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In 1969 Maggie Nelson’s aunt, Jane Mixer, a law student, was murdered on a ride home to Muskegon, Michigan. Nelson, born four years later, wrote a book of poems about her, Jane: A Murder; just before it came out, a DNA match reopened the case, and in the summer of 2005 she sat through the trial with her mother. That habit of putting her own life next to the evidence, and both next to theory, runs through everything she has published since: 240 numbered fragments about the colour blue, a study of cruelty in art, an account of her pregnancy and her partner’s transition. The Argonauts won the National Book Critics Circle Award in 2015, and a year later she was named a MacArthur Fellow. This guide covers her 10 key books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 10 key books · 2005–2025 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Maggie Nelson has published 13 books of poetry, memoir and criticism. The best known are The Argonauts (2015), winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award in Criticism, Bluets (2009), The Red Parts (2007) and On Freedom (2021). Start with The Argonauts; the list below explains where each of the others fits.
Where to Start with Maggie Nelson
If you want her defining book
→ The Argonauts (2015) — memoir and theory in the same paragraph.
If you want something short and lyrical
→ Bluets (2009) — 240 fragments about the colour blue.
If you want a story with a plot
→ The Red Parts (2007) — a cold-case trial, seen from the family’s bench.
If you want her big argument
→ On Freedom (2021) — freedom through art, sex, drugs and climate.
10 Maggie Nelson Books, in Order
Jane
A book in verse and prose fragments about Nelson’s aunt Jane Mixer, murdered in Michigan in 1969, built from Jane’s own diaries, newspaper reports and the family’s memories. It was published by Soft Skull and was a finalist for the PEN/Martha Albrand Award for the Art of the Memoir.
The Red Parts
In late 2004, as Jane was about to appear, a DNA match led police to a new suspect in her aunt’s murder, Gary Leiterman. Nelson and her mother attended his trial in Ann Arbor in the summer of 2005, and the book records the trial alongside her own grief and childhood. First published as The Red Parts: A Memoir; reissued with its current subtitle in 2016.
Women, the New York School, and Other True Abstractions
Her academic study, developed from her doctoral work at the CUNY Graduate Center, of women poets and painters around the New York School, including Barbara Guest, Bernadette Mayer, Alice Notley and Eileen Myles. It won the 2008 Susanne M. Glasscock Award for Interdisciplinary Scholarship.
Bluets
Two hundred and forty numbered propositions circling the colour blue, written in the aftermath of a break-up and while caring for a friend paralysed in an accident. It moves between Goethe, Wittgenstein, Joni Mitchell and Nelson’s own nights, and was published by the poetry press Wave Books.
The Art of Cruelty
A study of cruelty and violence in twentieth-century art, poetry, performance and film, asking when depicting brutality tells us something and when it simply repeats it. Published by W. W. Norton, it is her most straightforward book of criticism.
The Argonauts
An account of Nelson’s relationship with the artist Harry Dodge, of her pregnancy and of Dodge’s transition, written in short blocks that quote Roland Barthes, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, D. W. Winnicott and others in the margins. It won the 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award in Criticism and made “autotheory”, a word she took from Paul B. Preciado, a common label for this kind of writing.
On Freedom
Four long essays testing what “freedom” can mean in four areas: art, sex, drugs and the climate crisis. Nelson sets the word against care and obligation, and takes on current arguments about calling out and accountability in art.
Like Love
A collection of essays, tributes and published conversations from across her career, many of them about artists and writers she knows and admires. Published by Graywolf, like The Argonauts and On Freedom.
Pathemata
An 80-page book written during the pandemic, combining a diary of roughly a decade of jaw pain with dreams and daily entries. Wave Books presents it as a companion to Bluets; its formal model is Hervé Guibert’s The Mausoleum of Lovers.
The Slicks
A 64-page essay on two women who made their private lives public and met voyeurism, idolatry and contempt in return: the poet Sylvia Plath and the singer Taylor Swift. Nelson looks at ambition and the price women pay for wanting recognition. Published by Graywolf in November 2025.
In What Order to Read Maggie Nelson
None of her books depends on another, so you can read by interest. Two pairs do belong together: Jane and The Red Parts tell the same family story from either side of the 2005 trial, and Pathemata is written as a companion to Bluets.
Publication order shows the method forming: the poetry and the trial books first, then the fragment form of Bluets, then the long arguments of The Art of Cruelty and On Freedom, with The Argonauts where the personal and the critical finally share every page.
A reading path
1. The Argonauts (2015)
2. Bluets (2009)
3. The Red Parts (2007)
4. On Freedom (2021)
5. The Art of Cruelty (2011)
Everything Else Maggie Nelson Published
Beyond the 10 key books: 3 more, grouped by kind.
Open a group with the + to see every book in it.
Poetry collections
3
3 books · 2001–2007
- 2001Shinerher first collection, Hanging Loose Press
- 2003The Latest Winterpoems, Hanging Loose Press
- 2007Something Bright, Then Holespoems, Soft Skull
The years · 1973–2025
Quick facts about Maggie Nelson
- Known for
- Maggie Nelson is known for books that put her own life, from grief to pregnancy, on the same page as critical theory, a mix often called autotheory.
- 1973
- Born; grows up in Marin County, California
- 2005
- Jane: A Murder and the trial
- 2015
- The Argonauts
- 2025
- The Slicks
- Born
- 1973; grew up in Marin County, California
- Education
- Wesleyan University; PhD in English, CUNY Graduate Center (2004)
- Teaches
- Professor of English, University of Southern California; earlier CalArts
- Honours
- Guggenheim Fellowship (2010); MacArthur Fellowship (2016)
- Prize
- National Book Critics Circle Award in Criticism (2015) for The Argonauts
- Lives
- Los Angeles, with the artist Harry Dodge and their family
The red mark is 2015: The Argonauts, the book that won the National Book Critics Circle Award.
How Maggie Nelson Writes: Thinking in Public
Nelson writes in short numbered or spaced blocks rather than chapters. Bluets is 240 numbered propositions; The Argonauts runs as unbroken paragraphs separated by white space. The form lets her move from a scene in a hospital to a sentence of Wittgenstein without a transition, and lets the reader see the thought being made.
She studied with Annie Dillard at Wesleyan and with Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick and Wayne Koestenbaum at the CUNY Graduate Center, and it shows: she quotes theorists the way other memoirists quote friends, often naming them in the margin. Her own experience is never just illustration for the theory, or the reverse; each is used to test the other.
Her subjects return: violence against women, the body in pain, desire, care and what we owe each other. For writers who mix essay, memoir and criticism the same way, see Authors like Maggie Nelson.
Watch
Maggie Nelson on The Argonauts
Nelson reads from The Argonauts and talks with the writer Amber Dawn at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver in January 2017.
Frequently asked questions about Maggie Nelson’s books
How many books has Maggie Nelson written?
Thirteen. Ten are the key books on this page, from Jane: A Murder (2005) to The Slicks (2025); the other three are the poetry collections Shiner (2001), The Latest Winter (2003) and Something Bright, Then Holes (2007).
What are Maggie Nelson’s books in order?
Jane: A Murder (2005), The Red Parts (2007), Women, the New York School, and Other True Abstractions (2007), Bluets (2009), The Art of Cruelty (2011), The Argonauts (2015), On Freedom (2021), Like Love (2024), Pathemata, or, The Story of My Mouth (2025) and The Slicks (2025).
Where should I start with Maggie Nelson?
The Argonauts (2015) — her best-known book and the clearest example of how she mixes memoir and theory. If you want something shorter, start with Bluets; if you want a story, The Red Parts.
What is Maggie Nelson’s most famous book?
The Argonauts (2015), which won the National Book Critics Circle Award in Criticism. Bluets (2009) is the other book most often taught and quoted.
What is “autotheory”?
Writing that combines autobiography with critical or philosophical theory. Nelson did not coin the word; she took it from Paul B. Preciado’s Testo Junkie, and The Argonauts made it a common label for this kind of book.
What is Bluets about?
Bluets (2009) is a book-length lyric essay in 240 numbered fragments about the colour blue, written after a break-up and while a close friend was recovering from an accident that left her paralysed.
Is The Red Parts a true story?
Yes. It is about the 1969 murder of Nelson’s aunt Jane Mixer in Michigan and the 2005 trial of Gary Leiterman, who was charged decades later after a DNA match. Nelson attended the trial with her mother.
What awards has Maggie Nelson won?
The National Book Critics Circle Award in Criticism (2015) for The Argonauts, a Guggenheim Fellowship (2010) and a MacArthur Fellowship (2016). Jane: A Murder was a finalist for the PEN/Martha Albrand Award for the Art of the Memoir.
What is Maggie Nelson’s newest book?
The Slicks: On Sylvia Plath and Taylor Swift, a short essay published by Graywolf in November 2025. Pathemata, or, The Story of My Mouth appeared earlier in 2025.
Who is Harry Dodge?
An American artist and writer, Nelson’s partner and the other central figure of The Argonauts. They live in Los Angeles with their family.
Footnotes
- Maggie Nelson — Wikipedia
- The Red Parts — Wikipedia
- The Red Parts — Kirkus Reviews
- The Slicks — Kirkus Reviews
- Pathemata — Wave Books
- One Book One SFU: The Argonauts — Simon Fraser University
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“There is much to be learned from wanting something both ways.”
— Maggie Nelson, The Argonauts (2015)
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