Rock Is Lit

“There’s a side of rock and roll—defiant, anarchic, Dionysian, subversive, doomed, Romantic—that has always appealed to literary novelists,” writes journalist Jonathan Dee.

Rock is Lit, the first and only podcast devoted to rock novels, takes listeners on a quest to find the very best rock novels and explore the propulsive energy and raw power of these stories about music, the people who make it, and the characters who love it. In each episode host Christy Alexander Hallberg interviews authors about craft and the musical inspiration behind their work, then brings in music gurus to add real-world context to the bands or musical periods featured in the novels.

The podcast runs the gamut from bestselling and critically acclaimed novels like Janet Fitch’s Paint It Black and Dana Spiotta’s National Book Award-nominated Eat the Document to cult classics like Rex Weiner’s The (Original) Adventures of Ford Fairlane to science fiction rock novels like Sarah Pinsker’s A Song For A New Day to YA LGBTQ debuts like Jessamyn Violet’s Secret Rules to Being a Rockstar to celebrity rock novels like the legendary Suzi Quatro’s The Hurricane.

Music experts who have appeared on episodes include Pamela Des Barres, Danny Goldberg, Katherine Turman, Pleasant Gehman, Zeena Schreck, Nabil Ayers, Elliott Landy, Dave Lewis, Lina Lecaro, Ty Gilpin, and Tom Gigliotti.

Bibliofiles and fans of grunge, blues, classic rock, punk, pop, and pretty much every other rock music subgenre will find something enthralling in each show.

Rock is Lit is a proud member of the Pantheon Podcasts Network.