Everything was already here and I am the last to be born.” Everything Beautiful Began After (Harper Perennial, July 2011) by Simon Van Booy. Third book, first novel. Agents: Lucas Hunt and Carrie Howland. Editor: Carrie Kania. Publicist: Gregory Henry.
“In February the poplars are even slimmer / than in summer, frozen through.” Unseen Hand (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, June 2011) by Adam Zagajewski. Tenth book, sixth poetry collection. Translator: Clare Cavanagh. Agent: None. Editor: Jonathan Galassi. Publicist: Angie Venezia.
“It is afternoon.” One Day I Will Write About This Place (Graywolf Press, July 2011) by Binyavanga Wainaina. First book, memoir. Agent: Sarah Chalfant. Editor: Fiona McCrae. Publicist: Erin Kottke.
“Toxic water streamed with gold like the belly of a turning fish: sunset over Newtown Creek.” The Astral (Doubleday, June 2011) by Kate Christensen. Sixth book, novel. Agent: Richard Abate. Editor: Gerald Howard. Publicist: Todd Doughty.
“Down country / across the steel bridge right out of Easy Rider / and up a hill’s long yellow dusty road” A Fast Life: The Collected Poems of Tim Dlugos (Nightboat Books, June 2011) by Tim Dlugos. Fourth book, poetry collection. Agent: None. Editor: David Trinidad. Publicist: Stephen Motika.
“Nine years ago, in the summer of 1999, I was hired to be the director of the Great Midwestern Humanities Initiative (GMHI), a federally funded program designed ‘to foster a greater sense of community, increase public literacy, and strengthen levels of civic engagement in the American heartland.’” My American Unhappiness (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, June 2011) by Dean Bakopoulos. Second book, novel. Agent: Amy Williams. Editor: Adrienne Brodeur. Publicist: Summer Smith.
“In late September 2008, I received an email from one ELMONSTRO with the subject line ‘Hello, Alina! Kharkov on the Line!’” You Must Go and Win (Faber and Faber, June 2011) by Alina Simone. First book, essay collection. Agent: None. Editor: Eric Chinski. Publicist: Kathy Daneman.
“There was a great deal of shouting and then a shot.” The Curfew (Vintage, June 2011) by Jesse Ball. Third book, novel. Agent: Billy Kingsland. Editor: Jennifer Jackson. Publicist: Kate Runde.
“On the afternoon of the day when she fails to show up in a judge’s chambers in Pensacola to finalize her divorce, Kelly Hays swerves her basic-black Mercedes into the valet spot and thumps hard into the curb and pops the gearshift into park, and then she feels a silence rush through her chest and limbs and mind that should terrify her.” A Small Hotel (Grove Press, July 2011) by Robert Olen Butler. Eighteenth book, twelfth novel. Agent: Warren Frazier. Editor: Andrew Robinton. Publicist: Martin Wilson.
“Like a night sentry on the border between India and dream country, Singh, the restaurateur, watched her from the little lamplit bar, his post.” Stolen Pleasures: Selected Stories of Gina Berriault (Counterpoint, July 2011) by Gina Berriault. Eighth book, fourth story collection. Agent: Tim Seldes. Editor: Jack Shoemaker. Publicist: Maren Fox.
“Morphine makes me weightless, airborne.” I Wore the Ocean in the Shape of a Girl (Free Press, June 2011) by Kelle Groom. Fourth book, first memoir. Agent: Bill Clegg. Editor: Alessandra Bastagli. Publicist: Carisa Hays.
“with a thin slice of sky on a hunk of earth / you beasts hissing into the face of this dead woman / you ferns free amidst the murderous rocks / at the far point of the island amidst conches too vast for their destiny” Solar Throat Slashed: The Unexpurgated 1948 Edition (Wesleyan University Press, July 2011) by Aimé Césaire. Third book, poetry collection. Translators: A. James Arnold and Clayton Eshleman. Agent: None. Editor: Suzanna Tamminen. Publicist: Stephanie Elliott.
