While midterm election coverage is poised to dominate the headlines this autumn, fiction is likely to command the spotlight among book buyers.

Former President Joe Biden's "Promise Me, America" stands out not just as a White House memoir — such works are always major events — but as a rare high-profile political book in the coming months.

Nonfiction sales have declined in recent years, and political titles have not reached the peaks seen during President Donald Trump's first term.

“The energy in political books seems to be subdued.

I think folks are just ranted out,” says Kristen McLean, an analyst and vice president for client insights at Circana, which tracks retail book sales.

"The news cycle is arguably moving too fast for many highly specialized political books to gain traction," says Shannon DeVito, Barnes & Noble's senior director of books.

Michael Lewis’ “Blockers,” a probe into Trump’s second term through the eyes of government workers, may be the only new release to rival the impact of Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan’s summer bestseller, “Regime Change.”

This fall’s notable political offerings otherwise revisit the Biden years, from “Promise Me, America,” to former Middle East envoy Brett McGurk’s “Brink: Inside the Race to Free the Oct. 7 Hostages” to Akbar Shahid Ahmed’s study of Biden’s Gaza war policies, “Crossing the Red Line.”

Even Bob Woodward, who for decades released timely exposés of sitting presidents, is now avoiding current politics.

In “Secrets: A Reporter’s Memoir,” he reflects on presidents and White House sources dating back to the Nixon administration and the Watergate scandal that made him famous.

“Given that he is increasingly turning inward toward his own life, I anticipate that he will attract a more diverse and expansive readership than his previous works,” DeVito remarks.

Novelists Barbara Kingsolver and Hernan Diaz, who shared the Pulitzer Prize three years ago, will again be in the spotlight as featured authors in a bustling season.

Kingsolver's "Partita," about a former musical prodigy drawn back to her past, is her first novel since "Demon Copperhead," her Pulitzer-winning take on Charles Dickens' "David Copperfield."

Diaz, in turn, has followed his Pulitzer-winning "Trust" with the dystopian, Dickensian "Ply," which centers on a young thief in a chaotic future society.

Diaz recounts that he met Kingsolver at the Pulitzer ceremony, where the two shared bourbon and forged a connection over literature and mutual interests.

“I don’t view literature as a competition or a tennis match,” Diaz says.

“The more good books that are out there, the richer the conversation becomes and the more readers are engaged.”

Fiction sales have been solid in 2026 and are likely to stay strong, largely because the two most prominent romantasy authors, Rebecca Yarros and Sarah J. Maas, have new books coming.

Maas is releasing "A Court of Splintered Harmony," the sixth volume of "A Court of Thorns and Roses," with the seventh installment scheduled for early next year.

Yarros' "Threshing Day" compiles 13 stories featuring characters from her Empyrean series, and her stand-alone "Peculiar Stars" finds protagonist Callista Moran stranded on an island after a sailing accident and discovering unexpected sides to herself.

The new fiction list also includes Nobel laureate Jon Fosse's latest, "Vaim Hotel," and three Booker Prize contenders — Marlon James' "The Disappearers," Emma Cline's "Switzy" and Rebecca Perry's "May We Feed the King."

The book most likely to spark gossip is Rachel Cusk's "Life of M," a meta-novel about a movie star who may or may not be based on Natalie Portman.

The season's most anticipated novel is probably Chad Harbach's "The Brightness": the parallel and intertwining lives of two close friends in their 20s is his first novel since his acclaimed 2011 debut, "The Art of Fielding."

Min Jin Lee's "American Hagwon" is her first novel since 2017 and the acclaimed "Pachinko."

Emily St. John Mandel's "Exit Party" tells a story of futuristic collapse from the author of the seminal "Station Eleven."

Yiyun Li, Edwidge Danticat, Kate Atkinson, Deesha Philyaw, Diane Williams, Laleh Khadivi, R.F. Kuang, and Norah Labiner are also releasing new fiction.

Fans of Stephen King (and the late Peter Straub) can anticipate "Other Worlds Than These," the concluding "Talisman" novel.

Alice Hoffman launches a new series with "The Witches of Cambridge," while Brandon Sanderson has commenced "Blightfall," co-authored with Janci Patterson.

"The French Illusion" represents John Grisham's latest thriller.

S.A. Cosby's "Truth to Power" is a Marvel Crime novel that features the superhero/sleuth Luke Cage.

Three Oscar-winning stars will share their stories this fall: Sylvester Stallone's "The Steps," whose title references his iconic run up the stairs in "Rocky"; Michael Douglas's "One Helluva Ride," which the actor and producer has called a way to correct the vague legends of fame; and Dustin Hoffman's "Look at Me," which publisher Simon Six promotes as "an intimate memoir about art, ambition, family, friendship, love, aging, and the mysteries of a creative life."

Gloria Steinem reflects on her early years in "An Unexpected Life," while former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick considers his activism in "The Perilous Fight."

Chuck Lorre's "Sitcom" is a memoir from the creator of "Two and a Half Men" and "The Big Bang Theory."

Eric Dane's "My Book of Days" is released just months after the "Grey's Anatomy" star passed away from ALS.

Ancient poetry feels fresh again thanks to Christopher Nolan's adaptation of "The Odyssey," which has pushed editions by Emily Wilson and the late Robert Fagles to the top of bestseller lists.

Wilson has a new book out this fall, "Crossing the Wine-Dark Sea," a collection of essays that ranges from Greek tragedy to the "slut-shaming" of Helen of Troy to the "sly laughter" in Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion's "WAP."

In "Cloud Runner," former U.S. poet laureate Joy Harjo attempts to articulate what she concedes may be beyond expression—the death of her daughter, Rainy Ortiz, three years ago: "I have lost my girl./Some things do not belong in words," Harjo writes.

Jennifer Franklin channels the mind of James Joyce's gifted, ill-fated daughter Lucia in the collection "A Fire in Her Brain."

New work is also expected from Layli Long Soldier, Tina Chang, Patricia Lockwood, Dalia Taha, Avis Blackbird and Hieu Minh Nguyen.

The anthology “Other Legacies” includes tributes from Rae Armantrout, Edward Hirsch and other prizewinners to such lesser-known poets as Rachel Loden, Julia de Burgos and Stephen Jonas.

Another writer whose work has been enriched by a Nolan film — Kai Bird, co-author of "American Prometheus," the biography adapted into "Oppenheimer" — has co-written "American Scoundrel," the story of lawyer, political fixer, and Trump mentor Roy Cohn.

In "The Rush," award-winning author Nathaniel Philbrick revisits the 19th-century pursuit of gold.

The acclaimed science writer James Gleick examines the evolution of communication in "The Telephone: A New History."

Two books, Timothy W. Ryback's "53 Days" and Victor Sebestyen's "Weimar Germany," examine the fall of democracy in 1930s Germany, while other releases warning of contemporary threats include Naomi Klein and Taylor's "End Times Fascism" and Pulitzer winner Jill Lepore's "The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State."

Public radio host Celeste Headlee's "Freedom's Daughters" is one of many works this fall that center on race and racism.

Grandmaster Flash has collaborated with Robert "Scoop" Jackson on a history of rap and hip-hop, "Birth of a Culture," and Stephanie Phillips' music history "We Were Here" highlights artists from Sister Rosetta Tharpe to Living Colour.

Pulitzer Prize winner Alan Taylor's "Tower Hill" offers a fresh perspective on the 1831 rebellion led by the enslaved Nat Turner.

In "Renaissance Men," Harriet A. Washington honors three pioneering yet overlooked Black physicians, telling a story that spans the mid-19th to mid-20th centuries and remains relevant today.