Recs if you like Dear Committee Members...

Mind you not just about academics or authors with a random abandoned PhD—more like the unbelievable people who manage to write bestsellers on a hundred notes stuck to their research paper drafts. Or at least worked long enough in the field to create believable fictional academics and niche academia jokes.

Unbound by fiction subgenres or personal ratings—feel free to propose more books in the comments!

broadly construed!

Books that take place in and around university or college campuses (and I'm including some boarding schools). Perfect for back to school season in the fall.

Fiction books with very unconventional formatting, writing, or narration. The format is often a mix of multiple different formats: verse, epistolary, archival ephemera, transcripts, narration, art, etc.

books formatted primarily in letters, diary entries, emails/ims/texts, or documents!

Behold: yet another of my 2 a.m. deep dives - this time into epistolary literature! The list starts with some of the earliest examples of the form and follows it into the present day, from stories told through letters and diaries to those built from emails, texts, transcripts, and other documents. Whether you’re a longtime fan or completely new to this genre, what interests you most about it?

(A quick note: I put this list together using Wikipedia, blog posts, and Reddit threads. I did my best to keep everything in chronological order, but a few mistakes may have slipped through - it was 2 a.m., after all. If you have any suggestions on what else I should add, I’d love to hear it!)