I’m popping out of my writing cave to let you know that the Great Big Beautiful Life paperback will be available on Tuesday, May 19th, everywhere books are sold. To celebrate, I’m doing my usual, and teaming up with Joseph Beth to make sure you have first dibs on signed copies.

These will sell out, so if this sort of thing matters to you, grab it while you can, here. Other than that, I just want to send another heartfelt thank you for all of your love and support. It has always and continues to mean so, so much to me. More than you can know.

Keeping it short n’ sweet today, but here are some things I’ve been loving lately:

• Tia William’s The Missed Connection: so funny, sweet, so Tia (the best).

• Aisling Rawle’s The Compound: bizzaro, possibly dystopian Love Island? I’m loving it so far.

• PONIES: now streaming on Peacock; begging you to watch it, so it gets renewed.

• Mush: better than it sounds!

Xoxo,

Em

After the weirdest and wildest six months of my life, I’m finally fully back to immersion in a cozy, little writing cave, and I couldn’t be happier. That said, it took me a beat to find a moment to sit down and formally celebrate this incredible news with you:

We have officially found our January Andrews, and I couldn’t be more thrilled.
Phoebe Dynevor has joined the EHCU!

Everyone always asks me if I pictured anyone in particular when writing any of my books, and the truth is, largely, no I did not. I am much more concerned with picturing the layout of their kitchens. I see my characters in slivers, little bits of detail that I love about them, and that’s one of many reasons that I’ve always been adamant that an actor doesn’t need to match up physically to the book’s description of the character they’re portraying. For me, the performance and energy matter so, so much more. That said, Phoebe is so right for this part.

Yulin, Karina (our incredible producer), and I have talked so much about what matters most to us in seeing these characters come to life, and for January, the vision was always to find an actor who could genuinely and deeply encompass BOTH Januarys (Januaries?). The one that Gus knew way back when—the “fairy princess,” the optimist, the girl with starry eyes—and the one he finds today in North Bear Shores. A woman awash in heartache, melancholy, a tightly worn if completely unnatural cynicism.

We couldn’t have gotten luckier than we have with Phoebe. She has everything we need, in spades, and I cannot wait for you to see how perfect she is. I’ve spent the days since the initial announcement basking in your excitement. You really can’t imagine how much your support means to me. Like, I promise you that. You’re underestimating it.

Now on to what I know you’re dying to hear about next: Gus. The short answer is, we don’t have our Gus yet. The longer answer is, we’re getting closer by the day, and I am absolutely ecstatic with how things have been shaping up. Yulin’s and my phone calls are very exciting these days. This process is long and slow, and very complicated. Yulin and I have talked about doing a private Q&A at some point to demystify the whole Hollywood process, but as a fresher, I talked a bit about how casting works in this old letter. If you scroll down to the Who will play Poppy & Alex section, I try to explain a few of the factors that go into finding the exact right person.

I know that many of you, like I, hold Gus extremely close to your heart. I actually can say that across all the adaptations we’re working on, I’ve never felt more pressure to Get It Right than I do with this one. It’s so important to me that you know we’re leaving no stone unturned in this process. When we find our Gus, he WILL be the best possible Gus for this version of the story.

Some of your favorites won’t be available in our shooting window, some have a pay quote that won’t fall within our budget, and some just won’t be interested. Here’s another excerpt from that old letter about Alex and Poppy:

“That doesn’t mean they will necessarily be your mental Alex and Poppy, and I want you to know that’s okay… I hope you’ll continue to feel free to imagine these characters however you want, because they belong to you, no matter what happens with the adaptation. I think it’s helpful to think of an adaptation like you would a play, or a superhero franchise. The characters will always exist separate from the plays and films themselves. There are so many different Batmans, and none of them is the real Batman; it’s all about what different actors can bring to a character.”

And despite all of those caveats, let it be said, I’m not worried. We are looking at some seriously amazing Guses and we will find the right person for the job. And while rumors will swirl in the meantime, just know that when there’s something to report, I will tell you personally right here in the Grocery List.

Now, on to another burning question I’ve seen floating around: Will this movie be in theaters? Let me just say, that is the hope and the plan. Not just mine, Yulin’s, and Karina’s, but the whole team at 20th Century. We want you to get to go watch this movie in a packed room with your best friends and laugh, cry, moan, and scream together. That’s been our dream and goal from the beginning, and I’m so thrilled 20th is on board with that plan. (I also do have to say… readers are the reason studios are starting to see these movies as theatrical. The way that you guys show up for the things you love is huge, and helps a very risk-averse industry realize there’s actually very little risk involved here.)

In the last few years, I’ve done a lot of work to be more present in the moment, instead of looking forward to all of the good things I’m excited about, and all of the horrifying worst outcomes my anxious brain can concoct, but there honestly is a small part of me that wishes we could fast-forward to release weekend, so we could all just experience this together already.

I also feel a bit spoiled because I got to have this experience with PWMOV already, and it was so magical just desperate to recreate it for everyone else. First there were the fan screenings Netflix set up around the country (I got to stop by two of those and watched the movie with readers at the first one!), and then, on release day, I partnered with Lyft to recreate the magic.

There’s this place in Manhattan that has a bunch of small personal theaters available for rent, and Lyft booked them all and brought a bunch of book clubs, booksellers, and friend groups to come wine and dine while they watched the movie on the big screen. Best of all (for me personally), they brought me in to crash the screenings and give a teensy intro and meet some of you.

Your joy was so contagious and getting to share this moment with you was so unbelievably special. Pics below!

One final note before I get back to my draft cave (👀), the Valentine’s Day “Written By Emily Henry” sweatshirts are almost sold out—when they’re gone, they’re gone! If you want one, now’s your chance. (I have one of each but have been particularly obsessed with the red sweatshirt with pink script.) Once again, huge thanks to everyone who participated in the Palentine’s Giveaway. My team and I spent a couple days reading your responses and I loved learning more about you and your best friends and it was inspiring and sweet and life affirming to see your love for each other.

That’s all I’ve got for now, but surely tons more to follow soon,

Em

P.S. Current grocery obsession is simply the concept of room service, because I’ve been traveling a bit too much to keep my fridge well stocked :(.

It’s hard to express what a joy it is to connect with you over our shared love of love, and I can’t wait to read allllll about the platonic loves of your life. The Shadi to your January, the Poppy to your Rachel, the Nora to your Libby, etc., etc., etc.

You can enter the giveaway here! Details below!

Tell us, who in your life is written by Emily Henry (sometimes known as me). Forget about your romantic partner for a second, we want to hear about your partner in crime, your platonic soul mate. Are they fiercely defensive on your behalf, like Nora? Are they the life of the party, like Poppy? Valentine’s Day isn’t just about romantic love and we want to celebrate your best friends!

We’re giving away three (3) pairs of special edition Valentine’s Day “Written by Emily Henry” sweatshirts, one for you and one for your best friend! Giveaway details and official entry link can be found on the Grocery List!

Giveaway closes at 12pm EST on Friday, February 13th.

TERMS & CONDITIONS:

Enter for a chance to win a pair of special edition Valentine’s Day “Written by Emily Henry” sweatshirts. All entries must be received by 12pm EST on Friday, February 13th 2026. Three (3) winners will be selected by Emily and her team and notified via email by 5pm EST on Friday, February 13th 2026. Entrant must respond within five business days to claim. Both parties (entrant and nominee) must be 18 or older and live in the United States or Canada. Must be willing to share mailing address and size preferences. Giveaway not affiliated with Instagram, Facebook, or Substack. No purchase necessary.

That’s all for now.

Xoxo,

Emily & Friends

Sent from my laptop, on the floor, with RHOBH on

If you want to nab one of these for yourself or your watermelon-headed dog, you can find them here. Okay, goodnight, love you.

xo,

Em

Keep scrolling!

[The most important thing to note here are the bracelets in the last two photos. I brought every bracelet a reader has given me to set and we took pics with Brett, Tom, Emily, and Yulin all wearing one of your PWMOV-specific bracelets. I forgot to take more pics on other days of filming but I had these at LEAST in my bag at all times as just one more way to make sure you guys were there for it all.]

On November 18th, the official movie tie-in edition of People We Meet on Vacation will finally hit shelves, with this cover that feels like absolute bliss. Also, little behind the scenes fact: the scene containing this image is what they were shooting when I arrived for my set visit, fresh off the plane and jet-lagged to hell. This was my first magical look at Alex and Poppy together, fully in character, and to get to share it with you now is unbelievably special.

You can hear a little bit more about the journey of seeing Alex and Poppy come to life on screen in the essay I wrote for the new special edition, and as things ramp up and we get closer to The Big Day (January 9), I’ll have a lot more to tell (and show) you about that process. For now, though, I just wanted to be the one to share this with you first, and to thank you, as ever, for being such a wonderful, magical, joy-inducing, passionate piece of all this. This book was dedicated to you all from the start, and it just feels right that we get to go on this journey, with this particular movie, together first.

So much more to come. Xo,

Emily

P.S. Current fave grocery is fuji apples. I just feel like they’re always the right size for how much apple you want to eat.

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xox

Emily

P.S. The grocery of the week is Mrs Meyers lemon verbena multi-surface cleaner. No idea if it ““““works”””” on a scientific level, but it just smells so good.

We’re only THREE WEEKS OUT from the release of Great Big Beautiful Life, and to celebrate that, I’m officially announcing the Great Big Beautiful Release Parties! I loved seeing all of your pictures and videos from these parties so much last year and am thrilled how many stores got on board to do it all again.

If you’re in the U.S. or Canada, you can find the release parties closest to you here!

As with last year, we’ve sent out some games, prizes, and surprises to the stores and lots of them have cooked up their own plans too. Reminder that some of these parties are midnight release parties on the night of April 21st, with books sold at midnight, while others are daytime parties on the 22nd and throughout the week.

This time we’re also teaming up with Pinkberry and Jeni’s (!!!!!) to send swirls and street streets to select stores for partygoers (while supplies last).

And last but not least, the first bits of merch from Out of Print’s Great Big Beautiful Life line will also be popping up at select stores that night so keep your 👀s 👀ed.

While I’m very excited for all the surprises, treats, and sneak peeks we’re sending your way, the best thing to me about these parties is that it gives readers the chance to make friends and find community. It was so beautiful hearing from you all about the connections you made at last year’s parties and I hope that this year can be just as special. I’m so honored to get to share this book with you soon, and so grateful for the kind, generous, funny, cool community that you all have created here, and that I get to be a small part of it.

That’s all for now, but rest assured, there will be more soon.

xo,

Emily

P.S. My grocery of the moment is Fever Tree Ginger Beer.
P.S.S. I’m currently reading The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch, about to read God of the Woods by Liz Moore, and recently read Flirting Lessons by Jasmine Guillory (I LOVED this! My favorite of hers yet).

Last but definitely not least, I’ll be continuing my yearly tradition of doing an online event with my local indie bookshop Joseph Beth on April 24th, at 7 pm ET. Anyone who already purchased a personalized copy via Joseph Beth will already have access to this event, but tickets are also still available for purchase!

I’ll be announcing who I’ll be in conversation with for each of these events soon, but as always, just wanted to give you all the first grab at the signed copies and prints before opening it up to the wider world!

That’s all I’ve got right now, aside from just an immense thank you for 1) being so excited for this book that you sold out the personalized copies in roughly 1 hour and 2) to all the booksellers, reviewers, and librarians out there who have taken the time to request, read, and review the book so far. I continue to feel like the luckiest person on the planet to have you as readers. You’re the reason able to do this work I love so much, and I’ll never stop thanking you for that.

With so much love,

Emily

xo,

Emily

I saw someone guess that the book would be The Great Family Marconi, the book January wrote in Beach Read, and while it isn’t that at all, I do sort of feel like it’s been that for me, in the way that book was for January. When January sends that manuscript to her agent, the subject reads Something Different. And that’s very much how this one feels to me, and also why I’m so nervous to share it with you. I will also say, it’s still definitely a summery romance at its heart; I’m just playing with some new things this time around. It’s been equal parts fun and terrifyingly intimidating to work on, and if it becomes the favorite of even one of you, then it will have all been worth it.

And while I can’t tell you more about that just yet, I also wanted to remind you that the special hardcover edition of Beach Read comes out October 1st. You can preorder that now wherever books are sold, but I’m also going to be signing the first one-thousand copies ordered from Joseph Beth. (I have no idea how close to that number we are at this point, or if we’ve passed it, but you can proooobably check in with the store to see if yours will be signed?) It’s SO beautiful in real life. I can’t get over it. I’m forever in awe of our designer Sandra Chiu, who worked so hard on this and took a zillion tiny, nebulous thoughts from me, my editor, and my agent, and made all of our dreams come true.

Now, on to the NEWS!

I’m soooo thrilled to be able to share a little bit more about the People We Meet on Vacation adaptation casting. We’re so lucky to have scored such incredible talent (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) , and there’s even more to share on that soon, so I promise to keep you posted.

That’s all I’ve got for you today.

More very soon!

Xox

Em

P.S.
What I’m watching: Fallout, The Perfect Couple, and Detroiters
What I’m reading: There’s Something About Mira by Sonali Dev
What I’m eating: Trader Joe’s Chocolate Croissants

1. It’s more than two words long.

2. I’ve already hidden it in a grocery list. 

3. It starts with an adjective.

I really can’t wait to share it with you. If you’ve been reading these letters for awhile now, you know that this book poured out of me, back in the winter/spring after the longest writing break I’d taken in a full decade. You might also have heard me in interviews talk about how hard this book has been since that first draft. (Very.) This book is different than anything I’ve written before but also feels like a really natural extension of what I’ve been doing the last few years. There is, of course, a love story and a vacation and complicated family dynamic and all the things I’ve always found myself drawn toward, but there’s also something else, and I’m both overjoyed and terrified to be able to share it more about it with you so soon (!!!). Including which T. Swift song it most closely correlates to, since I know that some of you will ask. (Another hint: It’s on Folklore.) 

Other than that, I just have two other things to tell you about today. First off, the absolutely breathtakingly gorgeous deluxe hardcover edition of Beach Read comes out in less than one month! It hits shelves October 1st, but you can preorder now, wherever books are sold! Developing this with our brilliant designer Sanny Chiu was so special, and the finished product is everything I hoped it would be when we first started dreaming about this a couple of years ago. As a little bonus the extra epilogue I wrote about Gus and January, “Layover,” for all your grocery list subscribers is included in the book. Also here is a pic of me with the book, minus its gorgeous dust jacket to remind you that it has a quote on the front and also to shamelessly plug my fave Rachel Antonoff shirt*. (If you buy it, I will make zero dollars off the transaction, but I do like to think I’ll feel a pleasant shiver run down my spine and just know.* It’s also been available to rent on Nuuly in the past.)

That brings me to my last fun, little thing. In November, Penguin is releasing a box set of my first three books! These will be paperback, like the originals, and if I remember correctly, don’t have any added content or anything. It’s just the three books, in an adorable and on theme box. So if you’ve been waiting to get or gift them, now might be the time!

So that’s all for now. Keep your eyes peeled on the Penguin Random House site on Monday to see the new title and/or to preorder from your fave bookstore, if you so choose! I’ll be able tell you what it’s all about and show you the cover SOON!

With love,

Em

P.S. My fave grocery right now is this. It is absolutely full of sugar.

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