Ask.com featured THE PROPHETS by Robert Jones Jr. on its list of “The 15 Best Books of 2021 (So Far).” They write: "In Robert Jones, Jr.’s lyrical debut novel, THE PROPHETS, Isaiah and Samuel are two enslaved young men who find refuge in each other — and their love becomes both sustaining and heroic in the face of a vicious world. Entertainment Weekly writes that 'While THE PROPHETS’ dreamy realism recalls the work of Toni Morrison…Its penetrating focus on social dynamics stands out more singularly.' Now that's a compliment." G.P. Putnam’s Sons published the novel on January 5, 2021.

Lucy Corin sat down in conversation with West Trade Review to discuss her novel, THE SWANK HOTEL. West Trade Review’s Fiction Editor D.W. White told Corin: "When I was reading THE SWANK HOTEL, I was thinking of INFINITE JEST, that type of metafictional, hysterical realism…It’s this wonderland of a world, filtered through the mind of a few characters." Graywolf Press published the novel on October 5, 2021.

Sunjeev Sahota’s CHINA ROOM has been longlisted for the 2022 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction. The shortlist will be announced on November 8, 2021, and the winners will be announced at the Reference and User Services Association’s Book and Media Awards event during ALA’s first annual LibLearnX on January 23, 2022. Viking published the novel on July 13, 2021.

Anderson Cooper’s VANDERBILT debuted on the New York Times Bestseller list for the week of October 10th, appearing at number 2 on both the Combined Print & E-book Nonfiction and Hardcover Non-Fiction lists. Harper published the book on September 21, 2021.

Barnes & Noble selected CHILD OF LIGHT by Terry Brooks as one of their ten “Best Science Fiction & Fantasy of 2021” books. Del Rey will publish the book on October 19, 2021.

DISCORDIA, an Audible Original by Max Barry, was released this week. Barry calls it “an audiobook full of lies,” adding: “[P]reviously, I thought people made up their minds based on facts. Sure, you can lie, but that’s just making up facts; facts are still involved. The new idea was that facts were a jumping-off point. People could also be persuaded by how confidently I spoke, or whether I connected my argument to some other thing they liked or disliked. Since then, there has been a wild explosion of disinformation…I wrote a comedy about disinformation getting out of control.” Audible published the audiobook on October 12, 2021.

NERUDA ON THE PARK by Cleyvis Natera was named by WHAT’S MINE AND YOURS author Naima Coster on Entertainment Weekly’s list of favorite Latinx books chosen by Latinx authors. Coster raves: “[NERUDA ON THE PARK] is unlike anything I have ever read before. It's thrilling, but it's also a family story, so sensitive and beautifully told. It's that rare kind of book that can be chilling, but also moving and fun." Ballantine Books will publish the novel on May 17, 2022.

Maggie Nelson sat down with the Literary Friction podcast and The Ezra Klein Show to discuss her latest book, ON FREEDOM. The Ezra Klein Show writes: “ON FREEDOM pierces right into the heart of America’s founding idea: What if there’s no such thing as freedom, at least not freedom as a state of enduring liberation? And more than that: What if we don’t want to be free? Perhaps that’s the great lie in the American dream: We’re taught to want freedom, but many of us recoil from its touch." Graywolf Press published the book on September 7, 2021

Barnes & Noble selected SCIENTIST by Richard Rhodes as one of their ten best biographies of 2021. Doubleday will publish the book on November 9, 2021.

THE PROPHETS by Robert Jones Jr. is a finalist for the 2021 National Book Award Fiction finalist. The winners will be announced in the 72nd National Book Awards ceremony on November 17, 2021. Jones Jr. sat down with Interview Magazine to discuss the nomination, and when asked how he reacted to the news, he told the interviewer: “I’m still in something of a daze…I was in this loop of shouting, ‘Have mercy!’ and ‘Thank you so much!’” THE PROPHETS also received a glorious review from Chapter 16. Sean Kinch raves: “[T]he metaphorical mileage that Jones gets out of that paradoxical place-name illustrates how the novel accretes meaning. Empty, a Mississippi cotton farm near the Yazoo River, exists in a moral vacuum. It’s a godless wasteland, a loveless pandemonium, an institution invented out of nothing and doomed to obliteration…Like Colson Whitehead and Yaa Gyasi, Robert Jones Jr. proves that the slave narrative, far from being empty, remains a vast and fertile territory.” G.P. Putnam’s Sons published the novel on January 5, 2021.