The first official day of fall is this coming Tuesday, September 22, but if you’re reading this then by now you’ve probably seen a few “most anticipated for fall 2026” lists. There is so much great stuff coming, and so many new novels I want to read.
But I want to focus on some of the nonfiction that’s coming out in the coming months because, according to some book world insiders, nonfiction is in crisis. Or at least, it’s more difficult for editors at major houses to acquire books that purport to be true than it has been previously. Reliable stalwart nonfiction has been passed over by readers for more escapist fare, and I can’t say I blame readers for that. Yet still.
It doesn’t help that the end of the year is traditionally a big time for celebrity memoirs, the kinds of books that make great Christmas gifts and tend to suck up a lot of media attention. There are so many good ones this year—Kyle MacLachlan, Judi Dench, LeVar Burton, and Dustin Hoffman, to name a few—but let’s not talk about them right now. They’ll be fine no matter what.
I want to tell you about some other nonfiction titles that I’m looking forward to reading this season: the kinds of books that don’t require ghostwriters and big marketing budgets and for which their authors didn’t get paid seven-figure advances. The best nonfiction writing relies on our inherent curiosity about the world we live in, as flawed as it may be. I hope something on this list strikes your own thirst for knowledge.
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The Only Thing There Is To Want: A Memoir of Three Loves by Sarah Heppola
I expect that Sarah Heppola’s next book after her bestselling memoir Blackout will also be a masterpiece of personal writing.
Darkness Becomes Bright: On the Brief Life and Immortal Art of Edgar Allan Poe by Emily Ogden
I love a literary biography. This season we’ll see new ones of Janet Malcolm and Anita Brookner, but my most anticipated is one that I hope will delve into how and why the works of this one weirdo (complimentary) became required reading in high school English classes.
I Want to Be Famous: When Everybody and Nobody Is a Celebrity by Bobby Finger and Lindsey Weber
The thing about Bobby and Lindsey is that they were so good at writing about pop culture before they ever even started their very famous podcast, Who Weekly. To see them work together and teach us a thing or two about celebrity culture in 2026 and how we ended up here.
We Radiant Things: Notes on Being Alien and Becoming Cyborg by Franny Choi
This is the kind of book I most seek out. In my ideal world there would be dozens of essay collections by excellent writers (Choi is a poet) on culture and politics, technology and the evils of capitalism. I can’t wait to see what she does in prose form.
The Savage Mind: An American Legacy by David Treuer
This one’s poised to be the book of the moment. There are a slew of political books coming out this fall, but I can’t imagine many are as artful and insightful as David Treuer’s treatise on violence in America, from the genocidal age of the frontier up until the current day.
Freedom’s Gate: Maya Angelou, Lorraine Hansberry, Abbey Lincoln, Miriam Makeba, and Nina Simone Live at the New York Nightclub that Shaped the Civil Rights Movement by Soyica Diggs Colbert
I’m always surprised that micro-histories of very specific times and places aren’t more popular because they seem like the kind of storytelling that would appeal to a variety of readers. This one sounds particularly juicy: it’s the story of the club where Black women artists of all stripes gathered at the dawning of the Civil Rights movement.
Back: Essays on the Soul and Spine of America by Lauren Michele Jackson
Lauren Michele Jackson is one of my favorite culture writers. I also love an essay collection based around a specific body part (see also Heather Radke’s Butts: A Backstory). Seems like a perfect pairing of author and subject.
Hyperscale: The Ambition and Excess of Big Tech’s Data Empires by Paris Marx
There are a lot of books being published about how Big Tech is ruining our environment and our minds (often by publishers that still think AI might work for them), but Hyperscale is the one I’ve got my eye on this fall partly because I’m such a fan of author Paris Marx’s podcast, Tech Won’t Save Us.
Our Arab: On Longing, Belonging, and Hope by Zaina Arafat
I really loved Zaina Arafat’s debut novel, You Exist Too Much, which chronicled a young woman’s feelings of dissonance at being a Palestinian-American. I’m ready for Zaina herself to be the main character in this new collection on a similar topic, which feels vital in today’s political climate.
I Can’t Stop Thinking About Horses and Sex by Lisa Hanawalt
If you’ve seen BoJack Horseman or Tuca & Bertie, you know that Lisa Hanawalt thinks in bright colors and funny-looking anthropomorphic animals. Her new graphic (in both senses of the word) memoir is horny and charming and suffused with the poignancy of wanting.
Jolt: My Electric Journey Out of Darkness by Ted Scheinman
A disclaimer: for a brief moment in 2019, Ted was my boss at the now defunct publication, Pacific Standard. But his new stunningly written memoir about undertaking electroconvulsive therapy is perhaps the ultimate example of how you never really know what a person is going through.
Vocal Break: On Women, Music, and Power by Lauren Elkin
I can just tell by looking at the young sneering faces of the Bikini Kill bandmates on the cover of Vocal Break that the author of Art Monster and Flâneuse is going to have a lot of wonderful things to say about how women across a variety of genres found power in making music .
Ten Lives: How What We Have Shapes Who We Are by Mona Chalabi
Data journalist and visual artist Chalabi has found a really lovely way to combine her skills: Ten Lives is an eye-opening study of what money—and financial insecurity—means to ten different Americans.
Lovely Me: The Life of Jacqueline Susann by Barbara Seaman
Here’s a self-serving little plug: I wrote a new introduction for this reissue of a literary biography that is a campy, gossipy delight.
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