Back to School: Books Set on Campus

Welcome to HopLit, a beery book podcast for everyone!

HopLit hosts David & Emily celebrate the imminent start of the new school year with a Back to School Bookstack 6-pack celebrating books about or set in school settings and college campuses. From campuses both real and fictional, we are sharing stories that explore our most formative years and experiences. In addition, the hosts of HopLit review recent readings, share their TBR stacks, celebrate August author birthdays, review the Shirley Jackson Awards, and look forward to college football season gearing up as we approach the return of university life. 

Emily's picks
Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo
The Faculty Lounge by Jennifer Mathieu
The Rules of Attraction by Bret Easton Ellis

David's picks
Stoner by John Williams
Jennifer the Damned by Karen Ullo
The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman

We'd love to hear your picks as well, so share them with us on social media!

HopLit is a beery book podcast for everyone, with no snobbery and no pretense. We don't believe in guilty pleasures of either the liquid or literary varieties. Whatever you're reading and however you're reading it, and whatever you're drinking or if you're not drinking at all, this podcast is for you.

HopLit is hosted by David Nilsen & Emily Swank.

David Nilsen is a full-time beer writer and educator living near Dayton, Ohio. He's an Advanced Cicerone© and a member of the North American Guild of Beer Writers and the British Guild of Beer Writers. He is a former public librarian and book critic. You can find him online at davidnilsenbeer.com and davidnilsenwriter.com and on Instagram and Bluesky @davidnilsenbeer.

Emily Swank is an English teacher and the creator behind the Instagram account @thebeercanon. The Beer Canon works to pair books with craft beer, and has its own monthly brewery hopping book club. She's hosted bookish events with Columbus Brewing Company and Seventh Son Brewing, and is based in Columbus, Ohio.