Carter Sickels’ THE PRETTIEST STAR is the 2021 winner of the Weatherford Prize for Best Books about Appalachia. Founded in 1970, the Weatherford honors books that “best [illuminate] the challenges, personalities and unique qualities of the Appalachian South.” The novel also received a glowing review from The Post and Courier. They write: “THE PRETTIEST STAR dazzles with its tenderness, honesty, and riveting brutality...It is queer fiction of the highest order, which is to say, a story of our humanity laid bare, a story for everyone...[S]mall yet searing insights poke a million holes in your heart — holes through which the light of THE PRETTIEST STAR can dazzle their way in.” Hub City Press published the book on May 19, 2020.

AMERICAN DAUGHTER by Stephanie Thornton Plymale is one of The Global Mail’s “Five memoirs on overcoming adversity to help get us through these (hopefully) last COVID months.” Tara Henly writes: “Compelling and well-told, the story is full of surprises, including the revelation of a long-held family secret and the uncovering of lineage that traces back to famous American figures.” HarperOne published the book on January 12, 2021.

LOVE AND FURY by Samantha Silva received an enthusiastic starred review from Publishers Weekly. They write: “[A] gripping, meticulous novel…Silva’s heartbreaking but inspiring work captures the despair and joy, convictions and contradictions of an extraordinary woman.” Flatiron Books will publish the book on May 25, 2021.

Elly Griffiths appeared on NPR’s All Things Considered to discuss her latest novel, THE POSTSCRIPT MURDERS. Speaking to the appeal of murder mysteries, Griffiths says: “It is a strange thing that lots of people — and me absolutely included — do find reading about these murders quite comforting, really. And of course, there's absolutely nothing cozy about murder, but I think we do like that sort of puzzle, and unlocking the puzzle.” Houghton Mifflin Harcourt published the book on March 2, 2021.

Stephanie Thornton Plymale appeared on the Today Show to discuss her memoir AMERICAN DAUGHTER. HarperOne published the book on January 12, 2021.

Astra Taylor joined Jane Coaston and Sandy Baum on NYT Opinion podcast “The Argument” to discuss cancelling student debt. Metropolitan Books published DEMOCRACY MAY NOT EXIST, BUT WE’LL MISS IT WHEN IT’S GONE on May 7, 2019, and Astra Taylor’s forthcoming book, THE UNSCHOOLED LIFE, is anticipated to publish in 2023.

Maggie Nelson’s ON FREEDOM is featured on The Rumpus’ Women's History Month reading list. They write: “Drawing on a vast range of material, from critical theory to pop culture to the intimacies and plain exchanges of daily life, Maggie Nelson explores how we might think, experience, or talk about freedom in ways responsive to the conditions of our day. Her abiding interest lies in ongoing ‘practices of freedom’ by which we negotiate our interrelation with indeed, our inseparability from—others, with all the care and constraint that entails, while accepting difference and conflict as integral to our communion. For Nelson, thinking publicly through the knots in our culture from recent art-world debates to the turbulent legacies of sexual liberation, from the painful paradoxes of addiction to the lure of despair in the face of the climate crisis is itself a practice of freedom, a means of forging fortitude, courage, and company.” Graywolf Press will publish the book September 7, 2021.

EVERYTHING NOW by Rosecrans Baldwin continues to receive glowing praise. CITY OF QUARTZ author Mike Davis calls the book "a sharp, convincing work of acute observation,” while A BURGLAR’S GUIDE TO THE CITY author Geoff Manaugh praises: "Baldwin has constructed his own brilliant scenography, a book as lively as the city it describes.” Lastly, MIDDLE MEN author Jim Gavin describes the book as "brisk and graceful…EVERYTHING NOW should be handed out to everyone who gets off a plane at LAX." MCD will publish the book June 15, 2021.

NOW BEACON, NOW SEA by Christopher Sorrentino received a glowing blurb from author Jonathan A. Lethem. He writes: “In memoirs by great novelists, and NOW BEACON, NOW SEA is one, any distance between those arts shrinks, imagination and testimony lending prose the clarity of an engraving. Put this accomplishment with Roth’s Patrimony, Schwartz’s LEAVING BROOKLYN, Gornick’s FIERCE ATTACHMENTS, Conroy’s STOP-TIME, books in which the necessity of commanding trauma onto the page has galvanized the language from within.” Catapult will publish the book on September 7, 2021.

Ms. Magazine, Reader's Digest, and In the Know feature Dawnie Walton’s THE FINAL REVIVAL OF OPAL & NEV on their must-read lists for March. Ms. Magazine calls the book an “immersive debut,” while Reader’s Digest praises it as a “debut novel [that] lands with a bang…Despite tackling big themes of sexism, race, and power, Walton’s writing positively sings.” 37 Ink Books will publish the book on March 30, 2021.