Falling in Love Is Hard When You’re the Guardian of the Dead

Ayanna Lloyd Banwo’s debut novel When We Were Birds begins in the time before time and follows the uneasy truce between the living and the dead. Cigarettes are offered, liquor is poured, prayers are said, all in the hope that the buried stay buried. This is the story of Yejide, a young woman who becomes […] The post Falling in Love Is Hard When You’re the Guardian of the Dead appeared first on Electric Literature. Continue reading at 'Electric Literature'

[ Electric Literature | 2022-04-01 11:00:00 UTC ]

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7 Books Written as Letters to Family Members

When I began writing my unborn son a letter in 2018, a book was the furthest thing from my mind. I wasn’t trying to unpack the countless ways in which the words “all men are created equal” have failed us in this country. Instead, I was thinking that I would write a letter, something that […] The... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2024-03-05 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Summit Books Rises Again

Summit publisher Judy Clain’s inaugural acquisition, a debut novel titled ‘Great Black Hope’ by Rob Franklin, bodes well for storied imprint’s relaunch. Clain, previously editor-in-chief of Little, Brown, called Franklin “the writer we dreamed of publishing” at Summit. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-03-01 05:00:00 UTC ]
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What You Should Be Reading This Winter According to Indie Booksellers

Every Tuesday, a wave of new books is published, fresh off the printing press onto the shelves of bookstores around the world. Even for a book editor like me, it gets overwhelming to keep track of all the forthcoming titles. So we’ve turned to our most trusted source for recommendations: indie... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2024-02-29 12:00:00 UTC ]
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A poet's novel of utopia shows less an ideal than, perhaps, a road map

Are utopias becoming a trend in fiction during this dystopian era? The debut novel from Phillip B. Williams, 'Ours,' embraces magic without ignoring reality. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2024-02-24 11:09:13 UTC ]
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12 Brilliant Short Stories by Black Writers to Read Year-Round

From one girl’s aspiration to Olympic gymnastics glory, to a boy’s stint living in the Idaho wilderness in hopes of fixing his unruly behavior, something that remains a guiding principle in Black storytelling is the breadth of our lives. These stories, a collection of some of EL’s most-loved... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2024-02-22 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Portal Fantasy: PW Talks with Sarah Arthur

Arthur's debut novel Once a Queen, a young adult "portal fantasy," talks to PW about writing her first novel, and her love of fantasy. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-02-20 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Portal Fantasy: PW Talks to Sarah Arthur

Arthur's debut novel Once a Queen, a young adult "portal fantasy," talks to PW about writing her first novel, and her love of fantasy. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-02-17 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Life is 'Plastic' in Scott Guild's novel and companion album

Scott Guild's debut novel (and companion album) 'Plastic' is a dark and entertaining saga about a postapocalyptic world populated by plastic figurines. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2024-02-15 21:43:40 UTC ]
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7 Books About Ghostwriters

When I was ghostwriting full-time, I produced twenty books in fourteen years. Thanks to a suggestion from my literary agent, I realized a ghostwriter might make a great heroine—they’re under tremendous pressure, often while adjacent to the fame machine—so Mari Hawthorn, the ghostwriter at the... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2024-02-15 12:05:00 UTC ]
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Your Next Book Based on Your Relationship Status

Ah yes. Literature. The vehicle through which we may explore faraway lives we would have otherwise never imagined. From my little, rugged armchair, I can witness forbidden love in the 18th century. Peek into a bustling kitchen in New York City. Discover the dramatic betrayal that fractured the... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2024-02-14 12:00:00 UTC ]
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It's funny and cringey, but Andrew Ewell's debut novel doesn't live up to its potential

Andrew Ewell's debut novel 'Set for Life' is well-written but doesn't fulfill its potential. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2024-02-09 16:00:10 UTC ]
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A father goes missing. Then a brother too. In this 'Great Forest,' a fraught return home

The debut novel from Leo Vardiashvili, 'Hard by a Great Forest,' has its commercial trappings but ultimately lands with lyrical and heartbreaking resonance. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2024-01-31 18:43:16 UTC ]
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Temim Fruchter on Writing a Queer Jewish Novel Based on Folklore

Temim Fruchter’s debut novel centers around a young woman, Shiva, seeking answers about her family’s past after the death of her father. Told in revolving perspectives, between women in Shiva’s family and a mysterious, omniscient narrator, the book explores the interior lives of women,... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2024-01-24 12:00:00 UTC ]
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“Where Theorems of Wonder Get Proven True and Synchronicities Are Real”

Temim Fruchter’s debut novel centers around a young woman, Shiva, seeking answers about her family’s past after the death of her father. Told in revolving perspectives, between women in Shiva’s family and a mysterious, omniscient narrator, the book explores the interior lives of women,... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2024-01-24 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Go on, be a 'Martyr!' A brilliant debut novel rides the slippery slope of self-sacrifice

In Kaveh Akbar's brilliant debut novel, 'Martyr!', an Iranian American man in addiction recovery becomes obsessed with the concept of martyrdom. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2024-01-22 11:00:10 UTC ]
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Katherine Min was ahead of her time. Four years after her death, her second novel proves it

Katherine Min's Korean American debut novel was ignored. After she died in 2019, publishers worked to put out her second novel, 'The Fetishist.' Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2024-01-18 11:00:57 UTC ]
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Annie Liontas on “Sex With a Brain Injury”

The new memoir in essays Sex With a Brain Injury from Annie Liontas, author of the novel Let Me Explain You, is a highly formally and thematically risky work of nonfiction exploring traumatic brain injury (TBI), queerness, addiction, mass incarceration, and chronic illness. Weaving “history,... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2024-01-16 12:00:00 UTC ]
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15 Small Press Books You Should Be Reading This Winter

Solstice has come and gone, but in addition to the returning of the light, we can also herald another excellent small press publishing season. What I love about these titles is the richness of imagination and inquiry, leading to inventive plots in fiction and deep emotional honesty in... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2024-01-15 12:00:00 UTC ]
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This L.A. flash-fiction star thinks novels are 'saggy.' Her own debut proves her wrong

The debut novel 'Dead in Long Beach, California,' is a sharp, dazzling turn for Compton-raised author Venita Blackburn, who made her name with lightning-fast fiction. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2024-01-11 11:00:44 UTC ]
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7 Books Set In Turkey

How many stories does it take to get to know a place?  Lifelong residents may write confidently of their homeland, but among the travelogs and novels and poems and memoirs that give shape to a city, I’m partial to books written from the perspective of those still calibrating their relationship... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2024-01-10 12:00:00 UTC ]
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