The March 20, 2013 issue of The Wall Street Journal contained a review of Kishore Mahbubani’s THE GREAT CONVERGENCE. “Anyone feeling the weight of the world’s woes will be grateful for Kishore Mahbubani’s ‘The Great Convergence,’ a sweeping survey that proves to be, in large measure, a counterweight to global gloom and doom.” Public Affairs published the book on February 5, 2013.

Jim Gavin’s debut collection MIDDLE MEN was called “gorgeous, unexpected” in full-page, review in the recent “Fresh Voices” issue of New York Times Book Review. Reviewer Marisa Silver raved: “A generous humanity and a fond wit animate Jim Gavin’s wonderful first collection, Middle Men…Gavin’s stories have loose-limbed, unforced structures that at first seem casually episodic but that turn out to reveal moving juxtapositions.” Simon & Schuster published the book February 19, 2013.

Jeff Baron’s I REPRESENT SEAN ROSEN was reviewed in Booklist this month, which says that “Sean recounts his improbable success story in such a glib mix of moves and countermoves that readers will be swept along in the giddy rush.” Greenwillow Books published the book March 19, 2013.

Manuel Gonzales’ debut collection was given a full-page, review in the recent “Fresh Voices” issue of New York Times Book Review. Reviewer Aimee Bender raved: “Gonzales’s concerns are as real as can be, but his comfort in different lexicons, and weirdnesses, all as ways to shape very human dilemmas, is strong…When the bedlam of the moment is allowed to spill into the incredible sureness of the prose, these stories ring and resound.” Riverhead published the book January 10, 2013.

Rilla Askew’s KIND OF KIN was reviewed in Parade, which called the novel “compelling” and said, “Askew has a gift for creating fully formed characters who, just like your own family, will keep you up late in a roil of frustration, worry, and hope.” Ecco published the book January 8, 2013.

Ryan McIlvain’s ELDERS received glowing reviews in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Magazine, the Daily Beast, Publishers Weekly, and the Boston Globe, which said, “McIlvain’s first novel glows with the love and anger of a former believer…Finely paced, keenly observed, and ruefully honest.” The New York Times said, “Mr. McIlvain zeros in on the inner struggle, exploring the appeal of faith and the sorrow that comes with losing it.”

Carlene Bauer’s FRANCES AND BERNARD was given a full-page review in the recent “Fresh Voices” issue of New York Times Book Review. Reviewer Christopher Benfey proclaimed: “Bauer is a fresh voice thinking seriously about what a religiously committed life might have felt like and perhaps, in our own far-from tranquil period, might feel like again.” Houghton Mifflin Harcourt published the book in February 5, 2013.

Gavin Corbett’s THIS IS THE WAY was reviewed positively in Publishers Weekly and Electric Literature. Electric Literature said: “After the fashion of Beckett, Corbett gives us language that is its own form of mysticism.” Publishers Weekly also said: “Corbett is brilliant at creating an utterly original—and beautiful—language to portray this young man’s alienation from the world. An inventive and beguiling book.” Farrar, Straus and Giroux published the book March 5, 2013.

Manuel Gonzales’ THE MINIATURE WIFE AND OTHER STORIES was declared a “striking debut collection” by the Washington Post, saying, “Gonzales shares [George] Saunders’s hopscotching inventiveness, but his view is even darker and more savage. The result is a superior collection of writing and a signpost of emerging talent with a strong and distinctive voice.” Kirkus featured Gonzales in an in-depth interview, calling his stories “funny, confident, weird, inquisitive and inviting; he doesn’t traffic in surrealism just for surrealism’s sake.” Riverhead published the book this January 10, 2013.

Jim Gavin’s MIDDLE MEN was praised in reviews by Vogue, the New York Times, ZYZZVA, The Millions, and was also reviewed on-air by Oscar Villalon for his weekly public radio show, “The California Report.” Vogue named the book one of its twelve “Essentials for Airplane Travel,” while in another feature on breakout fiction, they called the book a "dryly funny, classically American collection" and noted that "these stories are perhaps most remarkable for their astute self-awareness, especially in recognizing the inability of irony to change the characters’ circumstances."