I first began reviewing books in 2019 when I learned that white people accounted for 76% of publishing industry employees. And I guess I’ll keep going because, according to a report referenced this year in The New York Times, white workers made up 72.5% of the book business in 2023. While I can’t single-handedly change publishing’s structural inequities, I can at least support some writers and add my voice to the publishing conversation.
As someone who felt much more comfortable in creative writing than literature courses, reviews challenge me; I’d much prefer to draft a scene than explain the significance of an essay collection’s structure. However, reviewing has many benefits: I get a sense of the nonfiction marketplace, observe another writer’s craft and give an author exposure. Now, I feel sad when a publicist reaches out to me, but I don’t have the time to support an author.
Last year, I had an epiphany: What if I asked one of my nonfiction undergraduate students to review a book? I sent one of my best students an advanced review copy (ARC), identified three places for her to submit the review, wrote her pitch email, sent her a review outline; she took care of the rest. She placed the review in The Chicago Review of Books and now has the skills to navigate the process herself the next time, should she want to review another book.
It was a win-win-win situation: We supported a memoirist, I could add the review to the teaching portion of my tenure file, and the student added a major publication to her writing portfolio ahead of graduation. Having worked for five years outside of academia — a start-up in Chicago, and then in global media in New York City — I know from first-hand experience that a publication can help a candidate stand out in an interview even if the job isn’t writing-related. The experience inspired me to create a book review unit in my creative nonfiction course, and I have (so far) helped seven of my students get published.
Here’s how I’ve learned to teach book reviews to make the biggest impact:
1. Pick a book that was published in the past year or one that will be published during the semester.
My objective here is to help the writer whose work we are reviewing rather than my students. Even if none of your students publish reviews, if you pick a soon-to-be-released book, you’re supporting an author because preorders count as sales on the day a book is released and can positively affect a book’s ranking.
Warning: Listing a book that has yet to be published in your course materials will cause confusion, so be sure to email your students ahead of the first day of class to explain that the book will arrive later.
2. Find reviews about similar books and study them as a class.
I found Harvard Review and The Rumpus have great models. As a class, we counted the number of quotes, noticed when a reviewer used “I,” and found patterns in review structure.
3. Ask the author to visit over Zoom to answer student questions.
Unsurprisingly, students were more invested in the assignment after meeting the author. Before the visit, students pitched their questions to me, and I tailored them and got rid of duplicates. Also, I made sure each student knew which question to ask and when to ask it.
4. Provide feedback on drafts and workshop them as a class.
Because most students haven’t written book reviews, I give them a formula:
- A “lede” (the introductory section of a news story that is intended to entice the reader to read the full story)
- An explanation of what the book is about
- Two, maybe three, things of particular interest/relevance to discuss in more detail
- A conclusion
5. Identify journals that take undergraduate work and will reply by the end of the academic year.
After grading the reviews, I picked the six strongest and began reaching out to editors. To avoid making students create a Submittable account or using mine to submit their work, I looked for journals that take email pitches and relied heavily on this blog post to find the contact information I needed. I also found it helpful to talk to editors at the AWP book fair and asking if they accept reviews from undergraduate students.
Try out this unit in the fall because that’s when many journals open to submissions, and if you wait until the spring, you will only have a couple of months to correspond with editors before students graduate or leave for the summer.
6. Be the editor’s contact person.
Ultimately, it’s best if you’re the point of contact instead of a student because you can establish a relationship with the editor. Also, you could burn a bridge if you’re not included on a chain and a student doesn’t reply promptly. Many of my students needed help with bio length and style. As a middle person, I could provide instruction so the editor didn’t have to. Also, from my own publishing experience, I could advocate for my students because I knew when to send gentle reminders to an editor if a review wasn’t published on the date initially picked.
Students can apply what they learned from the assignment and review a book directly relating to their field of interest (e.g., a student interested in theater management could review a memoir by a famous director) next time. While I value publication, a book review is a safer publication than a deeply personal essay that a student may regret later. Most of my students won’t become professors or go on to write books, but most will continue to read. Teaching them how to review books means we can support the nonfiction community in a bunch of different ways. If your publication accepts book reviews by students, please contact me.
Rajpreet Heir is an assistant professor of nonfiction writing at the University of Tampa. Her personal essays have appeared in The Atlantic, The Washington Post, Teen Vogue, The Rumpus, Lit Hub, The Best of Brevity, the Good Girls Marry Doctors: South Asian American Daughters on Obedience and Rebellion anthology, and more.
During the Trump presidency, The New York Times asked her to transform a written essay about racism she experienced on the subway into a video essay, which received over one million views. She has reviewed books for The New York Times Book Review, The Los Angeles Review of Books, The Boston Globe, Bustle, The Rupture and Harvard Review.
