BONUS Women After Dark Ep. 1: Shy Girl and the complicated reality of AI use in publishing

Season 2 Episode 7: a conversation with Julie Gerstenblatt, author of The Stargazer of Nantucket

In this episode, we are joined by a very special guest, author Julie Gerstenblatt, whose latest novel, The Stargazer of Nantucket, was released in June. The novel follows an ensembl cast of characters, including 18-year-old Winifred Starbuck, daughter of renowned merchant captains Nell and Peter Starbuck, who longs to join her parents on their final voyage to China in 1851. Forbidden from the journey, Winnie takes matters into her own hands and stows away with them, sailing straight into danger and deception to confront a family secret that could change everything. Gerstenblatt's previous novel, Daughters of Nantucket, won the New England Society Book Award for Fiction.She holds a doctorate in curriculum and instruction from Teachers College, Columbia University and has taught everything from middle school English to graduate studies.  Her essays have appeared in Huffington Post and Grown & Flown, among others. A native New Yorker who has been visiting Nantucket since childhood, Julie now lives in coastal Rhode Island with her family and one very smart shichon poo.

Season 2 Episode 6 A Conversation with Lucy Ashe, Author of The Model Patient

In this episode, we are joined by a very special guest, author Lucy Ash, whose latest novel, The Model Patient, was just released in April. Ash's first two novels, The Dance of the Dolls and The Sleeping Beauties, were inspired by her years immersed in the world of classical dance, while The Model Patient draws on her personal experience as a therapy patient to explore the psychology of power, trust, and self-erasure. Ash is a Brooklyn-based writer who trained at the Royal Ballet School before changing course to study English literature at Oxford University, where she graduated in 2010. Her poetry and short stories have been published in a number of literary journals and she was shortlisted for the 2020 Impress Prize for New Writers. She also reviews theater and particularly ballet, writing for the website playstoc.com.

Season 2, Episode 5: Music and Sisterhood in The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar

Amal El-Mohtar, co-author of This Is How You Lose the Time War, knows exactly what it means to love a sister, and she explores that relationship beautifully in The River Has Roots, her solo debut novella. The River Has Roots is a magical, ethereal, fairy tale retelling of the traditional murder ballad, The Two Sisters. It's full of singing and music, a testament to the power of true love and sisterhood. Something we know a thing or two about in this episode of Women Are Reading.

BONUS Women After Dark Ep. 1: Shy Girl and the complicated reality of AI use in publishing

On March 14th, 2026, Hachette Book Group pulled the forthcoming horror novel "Shy Girl" from its lineup after the New York Times approached the publisher with what it claimed was evidence that the book was written by AI. Author Mia Ballard, who self-published the novel in February of 2025, told the Times in an email that she did not use AI to write "Shy Girl," but rather someone she hired to edit the self-published version did. Since the cancellation of Shy Girl, which is likely the first time a book has ever been pulled from traditional publishing due to allegations of AI usage, has sent both the publishing industry and the book community into a full-blown crash out. The controversy has spawned hundreds of think pieces, video essays, and podcast episodes from journalists, online creators, and even authors themselves who all seem to be asking the same question. Is there even really a way to truly know if a book was written with AI? The answer might not be as black and white as some would like to believe in this episode of Women After Dark. *Women After Dark is a series where the hosts of Women Are Reading indulge in some of their favorite guilty pop culture pleasures while exploring the most bizarre, controversial, and batshit insane nonsense plaguing the entertainment world that should not be discussed in the light of day. *

Season 2 Episode 4: Grief, Cults and Videotapes in Universal Harvester by John Darnielle

It’s the late-1990s in the small town of Nevada, Iowa, when Jeremy, a worker at Video Hut, gets pulled into a strange and unnerving mystery after one of his customers tells him there’s something weird on one of the videotapes. Something that doesn’t belong. Two days later, another customer comes in with the same complaint. “There’s another movie on this tape,” she says. Jeremy soon finds, that yes, in the middle of Targets, an old movie with Boris Karloff, the movie is suddenly replaced with low res, black and white footage inside of a barn that looks nearly identical to one just outside of town… Who spliced the disturbing clips onto the tapes? And more importantly...why? John Darnielle’s Universal Harvester is a deeply unsettling and atmospheric exploration of grief, in this episode of Women are Reading.