Page One: Where New and Noteworthy Books Begin

by
Staff
From the September/October 2008 issue of
Poets & Writers Magazine

He was trying to imagine her in a way that would break his heart." Boring Boring Boring Boring Boring Boring Boring (Featherproof Books, August 2008) by Zach Plague. First book, novel. Agent: None. Editor: Jonathan Messinger. Publicist: David Lewis.

"Have I made terrible mistakes?" American Wife (Random House, August 2008) by Curtis Sittenfeld. Third book, novel. Agent: Jennifer Rudolph Walsh. Editor: Laura Ford. Publicist: Jynne Martin.

"Only the stones / know my name." Dear Darkness (Knopf, September 2008) by Kevin Young. Sixth book, poetry collection. Agent: Eileen Cope. Editor: Deborah Garrison. Publicist: Sarah Robinson.

"This is the problem with a great poet." Your Body Figured (Nightboat Books, September 2008) by Douglas A. Martin. Seventh book, second story collection. Agent: Rob McQuilkin. Editor: Stephen Motika. Publicist: Stephen Motika.

"Frances the ghost is going to school: She is dressed in a white sheet with two holes for her eyes and that makes the people who see her riding in the passenger seat of her mother's station wagon smirk." Demons in the Spring (Akashic Books, August 2008) by Joe Meno. Sixth book, second story collection. Agent: Maria Massie. Editors: Johnny Temple and Johanna Ingalls. Publicist: Aaron Petrovich.

"I walked around outside and thought about it." Portions From a Wine-Stained Notebook: Uncollected Stories and Essays, 1944-1990 (City Lights Booksellers and Publishers, September 2008) by Charles Bukowski. Fifty-eighth book, tenth prose collection. Agent: None. Editor: Garrett Caples. Publicist: Stacey Lewis.

"I fainted trying to explain to his mother he really believed in revolution and God, that he really did think what he thought." Glass Grapes and Other Stories (BOA Editions, September 2008) by Martha Ronk. Ninth book, first story collection. Agent: None. Editor: Peter Conners. Publicist: Peter Conners.

"You that sang to me once sing to me now" The Shadow of Sirius (Copper Canyon Press, August 2008) by W. S. Merwin. Thirty-fourth book, twenty-sixth poetry collection. Agent: Stephen Barclay. Editor: Michael Wiegers. Publicist: Denise Banker.

"The man arrived after morning prayers." The Good Thief (Dial Press, September 2008) by Hannah Tinti. Second book, first novel. Agent: Nicole Aragi. Editor: Susan Kamil. Publicist: Susan Corcoran.

"Sometimes I try to show my students the power of the story by telling them one." Travel Writing (Harcourt, August 2008) by Peter Ferry. First book, novel. Agent: Lorin Rees. Editor: Jenna Johnson. Publicist: Gregory Henry.

"Maura's sprouting a little belly that looks squishy like our daughter's translucent rubber ball with the tiny white frogs in it." Great Expectation: A Father's Diary (University of Iowa Press, August 2008) by Dan Roche. Second book, memoir. Agent: Jane Dystel. Editor: Joseph Parsons. Publicist: Allison Thomas.

"When the only ladies' dress shop closed, / she was left on the street for trash, unsalvageable, // one arm missing, lost at the shoulder, one leg / at the hip." Figure Studies (Louisiana State University Press, September 2008) by Claudia Emerson. Fourth book, poetry collection. Agent: None. Editor: John W. Easterly. Publicist: Amanda Atkins.