The Fall Dalkey Essentials Are All About Excess

When I first sat down to write this, I planned on banging out a quick and light preview post, a listicle featuring the next “season” of Dalkey Essentials so that everyone knew what was coming, and so that Deep Vellum’s marketing team has a clearer sense of why I’ve dubbed these books Essentials, and how I see them fitting together. I could group them all under a cute rubric—in this case, “Excess,” which, if you read what follows, needs no further explanation—and write something pithy about each title, aiming for a tone hovering between “remember this book?” vibes and “hey, if this author is new to you, you have to read them.” You know, a preorder encouraging listicle.

But that felt a little boring.

If I were unveiling new information—like I will, soon, with regard to the Essentials coming out next summer—it would be one thing, but the next “season” of Essentials is already listed on the Master Dalkey Title List from April, and referenced in this PDF version of Deep Vellum’s catalog, with each of the titles grouped into one of these four color-coded Bookshop lists. The information is out there, everyone reading this is capable of reading jacket copy—what could a preview possibly add?

Personally, I don’t really ever read “preview” posts. I skim them—frequently—and, with reckless abandon, order up anything that catches my eye. Books that then arrive months (and sometimes months and months and months) later, usually after I’ve totally forgotten that the book was even coming out. I don’t ever read the descriptions or blurbs and only read jacket copy to goof on it. Just give me a book with nothing but the title, author, and translator, and I’m good to go.

It’s the same for movies. I hate trailers and on two separate occasions hid my head and covered my ears to avoid seeing the one for One Battle After Another. Generally speaking, I want to go into most of my artistic experiences as close to blind as possible. I prefer the surprise.

So writing a preview post feels weird.

It’s especially weird in this instance, since the six books coming out in the “Fall 2025–Winter 2026” season1 are a mix of Essentials that weren’t all supposed to come out at this time or in this particular order. Each set of six titles that I select for a given publishing season ...