THE FINAL REVIVAL OF OPAL & NEV by Dawnie Walton is an “octafinalist” for the 2022 BookTube Prize Award for Fiction. The prize was established in 2019 “to bring an award to everyday readers who are active content producers and participants in the bookish community on YouTube and other social media—called BookTube.” Quarterfinalists will be announced in April/May, semifinalists in June/July, finalists in August/September, and the winners will be announced on October 8, 2022. 37 Ink published the novel on March 30, 2021.

THE PROPHETS by Robert Jones Jr. is an “octafinalist” for the 2022 BookTube Prize Award for Fiction. The prize was established in 2019 “to bring an award to everyday readers who are active content producers and participants in the bookish community on YouTube and other social media—called BookTube.” Quarterfinalists will be announced in April/May, semifinalists in June/July, finalists in August/September, and the winners will be announced on October 8, 2022. G.P. Putnam’s Sons published the novel on January 5, 2021.

Laura Kipnis’ LOVE IN THE TIME OF CONTAGION received a wave of positive press following its publication. Sophia Nguyen of The Washington Post writes: “Readers who crave that warm feeling of being taken into someone’s confidence will also find a lot to like in Laura Kipnis’ LOVE IN THE TIME OF CONTAGION… Kipnis’ intellectual restlessness is what makes her so fun to read.” David Mikics reviewed the book for Tablet, praising: “LOVE IN THE TIME OF CONTAGION is shot through with Kipnis’ ample comic talent. As a satirist and commiserator she has few equals these days.” Chicago Tribune featured the book in a Valentine’s Day column examining the difficulty of romantic commitments: “LOVE IN THE TIME OF CONTAGION [is] a new social study by Kipnis, longtime professor and bomb thrower (metaphorically) at Northwestern…Kipnis offers a cloistered world in which, at least, we recognize both, the painful and the enlightened.” Lastly, Kipnis sat down for interviews with Lit Hub, The Colin McEnroe Show, and The Unspeakable Podcast. Pantheon published the book on February 8, 2022.

VERY COLD PEOPLE by Sarah Manguso continues to receive rave reviews following its release. Katy Waldman wrote a glowing review of the novel for The New Yorker, comparing it to Elena Ferrante’s MY BRILLIANT FRIEND and praising: “The book has a fairy-tale quality, a ring of the nursery rhyme… The book’s symmetries, prototypical figures, and brutality heighten the Grimmish mood. You half expect the characters to be devoured by wolves.” Meanwhile, Claire Messud reviewed the book for Harper’s Magazine, raving: “[VERY COLD PEOPLE] is a searing catalogue of pinched bitterness...[W]ith her gemlike apercus, Manguso renders this bleakness oddly fascinating...[She has] a distinctive and pungent style. She is known for her aphoristic precision and intense, adamantine paragraphs. Her novel thus has the effect of a series of sharply focused snapshots.” Hogarth published the novel on February 8, 2022.

CHINA ROOM by Sunjeev Sahota was longlisted for the 2022 Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction. The award “celebrates quality, innovation, and ambition of writing, and is open to books first published in the previous year in the UK, Ireland, or the Commonwealth.” The shortlist for the award will be announced in April, and the winner will be announced in June via the Borders Book Festival in Melrose, Scotland. Viking published CHINA ROOM on July 13, 2021.

Sarah Manguso's VERY COLD PEOPLE received a wealth positive press surrounding its publication this week. In a rave review for The New York Times, Alexandra Jacobs writes: “Best known as a memoirist and essayist, Manguso also writes poetry, and this is apparent in her fiction. Though dealing with life’s ugly, messy truths, her writing is compact and beautiful…So masterly is Manguso at making beauty of boring old daily pain that when more dramatic plot turns arrive — suicides, teen pregnancies — they almost seem superfluous, visitations from an after-school special. The book is strong enough as a compendium of the insults of a deprived childhood: a thousand cuts exquisitely observed and survived. The effect is cumulative, and this novel bordering on a novella punches above its weight.” Michele Filgate reviewed the novel for The Washington Post, writing: “Manguso’s attention to the chilliness and reservation of certain New Englanders crackles like a room-temperature beverage poured over ice…[She] portrays the fears surrounding girlhood with a blistering clarity.” Lastly, Rebecca Steinitz’s review for the Boston Globe praises Manguso as “an exquisitely astute writer…admirable [for] her refusal to bow to predictable plot tropes.” Hogarth published the novel on February 8, 2022.

On the day of its release, Laura Kipnis' LOVE IN THE TIME OF CONTAGION received a glowing review in The New York Times from Molly Young. Young writes: “Dance like nobody’s watching. Love like there’s no tomorrow. Write like nobody’s going to cancel you. This is the way of Laura Kipnis…[S]cooting around Kipnis’ mind feels like eating the world’s finest trail mix: no dud raisins to shift aside, only M&Ms and the fancier nuts…[LOVE IN THE TIME OF CONTAGION] is perfectly equidistant between riff and investigation.” Pantheon published the book on February 8, 2022.

Ms. Magazine featured Cleyvis Natera's forthcoming NERUDA ON THE PARK, as a most-anticipated title of 2022. Karla Strand of Ms. Magazine’s Feminist Know-It-All column writes: “Bestselling author Robert Jones, Jr. calls this debut ‘a loud triumph that caresses like a whisper.’ I can’t wait to give it a listen.” Ballantine Books will publish the novel on May 17, 2022.

Fiona Davis’ latest novel, THE MAGNOLIA PALACE, will make its debut on The New York Times Bestseller lists for the week of February 13. The book will debut at number 9 on the Hardcover Fiction list and number 10 on the Combined Print & E-book Fiction list. Dutton published the book on January 25, 2022.

HEAVY author Kiese Laymon is a 2022 United States Artists Fellow. USA Fellowships are awarded annually to “the most compelling artists working and living in the United States, in all disciplines, at every stage of their career.” Scribner published HEAVY on October 16, 2018.

The Today Show featured Cleyvis Natera's NERUDA ON THE PARK on their list of “18 books by Latinx Authors You'll Want to Read in 2022.” Lupita Aquino of “Lupita Reads on Instagram” told Today: "I have a sweet spot for debut authors and every year I keep an extra eye open for their titles, so, when Naima Coster shared her excitement for NERUDA ON THE PARK, I immediately added it to my TRB.” PopSugar also featured the novel on their list of “15 Books by Afro-Latinx Writers You Won't Want to Put Down,” calling it an "intriguing read." Ballantine Books will publish the novel on May 17, 2022.

Tanaïs' literary debut IN SENSORIUM was named one of Vogue's “7 LGBTQ+ Books We Can't Wait to Read This Year.” They write: "This memoir from writer and perfumer Tanaïs is as ambitious as it is wide-ranging, telling the story of their experience as an American Bangladeshi Muslim femme moving around the world in a wise and engaging manner that asks deeply relevant questions about queerness, gender, colonization and South Asian identity." The book was also selected as Lit Hub’s Astrology Book Club pick for “Cancer”: "Everyone knows that smell is the sense most strongly tied to memory, and by extension to emotion—two things that Cancers know a thing or two about. They will happily dive into the pool of sensations that is this memoir by writer and independent perfumer Tanaïs, and if they’re lucky, come out a little bit changed." Harper will publish the book on February 22, 2022.