The Literary Trends Defining 2025: An Early Look at the Year in Books
Literature in 2025 is restless, wide-ranging, and often genre-bending. As we move into the back half of the year, several major trends are emerging across fiction, poetry, and nonfiction. These trends reflect broader cultural shifts—our anxieties, our hopes, and the ways readers want to engage with storytelling right now.
For indie presses like Westbrae Literary Group, recognizing and participating in these conversations matters. Here’s a look at the most significant literary trends shaping 2025 so far—and how they intersect with the work we’re publishing.
1. Romantasy and Genre Infusion: “Romanta‑Everything”
The fusion of romance and fantasy—romantasy—continues to explode in popularity. But in 2025, it’s evolving beyond fairy kings and spicy fae. Romantic themes are being infused into thrillers, historical fiction, and even cozy mysteries, creating what some have dubbed “Romanta‑Everything.”
This trend reflects a craving for emotional depth within imaginative worlds. The best of the genre avoids cliché, introducing fresh worldbuilding or marginalized perspectives. Readers want romantic intensity—but they also want smart storytelling.
Westbrae tie-in: If you’re working on or representing genre-crossing narratives with emotional core, this is your moment. Romantasy-adjacent fiction with literary quality is in demand.
2. Grounded Speculative Fiction & Climate Emergencies
Speculative fiction is shifting gears. Less about distant galaxies, more about near-future societies shaped by climate disruption, AI, and social decay. This “grounded speculative” trend focuses on everyday people grappling with extraordinary new normals.
Winners of recent prizes like the Climate Fiction Prize point to a serious investment in ecologically themed literature—not as a gimmick, but as urgent art. The line between realism and speculation grows increasingly blurry.
Westbrae tie-in: Titles in our catalog exploring environmental, technological, or dystopian themes within human-scale narratives resonate strongly in this space.
3. Hidden History, Contemporary Nostalgia & Underexplored Pasts
2025’s historical fiction is skipping the well-trod eras and reaching for lesser-known stories—marginalized voices, overlooked decades, reimagined American moments. Think 1990s nostalgia as “history.” Think working-class immigrant narratives in Reagan’s America. Think saints and scholars outside the Roman Empire.
Writers are reclaiming the past not just to revisit it, but to reframe it. These stories feel intimate and political at once.
Westbrae tie-in: Many of our authors are already doing this—offering new lenses on familiar time periods or elevating voices traditionally left out of “history.”
4. Diverse Voices & Underrepresented Narratives
The call for diverse storytelling remains loud—and in 2025, it’s less a trend and more a demand for justice. Readers want work by and about people of color, queer writers, disabled authors, immigrants, and those from overlooked geographies or languages.
Genres long dominated by white or straight narratives—like horror and science fiction—are being reimagined. There’s an appetite for cultural specificity and emotional honesty across every form.
Westbrae tie-in: We remain committed to publishing authors whose voices stretch the bounds of who gets to tell stories—and how.
5. Novellas & Short Fiction Make a Major Comeback
Call it literary minimalism, call it TikTok-era attention spans—either way, shorter works are booming. Readers want impact, not page count. Publishers are embracing the novella as a standalone form again, and awards are taking notice.
Short story collections are also regaining traction, particularly when tied together thematically or delivered by strong authorial voice. Indie presses have a natural advantage here.
Westbrae tie-in: Our poetry chapbooks and prose novellas speak directly to this form. We believe compression can be just as powerful as expansion.
6. Fan Fiction Roots & Cross‑Genre Adaptations
The line between fan fiction and traditional publishing is fading fast. In 2025, some of the year’s hottest summer releases have fanfic DNA—whether rooted in Star Wars pairings, old Tumblr lore, or serialized Wattpad arcs.
These aren’t derivative works. They’re deeply creative reimaginings, often outpacing traditional publishing in emotional complexity and risk-taking. More importantly, they connect to readers on a visceral, community-informed level.
Westbrae tie-in: If any of our authors emerged from fan communities or write intertextually with past literary forms, this is worth celebrating.
7. BookTok & Emotional Reading Culture
BookTok isn’t going anywhere. In fact, it’s evolving. 2025’s viral books aren’t just fantasy or romance—they’re emotional experiences. Readers want stories that make them cry, scream, or feel seen. They want catharsis.
Even literary fiction is being rebranded for this audience, with publishers emphasizing plot “hooks” and “reader emotions” on the back cover.
Westbrae tie-in: We might not dance on TikTok, but our books can still be BookTok-ready—especially when we center strong feelings, bold moments, and beautiful prose.
Want more? Browse our full catalog and see what literary innovation looks like from the inside.
Conclusion: Reading the Trends, Writing the Future
Literary trends aren’t just marketing buzz—they’re clues to what our culture needs and craves. In 2025, the story is clear: readers want boldness, truth, variety, emotion, and form that fits their lives.
At Westbrae, we don’t just follow trends—we publish what we believe in. But it’s always rewarding to see those values reflected in the wider literary world.
What trend resonates most with you? Share your thoughts, explore our newest books, or pitch your manuscript if you’re shaping the literary conversation too.
