[8][9][10] In 2016, Hoby began writing "Stranger of the Week", a column for The Awl, in which she observed the wider state of culture, life, and politics based on character studies culled from real-life encounters.
[11] Published on 1 January 2018 by Catapult,[12] Hoby's debut novel, Neon in Daylight, is set in New York during the months leading up to Hurricane Sandy.
"[13] In The New York Times, Parul Sehgal compared Neon in Daylight to Joan Didion's Play It as It Lays, saying "precision — of observation, of language — is Hoby's gift.
[17] Published on 20 July 2021 by Riverhead,[18] with advance praise from Rachel Kushner, Jia Tolentino, Leslie Jamison and others, Hoby's second novel is narrated by a young man arriving in New York internship at an elite but fading magazine.
Luca and Paula and Jason are skillfully drawn, each possessing a distinctive, nuanced personality and a complicated psyche, and Hoby’s gift for sensual description makes us feel we know them viscerally.”[19] The novel was shortlisted for the 2022 Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award.