News in April 2022
News in April 2022
ALL OUR NAMES author Dinaw Mengestu is a 2022 Guggenheim Fellow for Fiction. Fellowships were awarded “to a diverse group of 180 exceptional individuals. Chosen from a rigorous application and peer review process out of almost 2500 applicants, these successful applicants were appointed on the basis of prior achievement and exceptional promise.” Knopf published ALL OUR NAMES on March 4, 2014.
NOW BEACON, NOW SEA author Christopher Sorrentino is a 2022 Guggenheim Fellow for General Nonfiction. Fellowships were awarded “to a diverse group of 180 exceptional individuals. Chosen from a rigorous application and peer review process out of almost 2500 applicants, these successful applicants were appointed on the basis of prior achievement and exceptional promise.” Catalpult published NOW BEACON, NOW SEA on September 7, 2021.
Kirkus Reviews reviewed Rebecca Rukeyser’s anticipated debut novel THE SEAPLANE ON FINAL APPROACH. They praise: “It is a testament to the power and subtlety of Rukeyser’s writing that the novel’s violent climax, though preceded largely by a sense of quietude throughout, does not feel surprising or out of place; it is simply the result of the building social tensions and sense of desperation among the group and of a particular landscape whose compelling beauty—the author shows us—conceals dangerous potential. The obviously talented Rukeyser has crafted a vividly beautiful and odd world…[with] descriptive and imagistic prose. This darkly compelling novel promises more interesting writing to come from Rukeyser.” Doubleday will publish the novel on June 7, 2022.
Kirkus awarded Ed Yong’s forthcoming AN IMMENSE WORLD a starred review. They rave: “An ingenious account of how living organisms perceive the world... Building on Aristotle’s traditional five senses, Yong adds expert accounts of 20th-century discoveries of senses for echoes, electricity, and magnetism as well as perceptions we take for granted, including color, pain, and temperature. One of the year’s best popular natural histories.” Random House will publish the book on July 12, 2022.
The New York Review of Books wrote a rave review for Sarah Manguso’s fiction debut VERY COLD PEOPLE. Reviewer Nicole Rudick writes: “It is difficult to do a lot with a little, and Manguso, a poet as well as an essayist and memoirist, covers quite a bit of distance with a minimum of means…The very forms of Manguso’s books—fragmentary, aphoristic, discrete, or however one chooses to characterize them—resist clear narrative paths, and in doing so they can invite new possibilities...Manguso is wonderful at the slow fade of this blissful innocence, the way it is supplanted by dangers that infiltrate at the fringes of awareness.” Hogarth published the novel on February 8, 2022.
The VCU Cabell First Novelist Award announced THE PROPHETS by Robert Jones, Jr. as one of 20 debut novels to make the award’s 2022 longlist. The award “honors an outstanding debut novel published in the preceding calendar year. Symbolized by a three-dimensional compass, the award is a tribute to writers who have navigated their way through the maze of imagination and delivered a great read, taking the reader someplace new.” G.P. Putnam’s Sons published the novel on January 5, 2021.
Samantha Hunt’s nonfiction debut THE UNWRITTEN BOOK was lauded as a must-read book for April by The Chicago Review of Books. They praise: “Hunt has proved herself a writer of capacious imagination with her elegant short stories and novels. Now she turns that roving eye to a personal inquiry of haunting with this genre-bending nonfiction work centred around an unfinished manuscript written by her father and found days after his death. Blending literary criticism, history, and memoir, THE UNWRITTEN BOOK is sure to appeal to fans of Maggie Nelson and W.G. Sebald.” Farrar, Straus, and Giroux published the book on April 5, 2022.
Booklist reviewed Cleyvis Natera’s highly anticipated debut NERUDA ON THE PARK. Reviewer Lindsay Harmon praises: “Natera's sensitive portrayal of the tensions between immigrant parents and children will appeal to fans of THE BOOK OF UNKNOWN AMERICANS (2014) and TRANSCENDENT KINGDOM (2020).” Ballantine Books will publish the novel on May 17, 2022.
The VCU Cabell First Novelist Award announced PARIS IS A PARTY, PARIS IS A GHOST by David Hoon Kim as one of 20 debut novels to make the award’s 2022 longlist. The award “honors an outstanding debut novel published in the preceding calendar year. Symbolized by a three-dimensional compass, the award is a tribute to writers who have navigated their way through the maze of imagination and delivered a great read, taking the reader someplace new.” Farrar, Straus and Giroux published the novel on August 3, 2021.
The VCU Cabell First Novelist Award announced THE FINAL REVIVAL OF OPAL & NEV by Dawnie Walton as one of 20 debut novels to make the award’s 2022 longlist. The award “honors an outstanding debut novel published in the preceding calendar year. Symbolized by a three-dimensional compass, the award is a tribute to writers who have navigated their way through the maze of imagination and delivered a great read, taking the reader someplace new.” 37 Ink published the novel on March 30, 2021.
Booklist shared a growing review of Las Horn’s debut essay collection, VOICE OF THE FISH. Reviewer Michael Cart calls the book “profound,” adding: “[T]he author’s experiences are uniformly interesting and the essays about them [are] well written…[T]hose who enjoy the offbeat will be right at home.” Graywolf Press will publish the book on June 7, 2022.
Kirkus reviewed Nicole Pasulka’s forthcoming nonfiction, HOW YOU GET FAMOUS, praising: “An award-winning journalist takes a deep dive into New York City’s underground drag scene…[T]he skilled reporting and storytelling that characterize the narrative make for an engaging book that will appeal to scholars of gender as well as anyone with an interest in queer culture. An adventurously intelligent sociological study.” Simon & Schuster will publish the book on June 7, 2022.