News - Book Launches

News - Book Launches

February 27, 2023

Erica Berry’s inaugural work of nonfiction, WOLFISH, launched in the US to great press. The Guardian ran an excerpt, with Lit Hub, The Rumpus, and AM Northwest/KATU-AM following with interviews with the author. A review from Lorraine Berry for The Star Tribune raves: “[Berry] elucidates the myths and stories we tell about our lupine fears in ferocious and beautiful writing. Like the traveling wolf in search of companionship, Berry ranges far and wide, taking readers along on her own journey — Oregon, the United Kingdom, Italy, the northern United States — in search of answers.” Elsewhere, WOLFISH received positive reviews and mentions from The Boston Globe, Slate, and more. Flatiron Books published WOLFISH in the US on February 21, 2023, and Canongate Books will publish the book on March 2, 2023.

January 27, 2023

David Graeber’s PIRATE ENLIGHTENMENT, OR THE REAL LIBERTALIA, the final posthumous work by the co-author of THE DAWN OF EVERYTHING, published this week to critical acclaim. Peter Frankopan calls it a “slim, feisty book,” in his review for The New York Times, adding: “Graeber’s challenge is to try to make sense of a set of sources that are unreliable or obtuse, and often written either many decades after events they describe or many thousands of miles away — or both…[He] is heroic to try to square a series of circles…David Graeber was a highly original thinker and a wonderful writer. Most of all he was someone who sought out challenging problems and set about trying to solve them.” Meanwhile, a review from Jatin Dua for Science/AAAS praises the book as an “elegantly breezy treatise [that] takes readers on a journey to the monsoonal waters of the Indian Ocean and the verdant landscape of Madagascar,” adding: “In his academic writing and political commitments, David Graeber exemplified an ethos of action and conversation. There is a certain bittersweetness to this text, one that ends with an exhortation toward the arts of speaking and conversation. Graeber himself is no longer around to speak, to debate, or to inspire protest and action. As anthropologists have noted, gifts are inalienable—they contain within them something of the giver. Graeber’s final book is certainly such a gift.” Farrar, Straus and Giroux published PIRATE ENLIGHTMENT, OR THE REAL LIBERTALIA on January 24, 2023.

January 20, 2023

Monica Heisey’s REALLY GOOD, ACTUALLY published this week to an outstanding abundance of praise and attention. The book was featured on must-read and most-anticipated lists from Entertainment Weekly, the New York Post, GQ, Good Morning America, Elle, E! News Online, Shondaland, PopSugar, The Washington Post, The Week, Goodreads, PureWow, Sunset, and many more. A rave review from Sarah Stiefvater of PureWow praises: “[A]mid the dark and dry humor, REALLY GOOD, ACTUALLY is often deeply relatable and sneakily poignant. Heisey dives into the complexities of healing after the end of a relationship you thought would last forever, the messy chaos of your late 20s and what happens when it feels like all of your friends are moving forward and you’re stuck in the same place…[T]his debut novel is better than really good…actually.” The Los Angeles Times ran a feature on Heisey; Bethanne Patrick writes: “Having herself navigated some unsteady personal terrain, Heisey is making a career out of guiding characters through the kinds of crises we can laugh at and sympathize with all at once, while upending enough rom-com tropes to keep things interesting. All of which is to say that you’re going to get to know Monica Heisey a lot better, in one medium or another, and you’re likely to come out of the experience knowing yourself a little better too.” Lastly, Heisey appeared on Good Morning America to discuss the real-life inspirations for her novel. William Morrow published the book on January 17, 2023.

January 20, 2023

DECENT PEOPLE by De'Shawn Charles Winslow published this week to a wealth of critical acclaim. The book received a fantastic review from the Los Angeles Times, where reviewer Chris Vognar raves: “[A] propulsive second novel, a murder mystery that doubles as a savvy examination of race and class...[Winslow] has crafted a nonstop narrative that picks at the scabs barely concealing the wounds of American race relations…DECENT PEOPLE practically turns its own pages, creating in the reader an insatiable curiosity that matches Jo’s own. Winslow proves able to simultaneously drill down and step back, letting the details add up and weaving the grievances of one character into the next until you don’t know whom to trust. They’re all caught in the same web, and try as they might, they can’t talk their way out of it. But it sure is fun to watch them try.” The book was featured on The New York Times' "Newly Published" Column, as well as must-read round-ups from The Southern Review, USA Today, The Millions, Lit Hub, Book Page, and Vol. 1 Brooklyn. Lastly, Winslow was interviewed by Writer’s Digest, KMUW’s Marginalia podcast, and NPR’s Scott Simon for Weekend Edition Saturday. Bloomsbury Publishing published the book on January 17, 2023.

November 18, 2022

Eileen Myles’ anthology PATHETIC LITERATURE published this week to critical acclaim. David L. Ulin wrote a stunning review of the book for The Los Angeles Times, raving: “PATHETIC LITERATURE is an anthology rich in allusions: One piece speaks to another across geography and time. Moving fluidly from Jorge Luis Borges, Chester Himes and Victor Hugo to contemporary figures such as Michelle Tea, Justin Torres and Layli Long Soldier (whose poem ‘38’ is a vivid tour de force), the book is arranged alphabetically by first name, as if to turn our preconceptions inside out…The weave is so all-encompassing, the associations so multilayered, that I feel like fireworks are popping off inside my head. I want to think about these lines of communication: Kafka to Weil to Chantal Akerman, all writing on parents; Maggie Nelson also quoting Shōnagon: ‘Whatever people may think of my book, … I still regret that it ever came to light.’ I want to think about all this pathos, this emotion taking place between the lines and across the centuries. I want to think about these writers in conversation not only with one another but also within the imagination of the editor. More than anything, of course, the echoes belong to Myles, which is what gives PATHETIC LITERATURE a sensibility that is authorial as much as curatorial…PATHETIC LITERATURE represents not so much a collection as it does an ethos: ‘almost a poem,’ its creator observes. These texts and voices take us someplace unexpected, beyond the individual and into the realm of a collective, a tapestry of words that add up to a way of being in the world.” Meanwhile, Oprah Daily featured the anthology on its 2022 Holiday Gift Guide. The citation reads: “For the quirky and the weird—and who among us is not?—this singularly unexpected assemblage curated by Lambda Award–winning poet and writer Eileen Myles is an anthology like no other. This melange of work from writers of widely varying genres and forms—from Jorge Luis Borges to Rumi to Djuna Barnes—is ‘pathetic’ in the sense of being linked to pathos. In her introduction to the volume, Myles writes: ‘Each of these writers has a discomfort or a restlessness’ and has produced work that ‘acknowledges a boundary and then passes it.’ What Myles has captured here is simply this: the power of literature.” Grove Press published the anthology on November 15, 2022

November 4, 2022

MY FIRST POPSICLE, an anthology of essays edited by Zosia Mamet, published this week to a whirlwind of media attention. Mamet appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, The Today Show, All Things Considered, the Your Last Meal with Rachel Belle podcast, and the Moms Don’t Have Time to Read Books podcast to discuss the book. She was also interviewed for ELLE’s Shelf Life column, and the book was selected for Lit Hub’s November roundup. Excerpts from the collection have been featured in Slate, Bon Appetit, and TIME. Penguin Books published the collection on November 1, 2022.

October 21, 2022

README.txt, the highly-anticipated memoir from Chelsea Manning, published this week to a wave of media attention. Jordy Rosenberg for The Washington Post praises the “electrifying opening” of the memoir, adding: “README.txt serves as an insider confessional turned inside out for the 21st century. The perverse secret of our era, one that Manning details in multiple surreal encounters with military bureaucracy, is that everything is already known. Manning is canny in her refusal to simply embrace the confessional mode often demanded of trans writers and whistleblowers alike...Manning’s memoir may thus give us less, not more, of what we may think we know about her. But this is an artful refusal, and an important one…The narrative progression that unfolds over these pages forms a sublime arc.” Meanwhile, Margaret Sullivan for The New York Times Book Review writes: “Manning weaves together her role as a whistle-blower — utterly disillusioned by what she saw and experienced in the military — with her sad personal story…Manning’s memoir fills in some blanks and, most important, adds a searing personal element. The writing in README.txt is vivid, as its narrative moves from an Oklahoma childhood to community college in Maryland to an unpredictable decision to enlist — brought about partly by dire financial need — which eventually brought her to the Middle East.” Elsewhere, Manning sat down with ABC, CBS, WBUR and NPR Fresh Air’s podcast to discuss her memoir and her polarizing public image. Farrar, Straus and Giroux published the memoir on October 18, 2022.

October 14, 2022

Laura Warrell's debut novel SWEET, SOFT, PLENTY RHYTHM has received an abundance of critical acclaim following its publication. The book was longlisted for the 2023 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, and is one of six shortlisted candidates for the Barnes & Noble Discover Prize (after also being selected as Barnes & Noble’s Discover Pick for the month of October), which "celebrates the very best new authors, elevating the joy of spotting fresh voices early on in their careers.” The novel was also featured on a flood of most-anticipated lists, widely praised as a “sensual and sinuous debut...a kaleidoscopic character study, a polyphonic riff on the modern-day Casanova” (Oprah Daily), “an enticing exploration of jazz music and the inner lives of women” (The Hollywood Reporter), and “a big-hearted multicultural world” (Apartment Therapy). A review from The Boston Globe raves: “Warrell excels at describing…points of contact — more often bruising impact than connection — conveying the varying degrees of longing, loneliness, and even aversion that can bring two people together, at least for a night…She’s also skilled at describing jazz — and, perhaps more important, what the music means to a musician…[T]his sprawling and ambitious book [is] an improvisation, and at its best, it’s beautiful.” Meanwhile, The New York Times praises: “Structured like a jam session, the novel favors a series of riffs over any one melodic theme...[E]legant, unexpected and wrenching…[A] literary high-wire act.” The Los Angeles Times featured a full profile of the author, and Lit Hub published a piece by Warrell titled “Why Jazz? Laura Warrell on Devotion to a ‘Dying’ Art Form,” where she delves into the inspirations for her novel. Lastly, the novel is an Indie Next List pick, as well as a Good Morning America Buzz Pick. Pantheon published SWEET, SOFT, PLENTY RHYTHM on September 27, 2022.

October 14, 2022

LIFE IS EVERYWHERE by Lucy Ives published to a wave of glowing reviews from Bookforum, The Los Angeles Times (“brilliantly berserk,” “often hilarious,” “a novel of academia…Its depiction of department dynamics is so pitch perfect as to be truly disconcerting to anyone with personal experience”) and The Rumpus, which hails Ives as “a Big Ideas writer on the level of Gaddis, or DeLillo, or Wallace…[O]ne of our greatest under-the-radar geniuses,” the novel an “achievement [that] demands attention.” The Chicago Review of Books places it "among the most audacious, effective, and ambitious books of recent vintage," "a novel of multitudinous brilliance and luminosity...as wide-ranging and risk-taking a novel to be found this side of Infinite Jest." The novel has also been recommended on new book roundups from Bustle, Inside Hook, and Lit Hub, the latter of which also published a new excerpt of the novel. Graywolf Press published LIFE IS EVERYWHERE on October 4, 2022.

September 30, 2022

THE FURROWS by Namwali Serpell published this week to a chorus of critical acclaim. A stunning review from Lynn Steger-Strong for The Los Angeles Times raves: “On the terms THE OLD DRIFT set out for itself, it was absolutely an accomplishment. Had I been assigned to write about it, I would have focused on all the ways, on its specific terms, it succeeded wildly. I bring in taste only to tell you that her second novel, THE FURROWS, out this week, is also a success on the terms it set out for itself. But it is a further testament to Serpell’s abilities and alacrity as an artist that, this time, I was completely in the thrall of the thing she made. The bombast of THE OLD DRIFT has been replaced with intimacy, intense emotionality and specificity, but the ambition, the acuity of the intelligence, remains… If THE OLD DRIFT put Serpell in conversation with Rushdie and García Márquez, THE FURROWS seems to stand on the shoulders of Virginia Woolf and Toni Morrison.” The New York Times ran a profile on Serpell, where Lauren Christensen writes: “Confronting sudden loss in her own life, Namwali Serpell has written THE FURROWS, a disquieting portrait of the human mind, warped by grief... [H]er breadth of expertise puts her in the intellectual minority. ‘Let’s put it this way,’ her colleague and former professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. said. ‘It’s rare to find a creative writer who also has a Ph.D. in literary studies.’” Mary Retta’s review for New York Magazine’s Vulture raves: “The sort of grief Serpell depicts is complicated and unruly, which makes it feel tangibly real…THE FURROWS is, overall, a triumph. Serpell’s deft prose and languid narration come through beautifully throughout the novel.” Serpell sat down in conversation with Juana Summers for NPR’s WNYC Radio to discuss THE FURROWS. Elsewhere, Entertainment Weekly, Lit Hub, USA Today, Oprah Daily and others featured the book on roundups of the best new releases of September. Hogarth published THE FURROWS on September 27, 2022.