On November 7, 2019, two novelists appeared at Gelf Magazine's Varsity Letters at The Gallery at Le Poisson Rouge to read from and talk about their books on squash and tennis.

Reading from their work in this episode:

Benjamin Markovits—teacher of creative writing at Royal Holloway, University of London, and author of nine novels, including Playing Days, about his experience playing pro ball in Germany—read from his pair of novels A Weekend in New York and Christmas in Austin, which follow the fortunes of a large family of Texan Jews, including Paul Essinger, a retiring tennis player. Christmas in Austin is being released the night of Varsity Letters.

Alexander Tilney—a graduate of the Warren Wilson College MFA Program for Writers who has written for Gelf Magazine, among other publications—talked about and read from his new novel, The Expectations, about a pair of squash players and roommates trying to make it through their first year of boarding school.