đđâď¸ September: We Are So Back
A monthly book pick with Big Fall Fiction Energy; Tim Riggins but with a Mississippi accent; Chicken, road, etc.; The robots will never be(at) us, and more.
Your Inside Voice is a curated cultural newsletter brought to you by Pragmatic, the IP/literary scouting advisory that helps film & tv producers find, acquire, and develop material for the screen.
THE MAIN COURSE
THE WILDERNESS by Angela Flournoy | Mariner | September 16, 2025
The conventional wisdom in publishing seems to be that the rather, um, precarious state of the world means that readers must absolutely want escapism above all else. And thatâs certainly true! But sometimes rather than escape, readers want to be transportedânot to another reality, but to a new, deeper, and more empathetic understanding of the present. And what better way to do that than diving into a compelling, immersive, and sweeping novel that examines the ways friendship persists and perishes despite whatever horror or headline is demanding attention?
This monthâs pick does just that. The Wilderness by Angela Flournoy charts the interconnected lives of five women as they (and their friendships) change, grow, and evolve. Itâs set seamlessly amidst the social, political, and cultural changes of the early twenty-first century but itâs never ham-handed or preachy. Instead, itâs a delicately and powerfully layered journey through twenty years as five Black women come into, around, and fall out of each otherâs lives.
Spanning the recent, Obama-era past through the present and on to a disturbing (but terrifyingly plausible) near future, the plot moves fluidly through space and time. The story unfolds through each characterâs point-of-view in a deeply satisfying way thatâs wholly thanks to Angela Flournoyâs skill as a writer. This is carefully crafted literary fiction, but the book propels through page-turning scenes that reveal characters whose lives weâre privileged to drop in onâand from whom we can draw any number of equally profound conclusions.
The Wilderness is Big Fall Fiction at its very best. Its scope is ambitious, its characters specific and deeply drawn, and its thematic explorations of ambition, friendship, success, and love are universally resonant all the same. A reader picking this up in search of insight into how weâve arrived at this moment in American cultural, political, and economic life will not be disappointed.
Someone should make sure David Brooks gets a copy.
YOUR SOMMELIERâS PAIRING
MISSISSIPPI BLUE 42 by Eli Cranor | Soho Crime | August 5, 2025
Weâre getting a reboot of Friday Night Lights, which remains one of the best series to air on American television. Until the new version drops on Peacock, might we suggest picking up a copy of Eli Cranorâs Mississippi Blue 42. It follows an FBI rookie who investigates corruption in a Mississippi college football program after a star quarterbackâs suspicious death and finds herself wrapped up in a dangerous web of money and power.
The novel delivers all the passion and immediacy of the Southâs devotion to Football Americana in the same way Friday Night Lights did to its audience. But here, that world is washed in an S.A. Cosby-adjacent, noir-ish patina, with just enough Carl Hiaasen energy to keep things unpredictable. The result? Youâll keep turning the pages.
THE CHEESE COURSE
Whyâd the chicken cross the road? To check out Allison Katzâs eggs-ellent (itâll stop now, sorry!) piece on the High Line.
DESSERT
The big news in publishing-land last week was the landmark $1.5 billion settlement that the Author Guild and Anthropic reached in an effort to compensate authors for the unauthorized use of their books to train the AI companyâs LLM chatbot.
Meanwhile, Bain has methodically laid out (in the way that perhaps only consultants charging by the hour know how) what probably should have been obvious to anyone whoâs paid attention to the intersection of creativity and commerce in America for at least a generation. Namely: rather than AI wiping out human creativity, thereâs a real possibility that the technology will stratify the market for entertainment into premium and less-premium experiences.
Weâre also seeing the first inklings that the hype around generative AI is coming back down to earth (unsurprising to those of us who may or may not be old enough to have witnessed the 2000s tech bubble first hand), as companies across industries begin assessing what, exactly, their billions and billions of invested dollars are returning. Even Sam Altman is urging everyone to chill.
All of this points to an intriguing possibility: perhaps artists stand a chance in a world flooded with serviceable (or not) âcontentâ that scratches an itch but still leaves audiences wanting something ineffable. Something human. Something elevated.
We live in a world where flying Spirit is almost always cheaper than Deltaâyet any airline CEO would rather be Delta right about now. Once weâre out of the fog of the AI hype war, it wouldnât be surprising to see a clear path emerge for artists to do for a long time still what theyâve always done: create with passion and without fear.
Can Gen Alpha Save the Box Office? by Matt Belloni | Puck
Where Gen Alpha leads, thereâs a good chance others may followâand that might just be good news! Matt Belloni at Puck breaks down data from an NRG survey suggesting that Gen Alpha isnât immune to screen fatigue, and their desire for novelty and IRL experiences presents an opportunity for the movie industry to nurture a generational moviegoing habit.
There are lessons here for the publishing industry, too. The habit of readingâlike moviegoingâhas taken a beating these last decades. Itâs worth thinking about the ways books are acquired and how theyâre marketed, and in what ways publishers can find new, more bespoke methods to find both books and readers who might not look like the readers theyâve always counted on to prop up quarterly reports.
The Romantasy explainer we didnât know we needed. What started as a trend is no a fully grown genre of its own.
DIGESTIF
Summerâs only over when we say it is, and also is it possible, despite it all, that our best days are ahead of us?
Tiktok failed to load.Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser
Pragmatic works with a select list of American and international film & television clients, helping them find, acquire, and develop books and other intellectual propertyâarticles, life rights, podcasts, video games, theaterâŚand so much moreâfor the screen. If youâre interested in working with us and being plugged into a global, curated IP platform, weâd love to hear from you! Send us an email.