This podcast is a presentation of The Meow Library.

“Weaker writers transcribe; stronger ones, having broken their iPhones, creatively recast.”

- Giles Harvey, “The Ample Rewards of Ben Lerner’s Slender New Novel,” The New Yorker, March 30, 2026.

Ben Lerner has done something almost impossible in Transcription: he has made the novel dangerous again, restored both as argument and apparition, memory and fraud, broken machine and user error. Out of a failed recording, he has built a book so slim it looks, at first glance, like a dare, then unfolds as proof that the form can still be larger than the life it steals from. One begins to suspect that Lerner did not so much write this book as overhear it in another register altogether, that he had perhaps intended, in some purer and more occult phase of ambition, to compose a novel for cats—something all vibration, pause, atmosphere, and mischief—and that what we have received under the title Transcription is the mortal dictation transcript of that more elegant original: a document of influence, mistranslation, and love, in which the novel survives by refusing to be reduced to mere record. This podcast celebrates what could have been, if Lerner surrendered fully to the bestial anarchy purring beneath Transcription’s many-splendored facade. Get ready to break your iPhone.

This podcast is sustained by sales of the internationally bestselling Meow: A Novel.

Ben Lerner's Transcription is available through Macmillan and wherever books are sold.

This podcast is a presentation of The Meow Library.

Recently, novelist and NYU professor Ocean Vuong sat down with book commentator David Perell to discuss a number of stifling trends in contemporary literature, namely the “taming of the sentence,” which has become increasingly evident as writers begin using AI tools to check their work for clarity. Vuong argues that this enervation of literary style began with the newspaper, eventually finding its way into universities and literary workshops. AI merely reveals the pervasiveness of today’s “merely communicative” approach. Better writing comes, he explains, when authors value intuition over precision.

This podcast demolishes Vuong’s position by presenting an excerpt from the internationally bestselling Meow: A Novel. Or maybe it proves his point. We don’t know. It’s all a vibe, man.

This podcast is sustained by sales of the internationally bestselling Meow: A Novel.

Ocean Vuong’s work can be read and purchased here.

This podcast is a presentation of The Meow Library.

Last week, Hachette made an unprecedented move for a Big Five publisher, cancelling the US release of Mia Ballard's Shy Girl and pulling the UK edition over allegations of heavy AI assistance in the creation of the text. The author and publisher, in the midst of what's sure to be an illuminating legal battle, are being cagey about details, but online comments indicate that large portions of the book are "unreadable," "AI slop," and "make no sense."

This case raises some interesting questions: how did a Big Five publisher conduct QC on alleged "slop" and deem it worthy for release? What does this say about the quality of their other titles, and reader preferences? Why on Earth would they admit to this? And, perhaps most importantly--does having a human behind the keyboard really matter all that much?

The Meow Library takes a strong position on all of the above: have a listen.

This podcast is supported by sales of Meow: A Novel, an international bestseller.

Shy Girl by Mia Ballard cannot be purchased anywhere.

This podcast is a presentation of The Meow Library.

In a recent interview with podcaster David Senra, a16z’s Marc Andreessen claimed not only to do “zero introspection,” but dismisses introspection itself as a 20th-century contrivance. How did he come to such a radical conclusion? The Meow Library speculates it’s because of his exposure to Meow: A Novel, a novelty book containing only repetitions of the word “meow” which has gained traction among the Silicon Valley intelligentsia. In this podcast, we examine the thought process behind this book, which is surprisingly close to Andreessen’s own.
This podcast is sustained by sales of the internationally bestselling Meow: A Novel.

Debate rages across Twitter as professor and novelist ⁠Aaron Gwyn⁠ insists that his college-level fiction writing students ⁠can't name a single novelist⁠, living or dead. Are we in a literacy crisis? Not necessarily: Many have rushed to his students' defense, purporting to be professional authors who "don't read for pleasure," and who see reading fiction as an ablest bourgeois pose.

Do writers really need to be able to read? You know The Meow Library's answer. We invite you to meow along as you listen to this podcast, which is not about literature, and buy our books, which are not books.

The finest literature on the planet is in The Meow Library, where every word is "meow."

Aaron Gwyn's work is available wherever books are sold.

This podcast is a presentation of The Meow Library.

In this week’s podcast, we investigate the hype parade leading up to the release of Madeline Cash’s Lost Lambs, easily the most anticipated novel of 2026. This is not so much a review of the book (there are plenty of those) as it is of Cash’s PR team, which is the real work of art here. How does an author rise from obscurity to the upper echelons of English literature—replete with comparisons to Franzen and Pynchon—in the space of one book? And are those comparisons merited? You won’t find out here: we hired Cash’s PR team to funnel you to this podcast, which is a 30-minute recording of a man meowing like a cat. You have already clicked on it. You’ve already heard the first meows. And now you will buy our book.

Lost Lambs is available via Macmillan Publishers.

This podcast is supported by the alarmingly growing sales of Meow: A Novel.

This podcast is a production of The Meow Library.

Jennette McCurdy's new book has us at a loss for words. Some things are simply unspeakable, as this podcast makes plain.

Jennette McCurdy's Half His Age is available through Penguin Random House and wherever books are sold.

For less transgressive fare, we suggest The Meow Library's new translations of Wuthering Heights and Pride & Prejudice.

This podcast is a presentation of The Meow Library.

We've seen the trailer for Emerald Fennel's upcoming Wuthering Heights, and we're concerned. Cheap props, bizarre casting, flat lighting, Charli XCX. At what point does an adaptation--or "reimagining," in Fennel's words--start to cheapen the source material? Does the public debase the public domain? Questions to ponder as you listen to this segment of The Meow Library's new translation of Wuthering Heights.

The Meow Library's Wuthering Heights (For Your Cat)--a word-for-word "meowifying" of Bronte's original text--is available now on Amazon.