Tomi Obaro’s debut DELE WEDS DESTINY continues to be one of this summer’s most anticipated books. The Washington Post featured it on its list of “10 noteworthy books for June,” praising: “Obaro’s writing gives richness and depth to female friendship, depicting the beauty of bonds that last a lifetime.” DELE WEDS DESTINY was also featured on Bustle’s most-anticipated list for June. Knopf will publish the novel on June 28, 2022.

Kendra Allen’s memoir FRUIT PUNCH received a glowing review from Booklist. The reviewer writes: “Allen bestows a fresh literary voice on this memoir filled with humor, honesty, and thought-provoking truth…With admirable and inspiring vulnerability, Allen brings readers along in her journey to understand her very makeup.” Ecco will publish the book on August 9, 2022.

Liska Jacobs’s forthcoming novel THE PINK HOTEL received a strong review from Booklist, which reads: “Jacobs' third novel is over the top in pretty much every way – there's a literal luncheon for couture-clad dogs – an orgiastic quasi-dystopia so sensuously described you might be watching it unfold on Instagram.” THE PINK HOTEL is also one of Lit Hub’s most anticipated books of this summer. Lit Hub CrimeReads Senior Editor Molly Odintz raves: “This is the perfect book to recommend to all your friends in hospitality!!! And also just the perfect book. I tore through this one like a California wildfire—an appropriate comparison, given the novel’s setting in a high-end hotel beset by fires all around.” MCD will publish the book on July 19, 2022.

SIRENS & MUSES by Antonia Angress received a starred review from Library Journal, in which reviewer Barbara Hoffert praises the novel as “a brilliant study of art, politics, male dominance, female passion, and the commercialized art world in the early 2010s” and “[a] highly recommended novel of art and heart.” Meanwhile, BuzzFeed News included SIRENS & MUSES on its roundup of summer must-reads. BuzzFeed Contributor David Vogel writes: “Writing about being an artist can be tough…but Angress has done this delicately and with flair in her astounding debut...Gripping, provocative, and supremely entertaining, [SIRENS & MUSES] is one to watch out for.” Ballantine Books will publish the novel on July 12, 2022.

Tomi Obaro sat down for an interview with The Bookseller to discuss her upcoming debut novel DELE WEDS DESTINY, which interviewer Grace Shutti praises as “cleverly” and “skillfully” written. Obaro spoke about the “pageantry of a certain kind of very opulent Nigerian wedding,” and her enthusiasm for the “direction Nigerian fiction is taking”: “For so long there’s been a certain kind of Nigerian mentality of achieving excellence and a very narrow definition of what that means: literary fiction and prestige in a certain way. So just to see more genres is exciting.” Knopf will publish the book on June 28, 2022.

Time Magazine featured Rebecca Rukeyser’s debut novel THE SEAPLANE ON FINAL APPROACH on its list of must-read titles for this summer, praising it as “a snappy character study and a meditation on sleaziness.” Doubleday will publish the novel on June 7, 2022.

HOW YOU GET FAMOUS BY Nicole Pasulka was selected for The New York Book Review’s Summer Preview. The citation reads: “Pasulka, a journalist, spent a decade following drag culture in Brooklyn, which she writes contains ‘both the most experimental corners of the drag world and the most professional,’ and is ‘more messy, freewheeling and avant-garde’ than how the art form appears in its increasingly mainstream appearances on TV and elsewhere.” Simon & Schuster will publish the book on June 7, 2022.

AN IMMENSE WORLD by Ed Yong was selected for The New York Times Book Review’s Summer Preview. The citation reads: “Yong, who’s become well known as a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer for The Atlantic, helping to make sense of the pandemic, here turns his attention to sensory experiences throughout the animal kingdom. All creatures, from ticks to elephants, perceive the world in different ways. Yong does the best he can to put readers inside those bubbles of perception.” Random House will publish the book on June 21, 2022.

With less than one week until its US release, NERUDA ON THE PARK by Cleyvis Natera continues to accumulate critical acclaim. Elle magazine featured the book on its list of must-read books for this summer, and Zibby Owens selected the book as a Good Morning America May Book Club pick: “The inventive structure makes Cleyvis Natera's debut novel immediately stand apart from others; section sub-heads in each fictitious chapter keep the reader (well, me!) completely engaged as we follow one Dominican family in New York trying to stop the construction of a new high-rise in their neighborhood…NERUDA ON THE PARK is a creative, original work.” Natera also sat down for an interview with Refinery29 Somos, where she discussed “character development, the tension of being a so-called successful person in a low-income immigrant neighborhood, what it means to be home, Dominican beauty standards, and more.” Ballantine Books will publish the novel on May 24, 2022.

THE MOVEMENT MADE US by David Dennis, Jr. in collaboration with his father, David Dennis, Sr., continues to amass strong press following its publication. In an interview with Atlanta Magazine, Dennis, Jr. discusses “the national impact that activists such as his father had,” and the importance of sharing his stories: “The value is in writing something that shows what can be done in this country, and what has been done, for us to read, remember, and realize this is exactly what we can do and build upon.” Dennis, Jr. also participated in speaking engagements with Mississippi Free Press, WGNO in New Orleans, and the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum as part of his book tour through the American South. Harper published THE MOVEMENT MADE US on May 10, 2022.