Join us this spring for Season 6 of Check This Out and more in-depth conversations with emerging authors.

Host Rachel Barenbaum and her guests delve deep into the characters and themes as well as the writing process itself.

Rachel has an uncanny knack for spotting future superstars long before they hit the bestseller lists.

Check This Out has featured over 20 authors over the last year and more than half of them are now up for major literary awards. Of the remaining authors, three became major bestsellers and two were chosen for national book clubs.

Here's some of what you have to look forward to this season:

Portia Elan — Homebound - June 20

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.

And on our Book Biz segment, bookseller Rachel Kanter discusses the boom in audiobooks.

Yu-Mei Balasingamchow – Names Have Been Changed - June 27

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.

Check This Out airs Saturdays at 3 p.m. beginning April 11, 2026 on NHPR and NHPR.org.

Check This Out is proud to partner with The PEN/Faulkner Foundation to champion new voices in literature.

Listen to all the back episodes on NHPR.org or download the show as a podcast!

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