Audrey Clare Farley’s biography of Ann Cooper Hewitt, THE UNFIT HEIRESS, received a stellar review from Lady Science. The reviewer raves: “The most indicting feature of Farley’s book is not America’s eugenic past but America’s eugenic present…We don’t live on the ruins of eugenics; we live within it, twisting its language when the talk of ‘race’ and ‘genes’ is no longer publicly popular. This is a reality that many institutions, scientists, and everyday people in the U.S. have not reckoned with. In drawing a throughline from past to present, Farley forces readers to do so.” Grand Central Publishing will publish the book on April 20, 2021.

Carole Johnstone’s chilling suspense novel MIRRORLAND is a May Indie Next Pick. Pete Mock of McIntyre’s Fine Books in Pittsboro, NC says: “You will tie yourself in knots trying to figure out what’s happening in MIRRORLAND.” Scribner will publish the novel on April 20, 2021.

Yaara Shehori’s AQUARIUM received a rave from the Jewish Book Council. The reviewer writes: “In her hauntingly surreal debut novel translated from Hebrew, Yaara Shehori questions what it means to hear when hearing is a perpetual source of silence and othering…AQUARIUM ultimately offers a fear-less translation of the elusiveness of human experience, illuminating those rare moments of being that escape our preconception of beauty, even if they can’t be clearly understood the instant they pass through us.” Farrar, Straus, and Giroux published the book on April 13, 2021.

WHY WE BELIEVE author Agustín Fuentes joined Ben Folds on the first episode of the Lightening Bugs podcast, "Discovering the Evolution of Creativity and Why Monkeys Steal Things." Yale University Press published WHY WE BELIEVE published on September 24, 2019.

Publishers Weekly praises Matt Bell’s APPLESEED in the novel’s first trade review, writing that it “is an excellent addition to the climate apocalypse subgenre, and the way it grapples with humanity’s dramatic influence on the planet feels fresh and bracing.” Custom House will publish the book on July 13, 2021.

Olivia Laing’s forthcoming EVERYBODY has earned yet another starred review, this time from Booklist. They write: "Intrepid cultural critic Laing conducts incisive inquiries into complex subjects by assembling a galaxy of innovators with whom to commune. Here she takes a tangible approach to freedom by focusing on how our bodies—from the color of our skin to gender, illness, and sexual orientation—determine our place in society…Laing's finely crafted blend of incisive memoir and biography vitalize this unique chronicle of the endless struggle ‘to be free of oppression based on the kind of body’ one inhabits, a work of fresh and dynamic analysis and revelation.” W.W. Norton will publish the book on May 4, 2021.

EVERYTHING NOW by Rosecrans Baldwin received a glowing review from Booklist. They write:
“Throughout this essay collection, [Baldwin] explores the history and make-up of this urban sprawl through interviews with fascinating and bizarre locals and draws on such LA luminaries as Joan Didion, Octavia Butler, and Jonathan Gold. Each essay circles around a theme, which he pursues on many tangents…Full of surprising facts and anecdotes, this is a compelling, thoroughly researched, and lovingly crafted chronicle of how Los Angeles came to be.” MCD will publish the book on June 15, 2021.

Xiaolu Guo’s A LOVER’S DISCOURSE has been longlisted for the 2021 Orwell Prize for Political Fiction. The prize “rewards outstanding novels and collections of short stories first published in the UK that illuminate major social and political themes, present or past, through the art of narrative.” The Orwell prize shortlists for each category will be announced later this spring, and the winners will be announced on George Orwell’s birthday on June 25th. Grove Press published the novel on October 13, 2020.

THE PROPHETS by Robert Jones Jr. appeared on both the BBC’s and Marie Claire's best-of lists for 2021. The BBC praises: “THE PROPHETS is reminiscent of and inspired by the work of Toni Morrison, its narrative reaching back and forth, as The Guardian writes, ‘wedded to its period but also of our times, exploring the pressing questions that have plagued America since its founding.’” G.P. Putnam’s sons published the book on January 5, 2021.

Jonathan Parks-Ramage’s YES, DADDY earned a starred review from Booklist. They praise: “Antigay crusaders and literary elite both prey on desperate [protagonist] Jonah Keller in this horror-filled tale of exploitation and its aftermath…surrounded by empathetic narration in a story that offers all extremes, from verisimilitude to despair and from a lust for revenge to a longing for home. Fear settles over the reader as they wait for the next blow, making Jonah's story akin to that of the victim in Roxane Gay’s AN UNTAMED STATE (2014).” Houghton Mifflin Harcourt will publish the book on May 18, 2021.