Southern Living included De'Shawn Charles Winslow on their great list of “Contemporary Southern Writers to Read Right Now,” highlighting both IN WEST MILLS and DECENT PEOPLE. SIBA’s Southern Bookseller Review ran a short “Spotlight” feature on DECENT PEOPLE, and Vol. 1 Brooklyn included a review of the book on its “Morning Bites” round-up. The Rumpus also published a great Q&A with Winslow, where Winslow teased his next project: “All I’ll say for now is that I’m stepping away from the fictional town of West Mills for my next project. I’m going to use a real North Carolina town, and it’ll be set in the ‘80s. No murders this time, but there will be deaths.” Bloomsbury published DECENT PEOPLE on January 17, 2023.

Danielle Steel’s latest novel, WORTHY OPPONENTS, debuted on The New York Times Bestsellers list for the week of March 26, 2023, appearing at #2 on Print Hardcover Fiction and #6 on Combined Print & E-Book Fiction. Delacorte Press published the novel on March 7, 2023.

THE LONDON SÉANCE SOCIETY by Sarah Penner made its debut on The New York Times Bestsellers list for the week of March 26, 2023, appearing at #7 on Print Hardcover Fiction. Park Row published the novel on March 7, 2023.

TAKE WHAT YOU NEED by Idra Novey received fantastic publication-week reviews from The Boston Globe (“As in the classic, unscrubbed fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm, Idra Novey’s TAKE WHAT YOU NEED does not skirt gritty subjects. Concerned with characters who fall outside easily defined categories, it tackles big questions — like what qualifies as art — as well as the aching human need to be seen…With these raw materials, Novey has fashioned an insightful work of art about art”), The New York Times (“[An] impressive new novel…TAKE WHAT YOU NEED never feels like a parable. It’s a story about complicated relationships unresolved by death, about ambivalent grief. It’s very much a book for grown-ups in that there are no neat solutions to messy relationships”), The Los Angeles Times (“[An] elegiac and unsettling new novel…The best fiction can explore such dilemmas more meaningfully than a thousand think pieces. Rather than present this choice as an empty intellectual exercise about ‘tolerance,’ Novey takes readers to the limbic level, that instinctual site of emotions and stress hormones”), The Washington Post (“[S]triking…Novey’s prose [is] brisk and direct”), and The Jewish Book Council (“[A] moving, meditative novel…[A] complicated and loving portrait that readers will remember long after they’ve turned the last page”). Novey was profiled in Belt Mag, The Rumpus, and Littsburgh, and featured on the "So Many Damn Books" podcast. The novel was also included in must-read round-ups from The New York Times, The Millions, and Lit Hub. Viking published the novel on March 14, 2023.

The sixty-fifth anniversary Penguin Classics Black Spine edition of THE BEST OF EVERYTHING by Rona Jaffe is the first book on Lit Hub’s “16 New Books to Check Out this Week” list. It was also featured in The Atlantic’s “One Story to Read Today” daily newsletter, where Apoorva Tadepalli writes: “Young women everywhere could relate to the experience of juggling all the things they were expected to achieve in order to finally make it and be happy. The book gave voice to their specific desires, even as it tapped into the hardships of moving to a new city, starting a life alone, and grasping, by turns, for connection and independence.” Kirkus Reviews Fiction Editor Laurie Muchnick also commented on the book’s timelessness, noting that she was “blown away by Jaffe’s sharp, fizzy writing; her pointed analysis of women’s roles and restrictions; and her matter-of-fact depiction of sexual harassment in the workplace decades before the Clarence Thomas hearings or #MeToo.” The New Yorker staff writer Rachel Syme, who wrote the introduction to the reissue (which can be found on The New Yorker website), and author Maris Kreizman will be holding a free discussion on the book on March 17 at 6pm at Rizzoli. Penguin Classics published the book on March 14, 2023.

Lakiesha Carr spoke to Shondaland about her debut novel, AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF SKIN. Pantheon published the book on February 28, 2023.

Laura Warrell’s debut novel SWEET, SOFT, PLENTY RHYTHM was named one of the five finalists for the 2023 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. The winner will be announced in April, and all finalists will be honored on May 11 at the 43rd Anniversary PEN/Faulkner Award Celebration at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library in Washington DC. Pantheon published the book on September 27, 2022.

Janklow & Nesbit Associates is seeking two bright, energetic remote interns for summer 2023. Interns will be offered the chance to develop their reading and analytical writing skills, assist with general office duties, and learn about all aspects of agenting, including the submission process, client care, contracts, subsidiary rights, and more. This is a part-time, remote, paid opportunity. No prior publishing experience is required. Candidates from underrepresented communities are particularly encouraged to apply.
Responsibilities will involve evaluating submissions and client manuscripts, writing reader’s reports and editorial letters, drafting pitch letters, attending weekly lectures by agency personnel, curating social media posts, research, and data entry, and general administrative duties. Applicants must be U.S. citizens who are 18+ with a U.S. bank account, U.S. social security number, reliable internet connection, video call capabilities, and laptop/computer access. Qualifications include excellent reading and writing skills, attention to detail, and an eagerness to learn about the literary landscape and the industry at large.

Dionne Irving’s collection of stories THE ISLANDS was named one of the five finalists for the 2023 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. The winner will be announced in April, and all finalists will be honored on May 11 at the 43rd Anniversary PEN/Faulkner Award Celebration at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library in Washington DC. Catapult published the book on November 1, 2022.

A review from Publishers Weekly raves that Elliot Ackerman’s HALCYON is a “thought-provoking alternate history,” adding: “Ackerman is great at probing the scientific ethics of resurrection. This visionary tale is worth a look.” Knopf will publish the book on May 23, 2023.