Exclusive Cover Reveal of “Blow Yourself Up” by Ankur Thakkar

Electric Literature is pleased to reveal the cover of Blow Yourself Up by Ankur Thakkar, which will be published on September 15th, 2026 by Triquarterly Books. You can pre-order your copy here.

Blow Yourself Up is a story of first love across cities spanning the decade that transformed the internet.

In the halls of an elite East Coast high school, Arjun and Payal fall in love as the world begins to tilt toward the digital. Over the next eight years, their trajectories diverge as sharply as the fractured internet itself. Payal ascends to the dizzying, dopamine-fueled heights of New York’s influencer economy, finding fame on Boost, a looping video app that is as rewarding as it is demanding. Meanwhile, in a cavernous office in Chicago, Arjun, a musician whose dreams have quieted, now cleans up the same platform’s debris, moderating the internet’s darkest videos. When a brutal act of political violence against a beloved musician ...