Released from the basement, the dog pads out into the courtyard, head swaying from side to side as it follows invisible wild tendrils of scent." Boombox (Academy Chicago Publishers, July 2007) by Gabriel Cohen. Second book, novel. Agent: None. Editor: Anita Miller. Publicist: Franklin Dennis.
"Finding a man buried up to his neck in mud." Salt (Viking, July 2007) by Jeremy Page. First book, novel. Agent: Sloan Harris. Editors: Kathryn Court, Alexis Washam. Publicist: Yen Cheong.
"These are not, I should say from the outset, tales written for the benefit of good and well-behaved girls who always stick to the path when they go to Grandma's." Rosie Little's Cautionary Tales for Girls (MacAdam/Cage, July 2007) by Danielle Wood. Second book, novel. Agent: Barbara Mobbs. Editor: Khristina Wenzinger. Publicist: Julie Burton.
"Good parents made bad citizens." Anything for Jane (Random House, July 2007) by Cheryl Mendelson. Fifth book, third novel. Agent: Michael Carlisle. Editor: Susanna Porter. Publicist: Jennifer Jones.
"Though she left by ambulance / my mother's bed is smooth, the sink dry." The Human Line (Copper Canyon Press, June 2007) by Ellen Bass. Eleventh book, seventh poetry collection. Agent: Charlotte Cecil Raymond. Editor: Michael Wiegers. Publicist: Angela Garbes.
"On the San Francisco Muni bus, Rita sat facing a woman in a purple and yellow clown costume with billowy sleeves, and huge white shoes that took up half the aisle between her seat and Rita's; the clown's little girl picked up a Snickers wrapper from the floor and was about to put it in her mouth when the clown slapped her." My Dreams Out in the Street (Simon & Schuster, July 2007) by Kim Addonizio. Seventh book, second novel. Agent: Robert McQuilkin. Editor: Marysue Rucci. Publicist: Alexis Welby.
"Between the sweetness at the end of our hum the sentence says come in through the skin's transparent address." Broken Hallelujahs (BOA Editions, June 2007) by Sean Thomas Dougherty. Tenth book, poetry collection. Agent: None. Editor: Peter Conners. Publicist: Peter Conners.
"It's the summer solstice / The day the darkening begins // If I keep walking west / I can precede this time again // In a year." The Lyrics (Graywolf Press, July 2007) by Fanny Howe. Twenty-eighth book, fourteenth poetry collection. Agent: None. Editor: Jeffrey Shotts. Publicist: Mary Matze.
"I spot her as soon as I get off the elevator on the fourth floor." Origin (Norton, June 2007) by Diana Abu-Jaber. Fourth book, novel. Agent: Joy Harris. Editor: Alane Mason. Publicist: Erin Sinesky Lovett.
"Today, as in years past, the temptation to camouflage oneself in the third person remains great: He was going on twelve, though he still loved sitting in his mother's lap, when such and such began and ended." Peeling the Onion (Harcourt, June 2007) by Günter Grass. Twenty-fourth book, first memoir. Agent: Steidl Verlag. Editor: Drenka Willen. Publicist: Michelle Blankenship.
"The Age of Regret, years ago, far away from the now." Lost Men (Shaye Areheart Books, June 2007) by Brian Leung. Second book, first novel. Agent: P. J. Mark. Editor: Sally Kim. Publicist: Sarah Breivogel.
"That night I fell into a sound sleep almost as soon as I pulled the covers around me." House of Happy Endings (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, July 2007) by Leslie Garis. First book, memoir. Agent: Denise Shannon. Editor: Lorin Stein. Publicist: Sarita Varma.
