Dawnie Walton's debut novel THE FINAL REVIVAL OF OPAL & NEV was included in the Daily Beast's round-up of best summer reads. They hail it as a "showstopper,” noting: “Unsparing and raw in its exploration of the personal and political complications these characters face, the novel explodes with color, style, and music as it explores the challenges of love and art, racism and gender inequality in a story that doesn’t leave a single note out of place.” 37 Ink published the novel on March 30, 2021.

Electric Literature interviewed Olivia Laing about her critically acclaimed essay collection, EVERYBODY. They rave: “EVERBODY is both timely and attentive to the long roots of history, both complex and accessible, as well as lyrical and instructive. Armed with a wellspring of research that spans 20th-century Germany, Britain, and the United States, from philosophy to psychology, art, medicine, and activism, Laing cuts a path through the difficult business of our bodily lives. Her writing is as incisive as ever, and alive to the intricate, often messy and traumatic, realities of being a human in this fragile and fluctuating vessel through which life takes shape.” W.W. Norton & Company published the book on May 4, 2021.

Lucy Ives's forthcoming, "very cool-sounding novel” LIFE IS EVERYWHERE received a special mention from Lit Hub, where her editor Yuka Igarashi shares her excitement at making the book her first acquisition at Graywolf Press. Igarashi told Lit Hub: "We get to see Lucy’s outrageous wit, emotional precision, and sheer storytelling charisma working on an epic scale. I think this book proposes a new kind of ‘systems novel.’ It’s about how individual selves act, and are acted upon, inside various systems—family, marriage, academia, gender, society—but it also reveals the instability of our notions of selves and of systems, and shows a new way to narrate the relationship between the two. Plus it’s just very fun to read, since it includes things like the history of botulism, a fragment of sculpture with mysterious powers, stolen artifacts, secret identities, and academic scandal.” Graywolf Press will publish LIFE IS EVERYWHERE in Fall 2022.

For the second consecutive year, Maxim Loskutoff's work has been nominated for a High Plains Book Award. Winner of the 2020 Short Stories Award for his debut collection COME WEST AND SEE, Loskutoff is now one of three finalists for the 2021 Fiction Award for his first novel, RUTHIE FEAR. The High Plains Books Awards recognize “regional literary works which examine and reflect life on the High Plains, including the states of Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Nebraska, Colorado and Kansas, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan.” The final winners will be announced at a ceremony in September during the High Plains BookFest. W.W. Norton & Company published RUTHIE FEAR on September 1, 2020.

PHALLACY author Emily Willingham joined FATHER FIGURE author Jordan Shapiro on the Ologies with Alie Ward podcast to discuss sex, gender, and feminism. Avery published PHALLACY on September 22, 2020.

LOVE AND FURY by Samantha Silva received a glowing review in The Wall Street Journal. Sam Sacks praises the book’s “stirring and occasionally hagiographic episodes,” adding: “While the novel is decidedly an homage, it is also a study of false steps and evolving ideas.” Flatiron Books published the novel on May 25, 2021.

The revised edition of Kiese Laymon’s critically acclaimed first novel, LONG DIVISION, published this week to a flurry of positive press. The New York Times featured the book on its list of “New and Noteworthy” titles, praising the way the book “probes fame, creativity, and the toll of racism.” Meanwhile, in a review for the Chicago Tribune, author John Warner writes: “It is rare that I will purchase a second copy of a book that I already own and have read more than once, but I am making an exception with the recently revised and re-issued edition of Kiese Laymon’s LONG DIVISION…Laymon is a singular voice in American literature.” The book has also been featured on must-read lists for June from Bustle, Entertainment Weekly, and LitHub. Scribner published LONG DIVISION on June 1, 2021.

John Branch was interviewed by John Canzano for his BFT Podcast about his latest book, SIDECOUNTRY. Canzano notes: “Branch wrote beautifully in the book about the people, places, and circumstances that provide uplifting, powerful, and occasionally tragic outcomes…The interview is well worth your time.” W.W. Norton & Company published the book on June 1, 2021.

Rosecrans Baldwin’s EVERYTHING NOW was featured on Vulture’s list of “35 Books We Can’t Wait to Read This Summer.” They write: “[Baldwin] manages to define, and, perhaps, redefine, the most undefinable of cities with a fresh and sometimes startling inquisitiveness. Ambitious in a way that seems to mirror L.A.’s sprawl, the story is told through a series of vignettes, combining deft on-the-ground reporting, hazy personal memories, and snippets of overheard conversations that read, appropriately, like film scripts." MCD will publish the book on June 15, 2021.

Maurice Carlos Ruffin's forthcoming novel THE ONES WHO DON’T SAY THEY LOVE YOU was featured on the Observer’s list of “Best New Summer Reads.” They call the book “vibrant…deeply empathetic and achingly winning,” noting that “[t]his glimpse into New Orleans beyond Bourbon Street reminds you how books sometimes offer a deeper experience of a place than passive tourism.” One World will publish the book on August 17, 2021.