Rebecca Rukeyser sat down with best-selling author Carmen Maria Machado for ELLE.com to discuss “Youth and Sleaze” in Rukeyser’s debut novel, THE SEAPLANE ON FINAL APPROACH. Machado praises: “[Rukeyser] spends a great deal of the book outlining various things that are or are not sleazy and also trying to identify and pursue sleaziness, as she recognizes it. It’s a tremendous engine for the book, way more than I would’ve expected if you just described it to me…I think what makes me so interested in the setting in particular, besides the physical specificness of it, which is so beautifully written in this book, is also the quality of it being the last frontier. This idea, the way they talk about, it’s very westward expansion, homesteads. There's even this quality of almost colonialist storytelling. It’s constantly a space of invention and just forging ahead and authenticity.” Doubleday publish the novel on June 7, 2022.

Tomi Obaro’s sparkling debut DELE WEDS DESTINY continues to accumulate a wealth of positive press following its publication. The book is Good Morning America’s Buzz Pick for July, and BookRiot featured the novel on its list of “The Best Books Out This Week (June 28)” alongside enthusiastic praise: “[A] sensational debut from a dazzling new voice in contemporary fiction…Pick this one up for a take on complex female friendship that features women from a culture we don’t always see this from. The messy lives of Funmi, Enitan, and Zainab is set against the backdrop of Nigerian food, clothing, and music, which are all brought to life brilliantly by Obaro.” Obaro sat down in conversation with Maris Kreizman for Lit Hub’s The Maris Review podcast, where she discussed taking risks while writing her novel: “In some ways the big risk about writing this book, the thing that was exciting but also scary, was deciding to inhabit the point of view of women who had grown up in Nigeria. I don’t really speak Yoruba; I had friends who spoke Yoruba go through. That also made the writing fun, allowing myself to speak with authority and also reminiscing. So much of the book, especially when I was writing in New York and far away from my parents, was thinking about food that I loved and missed and wanted. Those scenes tended to be fun to write.” Lastly, Good Housekeeping selected the novel as a “Best Book to Read This Month,” calling it a “heartwarming, relatable depiction of female friendship loyalty and friendship.” Knopf published the book on June 28, 2022.

Chelsea Manning’s forthcoming memoir README.txt was featured on Lit Hub’s list of “The Most-Anticipated Books of the Year 2022, Part Two.” Lit Hub managing editor Emily Temple writes: “This fall, FSG is publishing a memoir by Chelsea Manning, the US Army intelligence analyst who famously announced her gender identity and began transitioning after she was convicted of leaking sensitive documents in 2011, and whose sentence was commuted by President Obama in 2017. According to the publisher, in the book Manning recounts how her pleas for increased institutional transparency and government accountability took place alongside a fight to defend her rights as a trans woman. She reveals her challenging childhood, her struggles as an adolescent, what led her to join the military, and the fierce pride she took in her work. We also learn the details of how and why she made the decision to send classified military documents to WikiLeaks. This powerful, observant memoir will stand as one of the definitive testaments of the digital age.” Farrar, Straus and Giroux will publish the memoir on October 18, 2022.

Kirkus awarded Namwali Serpell’s forthcoming novel THE FURROWS an exceptional starred review. The reviewer writes: “[A] brilliant second novel…If THE OLD DRIFT was an epic effort to outdo Marquez and Rushdie, this slippery yet admirably controlled novel aspires to outdo Toni Morrison, and it earns the comparison. It’s deeply worthy of rereading and debate. Stylistically refreshing and emotionally intense, cementing Serpell’s place among the best writers going.” THE FURROWS also received a starred review from Publishers Weekly: “In the brilliant and impressionistic latest from Serpell (THE OLD DRIFT), a young woman traverses the trenches of grief that have shaped her life...In a series of shocking twists, Serpell shatters comfortable ideas about grief and melds…glittering narrative shards into a searching, unforgettable story. It’s a considerable shift from the huge canvas of her previous work, and no less captivating.” The book was also featured on Lit Hub’s most-anticipated “The Most-Anticipated Books of the Year 2022, Part Two.” Lit Hub senior editor Corinne Segal writes: “Namwali Serpell’s latest book follows the fallout from a family’s tragic loss after their son disappears at the age of seven, his body never found. Serpell, who won the 2020 Windham-Campbell Prize for fiction and 2015 Caine Prize for African Writing, is one of the world’s most exciting contemporary novelists, and I’m eagerly anticipating this new work from her.” Hogarth will publish the novel on September 27, 2022.

Ed Yong’s AN IMMENSE WORLD received a stunning rave review from Mark Cocker in The New Statesman: “[Yong] seeks to offer his reader a panoramic, complex portrait of the sensory capacities that underpin a multitude of life ways…Chapter by chapter, the author builds an understanding of how each of the primary human senses – smell, taste, sight, hearing, touch – operate in other species. But Yong also delves into sensory experiences beyond our ken, which modern science is beginning to uncover…Yong’s excursion into the extraordinarily complex interior lives of so many creatures – insects, turtles, finches, robins, elephants, sharks, octopuses, whales and jewel wasps – shows us that there is an entire universe of unfathomable beauty all around us.” Random House published AN IMMENSE WORLD on June 21, 2022.

Antonia Angress’s debut novel SIRENS & MUSES published to warm reception this week. The Minneapolis Star Tribune published a wonderful review of the novel, in which Ellen Akins praises: “Angress is very good at getting what people think about and what they want when they make art, whether from political conviction, a performative impulse or a deep need to convey what they see…The moments of recognition and frustration, revelation and betrayal, desire and revulsion are convincing and moving, and Angress' portrayal of the intersection — or disconnect — of art, politics, idealism and practicality within the web of familial, romantic,and professional relationships is painterly, in the best sense of the word.” Angress was interviewed by Eva Dunsky for the Chicago Review of Books, where she shared her writing process for SIRENS & MUSES: “I worked on including either imagistic or thematic echoes so that the different storylines were speaking to each other even if they weren’t intersecting…There’s sort of a meta aspect to this book—a lot of the ideas and anxieties it explores were ideas and anxieties I had as I was writing it. I picture the book as a problem I kept creating as I was trying to solve it, almost like an Escher drawing: a problem that falls into itself again and again and which you can’t climb out of because you’re creating it as you go.” The book was featured on must-read lists from The Millions, Reads Rainbow, and Lambda Literary, and Lit Hub featured a personal essay by Angress titled “Fantasy vs. Reality: When the Muse Finally Speaks.” Ballantine Books published SIRENS & MUSES on July 12, 2022.

Nada Alic’s highly anticipated BAD THOUGHTS enjoyed a celebratory launch this week. The New York Times published a fantastic review from A. Cerisse Cohen: “Nada Alic’s debut story collection pierces superficial appearances to access deeper human connection…[E]ach story pushes into weirder, more vulnerable territory as it captures the (usually female) narrator’s borderline perverse thoughts. Alic depicts contemporary womanhood with a wry, uncensored voice reminiscent of those in Miranda July’s off-kilter SoCal tales.” The Cut published an interview between Alic and Katja Vujić, in which Alic discussed her influences and inspirations: “I see my characters going through a misguided hero’s journey. They’re all seeking freedom or power or love, and going about it in all the wrong ways. One of the main things that I find a lot of humor in is how we perform self. The journey from my thoughts to my mouth feels like a game of telephone sometimes; there’s so much going on internally, and I don’t know if I always communicate it well. I often betray myself, and I think a lot of people do. A lot of it comes from trying to dismantle a lot of the shame that I feel and using humor to normalize the fact that we all have good and bad thoughts swirling inside of us — we have the full spectrum of a human experience.” BAD THOUGHTS was also featured on must-read lists from Lit Hub and The London Times, and Electric Lit featured a listicle from Alic titled “9 Books About Women Who Can’t Get Out of Their Heads” in honor of her book’s publication. Vintage published BAD THOUGHTS on July 12, 2022.

The New York Times named GIRLS THEY WRITE SONGS ABOUT on its list of “10 New Books We Recommend This Week (July 7).” The book was also featured on Entertainment Weekly’s best books of June 2022, praised as a “heady, intimate tale.” Farrar, Straus and Giroux published the novel on June 21, 2022.

Lars Horn sat down with Book Forum to discuss their book VOICE OF THE FISH. Interviewer Ayden Leroux writes: “VOICE OF THE FISH submerg[es] the reader in the mythological layers of the marine..Horn’s prose hums in a way that often transcends language. Each essay in VOICE OF THE FISH is a chamber that opens into experiences through which Horn became embodied: the occasions Horn modeled for their mother’s artworks; an assault and an injury which made them lose their ability to speak, read, and write; learning the mystical circumstances of their birth; and inking their skin slowly with tattoos.” Graywolf Press published the book on June 7, 2022.

PATHETIC LITERATURE, the forthcoming anthology edited by Eileen Myles, was featured on Lit Hub’s list of “The Most-Anticipated Books of the Year 2022, Part Two.” Lit Hub associate editor Katie Yee writes: “Eileen Myles (of CHELSEA GIRLS and COOL FOR YOU) is reclaiming ‘pathetic.’ Tracing the word back to its roots, they are taking us on a great literary tour of pathos, of feeling. Reaching across continents and genres, this anthology collects poetry, prose, and drama from the likes of Jorge Luis Borges, Gwendolyn Brooks, Lucille Clifton, Victoria Chang, and Qiu Miaojin (a personal favorite). When else does this spectacular gang get together under one roof? It’s a call for a rare kind of emotional honesty and earnestness and a response to our embarrassment over feeling feelings.” Grove Press will publish the anthology on November 15, 2022.