discover debut authors
Betina González is an award-winning writer from Argentina, who has studied in El Paso and Pittsburgh, the latter of which she called home for nearly a decade. While her work has garnered her praise in South America, she had yet to publish a book in English. That is, until American Delirium.
Continue reading “Betina González and translator Heather Cleary discuss American Delirium”
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You ever come across a book that just looks too smart for you? That’s how I felt with Math Without Numbers by Milo Beckman. Luckily, the book explores math concepts in a friendly and accessible way. Using illustrations by M Erazo, Beckman gives an illustrated tour on what we call “math.”
Milo Beckman completed the graduate-level course sequence in mathematics at age sixteen, has written for FiveThirtyEight, helped create crosswords for The New York Times, and has written numerous academic essays.
While Debutiful has covered non-fiction before, the site has never covered anything like this. I just had to dive into Beckman’s brain and learn about what makes him tick.
Continue reading “Milo Beckman teaches readers Math Without Numbers”
Lauren Oyler is 6’0. That may or may not be a lie, but it is in her Twitter bio. It also has nothing to do with her searing debut novel Fake Accounts other than the fact that no one can be sure who is and isn’t lying on the internet.
Her novel, set in the early days of the Trump Administration, follows an unnamed narrator who discovers her boyfriend is a prolific online conspiracy theorist. She flees to Berlin where she falls in her own pattern of lies and deception. The book, which takes place entirely in early 2016, is a reflection on the America we live in today. Not much has changed in the past four years. The lies are bigger, but they were always there. If the internet has done one thing, it’s just exposed us to the seedy underbelly that always existed. Fake Accounts also sheds a light on this world of lies, attention seeking, and distruction.
I chatted with Oyler the day before Biden’s Inauguration about the internet, lies, and why conspiracy theories are boring.
Continue reading “Lauren Oyler knows we’re all faking it”
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As Biden’s Administration takes off, books coming out largely deal with the America we lived in for the past four years. The first titles coming up range from fiction exploring conspiracy theories to poverty and nonfiction tackling abuse and exploring queer culture. These ten authors are setting the tone for what books can do.
Continue reading “10 debut books you should read this February”
Ellie Eaton is in limbo. She grew up in England and has lived in America for the past decade. She’s both an English writer and an American one. But she’s also neither.
Her book, like her, straddles between an American adulthood and coming-of-age in a British boarding school. The girls in The Divines are nothing like her and her friends, but the spirit is there. Half of the story takes place in the insulated world of a British boarding school where the real world barely matters. The other half is about one of the girls, all grown up, reckoning with the decisions she made decades ago.
I spoke with Eaton about being a British or American writer, coming-of-age novels, and whether or not she was a Divine via phone.
Continue reading “Ellie Eaton’s debut coming-of-age novel is Divine”
In Black Buck, Mateo Askaripour uses a gregarious Black salesman in an all white company to satirically take down corporate America. Through sharp-witted humor and a lot of heart, Askaripour sheds light on the microaggressions and blatant racism Black men and women go through on a daily basis.
The book has been praised by everyone from Publishers Weekly to The Today Show and was one of Debutiful‘s best debuts to read this month.
Below, Mateo Askaripour answered A Life of Books, Debutiful‘s ongoing questionnaire to better get to know writers and what inspires them.
Daniel Loedel grew up in New York, but always felt a connection to Argentina. His father grew up there and left to raise a family in America. However, Loedel’s half-sister, who was killed in 1979 during the Dirty War after a 1976 military coup to overthrow the government. Her ghost haunted Loedel’s father and eventually led him to write his debut novel Hades, Argentina.
Continue reading “Ghosts from Daniel Loedel’s family history inspired Hades, Argentina”
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Detransition, Baby, the debut novel by Torrey Peters, is a pretty easy-to-follow domestic romance drama. There’s a woman whose ex wants to raise a baby with her that he accidentally conceived with a coworker.
Oh, the woman in trans. The man has detransitioned. And the coworker is cisgender.
Continue reading “Detransition, Baby is a bourgeois melodrama, just like Torrey Peters wanted”