Check This Out!
Check This Out, a partnership between New Hampshire Public Radio and PEN/Faulkner, is a literary podcast in which host and novelist Rachel Barenbaum interviews diverse and emerging authors about their work. Previous guests have included PEN/Faulkner honorees Claire Jimenez, John Vercher, Jonathan Escoffery, Ruben Degollado, and K-Ming Chang, among many others.
You can listen to episodes live by streaming NHPR.org, or download it as a podcast, wherever you get your podcasts, including Apple, Amazon, and Spotify. Past episodes are also available to stream at any time.
Spring 2026 Season
Apr 9 – Karan Mahajan
The Complex moves between the U.S. and modern India to follow the illicit liaisons, real estate dramas, political ambitions and betrayals of a prominent Delhi family, unraveling in the shadow of a nation’s transformation.
Apr 16 – Claire Oshetsky
A darkly comedic, surreal noir novel set in 1974 San Francisco, following 19-year-old Celia Dent as she becomes obsessed with murder and desire after a co-worker’s death, leading her to challenge her controlling husband and her mundane life.
Apr 23 – Rebecca Lehman
We all know what happened to Henry VIII’s second wife, Anne Boleyn. But what if she woke up the day after her execution and took it upon herself to seek justice? A fantastical journey through the wilds of England and Tudor history, filled with danger and magic and steeped in Arthurian legend.
Apr 30 – Judy Batalion
In 1938, Fanny Zelshinsky, an artist from an elite Jewish family is deciding whether or not to go through with her upcoming wedding. Meanwhile, Zosia Dror has fled her religious family to advocate for social equality as part of a new youth movement. But when famous artist Wanda Petrovsky goes missing, this unlikely duo works together to find Wanda before it’s too late.
May 7 – Daniyal Mueenuddin
This is Where the Serpent Lives follows the unraveling marriage of a privileged American poet and her Pakistani husband as cultural divides, secrets, and betrayals slowly erode their relationship. Through intertwining narratives set in both the U.S. and Pakistan, the novel reveals how class, power, and desire trap its characters in cycles of deception and emotional isolation.
May 14 – Stacia Stark
A young woman faces a deadly competition where survival depends on mastering forbidden powers she barely understands. As secrets about her past and the ruling powers emerge, Aria must decide whom to trust before the trials — and her enemies — claim her life.
May 28 – Tolani Akinola
In the wreckage of a fateful Thanksgiving reunion at their Nigerian-American family’s table, four siblings are forced to reckon with the past, take stock of what really matters, and find a way back to each other.
June 4 – Susan Bernhard
In a saga of survival and the secrets that haunt us, one desperate decision creates a fault line that spans decades and threatens to break a family wide open.
June 11 – H.M. Wolfe
A viral dark dystopian romance set in a corrupt surveillance state ruled by the masked elite, following a mercenary who botches the assassination of the president’s son and ends up forced to marry him.
June 18 – Portia Elan
In this novel of friendship and hard-won hope, four lives are entangled across time by one story, saved to a floppy disk in the 1980s and destined to ripple across the centuries. For fans of punk rock, robots, 80’s nostalgia, and post-apocalyptic pirates.
June 25 –
A debut novel about Ophir — not her real name — who starts a confessional podcast about her years on the run around the globe. Filled with danger and twists, it’s ultimately a story about immigration and belonging — one unlike any you’ve seen before.
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