Welcome to HopLit, a beery book podcast for everyone!

In this episode, David & Emily commemorate Juneteenth with books that look at the legacy of slavery, the end of the slavery, and what has come after it, books that show the resilience of Black authors and characters. They also offer a quick list of books for World Refugee Day.

Our Bookstack 6-pack for this episode:

Emily's picks
A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance by Hanif Abdurraqib (2021)
Above Ground by Clint Smith (2023)
James by Percival Everett (2024

David's picks
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi (2016)
Citizen by Claudia Rankine (2014)
Voyage of the Sable Venus by Robin Coste-Lewis (2015)

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.