/29: UCSD New Writing Series [https://literature.ucsd.edu/news-events/new-writing-series/index.html] in San Diego with Anna Joy Springer | 5PM * 10/30: Book Soup [https://booksoup.com/event/2025-10-30/miranda-mellis-sarah-labrie-discuss-sign-crocosmia-and-no-one-gets-fall-apart] in Los Angeles with Sarah LaBrie | 7PM * 11/1: Gattopardo | [https://www.instagram.com/p/DQM6T2NEcqn/] with Stanya Kahn | 4PM For more tour dates, click here [https://mirandamellisnews.tumblr.com/]. Marginalia: an autobiography is out now! Order it from Autofocus Books [https://autofocusbooks.com/store/p/marginalia] or your favorite, cool bookstore (like Unnameable Books [https://unnameablebooks.square.site/], Book Club Bar [https://www.bookclubbar.com/preorders/naomi-washer-marginalia], Exile in Bookville [https://exileinbookville.com/], Literati [https://literatibookstore.com/], Third Place Books [https://www.thirdplacebooks.com/], Skunk Cabbage Books [https://www.skunkcabbagebooks.com/events/3608620251003], and more)! Subscribe to her Substack, Process Notes [https://naomiwasher.substack.com/], for further thoughts and reflections.