WE CAST A SHADOW by Maurice Carlos Ruffin has been selected as a finalist for the 2020 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, the largest peer-juried prize for fiction in the United States. The winner will be announced on April 6, and all five authors will be honored at the 40th anniversary PEN/Faulkner Award Ceremony on May 4 at the Willard Hotel. One World published the book on January 29, 2019.

Jessi Jezewska Stevens’ debut novel received a rave review in the New York Times Book Review. The reviewer Haley Mlotek writes: “The novel has a romantic slowness, unfurling gracefully, little by little, to show how quickly the present gives way to the future, or concedes to the past.” The New York Times also published an excerpt from the book. Farrar, Straus & Giroux published the book on March 3, 2020.

Harry Dodge’s memoir MY METEORITE was featured in Vol. 1 Brooklyn’s March 2020 Book Preview. Penguin Books will publish the book on March 17, 2020.

Elaine Welteroth’s New York Times-bestselling memoir MORE THAN ENOUGH has won the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work – Biography/Autobiography. The ceremony was held at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium on February 22, 2020. Welteroth has also been selected as the Cultural Ambassador for Michelle Obama’s organization When We All Vote, a non-partisan voting initiative that aims to increase voter turnout, particularly among young people, women, and people of color. MORE THAN ENOUGH was published by Viking on June 11, 2019, and will be available in paperback this spring.

Since its publication last week, THE ONES WE’VE BEEN WAITING FOR has received even more glowing reviews. The LA Times writes: “When it comes to political prescience today, TIME magazine writer Charlotte Alter is arguably peerless.” Further, the Washington Post praises Alter’s “sharp writing and engaging voice.” The author has also been featured on several podcasts and news programs to discuss the growing impact of socialism on millennials and the political landscape, most recently appearing on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Viking published the book on February 18, 2020.

Helen Monks Takhar’s debut novel PRECIOUS YOU is a fierce thriller steeped in jealousy and revenge. Booklist deems it “perfect for those still looking for psychologically twisty thrillers featuring boozy Englishwomen who go wildly off-course, à la The Girl on the Train.” Random House will publish the book on March 10, 2020.

Booklist calls Jessica Rotondi’s WHAT WE INHERIT, an account of her family’s search for her missing uncle, a fighter pilot shot down during the Vietnam War, “powerful, heartbreaking, and gut-wrenching.” The Unnamed Press will publish the book on April 21, 2020.

Sherri L. Smith’s THE BLOSSOM AND THE FIREFLY has received two starred reviews following its publication earlier this month. The Horn Magazine writes: “Through meticulous research, Smith immerses her readers in a war narrative not often told to American readers, as well as a conflict-filled love story.” The School Library Journal praises the book for its “passion and hope,” adding that “[t]he ending feels inevitable, like the last notes of a perfect melody.” G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers published the book on February 18, 2020.

THE MERCIES by Kiran Millwood Hargrave won immediate and overwhelming praise upon its publication. USA Today praised the author’s adult debut as “an absorbing account of women finding power and grace and love even under the most harrowing circumstances.” Emily Barton of the New York Times Book Review writes: “THE MERCIES is among the best novels I’ve read in years. In addition to its beautiful writing, its subject matter is both enduring and timely.” Little, Brown and Company published the book on February 11, 2020.

THE PROPHETS by Robert Jones, Jr. has been named a BookExpo 2020 Adult Buzz finalist. G.P. Putnam’s Sons will publish the book on January 5, 2021.

Kate Zambreno’s next novel DRIFTS has received two starred reviews in advance of its May publication. Kirkus called the book “a lyrical, fragmentary, and heartfelt story about the beauty and difficulty of artistic isolation,” and Publishers Weekly praised it as “a captivating deconstruction of the writer’s process that will reward readers in search for meaning.” Riverhead Books will publish the book on May 19, 2020.

Sanaë Lemoine’s exciting debut, THE MARGOT AFFAIR, has received two new gorgeous bits of praise. Hermione Hoby, author of NEON DAYLIGHT, calls it “poised, coolly beguiling, and deeply compelling,” and SEVERANCE author Ling Ma finds it to be “[a] deeply immersive novel about the ways in which your family may fail you.” Hogarth will publish the book on June 16, 2020.