Why we’re excited
Movie director Marion May has had two flops and one film left on her contract. A WNBA player pitches her the story of Harper Kidd, her coach, a 1950s basketball star whose career was cut short. Making that film forces Marion to face parts of her own life she has kept hidden.
Kate Fagan spent years as a sportswriter before her first novel, a Reese's Book Club pick, moved her into fiction. Her nonfiction book What Made Maddy Run also drew wide attention. Readers who want queer fiction rooted in real women's sports history should start here.
On our most-anticipated list since 22 October 2026. See all the most anticipated books →
What to know about Instant Classic
We have reviewed one of Kate Fagan’s books so far: The Three Lives of Cate Kay, which we gave 4 out of 5.
From the publisher
From the author of the USA TODAY bestseller and Reese’s Book Club Pick The Three Lives of Cate Kay comes an enthralling new novel about a young movie director who bets her career on making a film about an overlooked trailblazer in women’s basketball and in the process finds her own voice.
With only one more film under contract after two flops, movie director Marion May is at a career crossroads and in desperate need of a win. It feels fated when at a Lakers game she meets Jaz Jones, a magnetic WNBA player, who pitches her on an idea. Jaz tells Marion about her coach, Harper Kidd, a once-brilliant athlete whose legacy was erased before it could truly begin.
In the 1950s, Harper Kidd was a rising star on the Hanes Hosiery team until the end of the season when everything unraveled, and she was forced to leave the game she loved. Only decades later, when a young, fiercely talented Jaz enters her world, does Harper find her way back to the court—and to herself. As Marion sets out to write and direct Harper’s story, the project becomes something more. Immersed in a lineage of women who fought to play, to love, and to be seen, Marion begins to confront the parts of herself she’s long kept hidden.
Kate Fagan’s Instant Classic is a radiant love letter to women’s sports and queer identity as well as a gripping narrative that explores how the stories we tell can bridge decades, heal old wounds, and lead us back to who we truly are.
Description supplied by the publisher.
We haven’t read Instant Classic yet. When our review goes up, it will replace this page.
