ANNA DORN
Best:
Sky Daddy by Kate Folk
Paradise Logic by Sophie Kemp
Addison by Addison Rae
Worst:
That Geese album sorry
KATIE FRANK
Best of 2025: friendship, cats, Prospect Park, sourdough bread, hot NYC mayor elected, birth of Burial Magazine, new Bunny Rogers book, growing ever more powerful with every autofiction subtweet
Worst of 2025: being too distracted by the Internet to read books, genocide
CHRISTOPHER ZEISCHEGG
Worst of 2025: readings, writers, artists
Best of 2025: God, the @noiselawyer Instagram account, workaholism
JULIET ESCORIA
Worst:
1) AI, which makes me feel despair in every way
2) The fact that I am forced to think about AI
3) The AI that takes my order at Taco Bell
Best:
1) new literary website: zona motel
2) legacy literary website: ee's Hobart
3) app: ScreenZen, which has completely broken my compulsion to check social media
DANIELLE CHELOSKY
best: Are People Out There by Shane Kowalski, Bolaño revival, Grand Rapids by Natasha Stagg, Crop Circle Press, Lover of Leaving by Lisa Carver, Beyond The Last Estate magazine, Fresh, Green Life by Sebastian Castillo, Teleplasm by Audrey Szasz, Pan by Michael Clune
worst: Substack essays, Nymph by Stephanie LaCava, Instagram poetry, Anaïs Nin hate, The Four Spent The Day Together by Chris Kraus, incel lit, Good Girl by Aria Aber, Nabokov discourse, canceling De Sade
UZODINMA OKEHI
(Best-best//no worst)
My top pick, Michael Robert Liska's Alice, or The Wild Girl. Historical Fiction undersells it. Great, captivating literary thriller. Shout to the 10 or 12 other books I read. Much respect. But Liska crushed it. Maybe close second, Meg Reynold's A Comic Year. Completely shifted how I think about comics, and poetry. And life?
JOSEPH NASTA
Best of: roasted garlic, white sweet potato, plums
Worst of: oranges, Aperol, garbanzo beans
JENNIFER OSTOPOVICH
Best
New online mag: Burial Magazine
Song: Pain - ThxSoMch
Return of indie print: Beyond the Last Estate and diy presses like Bone Machine
Book: Alice, or The Wild Girl
Makeup: Burgundy lips
Clothing: 90s style skater dresses
Worst
Internet: AI slop
Clothing: Wide leg jeans (bring back cigarette pants!)
Movies: All of them. They all sucked this year.
LISA MARIE ZAPATA
BEST
Unannounced 6 month social media sabbatical
Tech-free beachside extended stay
Hurricane Storm Chasing
Mediation & Productivity
Being personality forward upon introduction
Being a regular
Workouts at dawn
Honest friendships
WORST
Internet squabbles
Cretinous creatives
Backhanded compliments
ANDREA TAYLOR
Best: All the Way to the River, sobriety, Bugonia, discovering Meghan O'Gieblyn, raspberries
Worst: Death of Brian Wilson, AI slop
RYAN PETERSEN
BEST:
Book: Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico
Film: Afternoons of Solitude - Alberto Serra
Music: My Mind EP - Flirty800
Video game: Blue Prince
WORST:
Abundance by Ezra Klein, "magical girl" autofiction, academic writing about raving, "Berghain" by Rosalía, Heated Rivalry, Weapons
ELIZABETH ELLEN
Best of 2025: sobriety, abstinence, 12 step women’s meetings, sponsorship, therapy, mental clarity, emotional regulation, platonic friendship, getting kicked out of an empowered women’s retreat aftercare group, Theo Von podcast rabbit hole (going down), treating Theo Von podcast as my own personal porno, Camille Bordas short stories in The New Yorker, Brontez Purnell fiction in Harper’s, being single, funny people, diners, God
Worst of 2025: Norm Macdonald still gone
