Category: writing

writing

Read an excerpt from A Perfect Day to Be Alone by Nanae Aoyama

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Read an excerpt from A Perfect Day to Be Alone by Nanae Aoyama

The following is an excerpt from A Perfect Day to be Alone by Nanae Aoyama. It was translated from Japanese by Jesse Kirkwood. Aoyama has won numerous literary prizes in Japan, including the Akutagawa Prize, the Bungei Prize and the Kawabata Yasunari Literary Prize. Kirkwood has been awarded Harvill Secker Young Translators’ Prize.

A Perfect Day to Be Alone is a coming-of-age story about 20-year-old Chizu, who moves in with her eccentric 71-year-old relative, Ginko, after her mother emigrates to China, forming a fragile bond in a cluttered Tokyo home. Through mundane jobs, fleeting relationships, and the passage of seasons, Chizu gradually embraces solitude, forging a fierce sense of independence. It is now available for purchase in bookstores everywhere.

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writing

Read an excerpt from Confessions by Catherine Airey

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Read an excerpt from Confessions by Catherine Airey

The following is from Catherine Airey‘s Confessions. Airey grew up in England in a family of mixed Irish and English descent. She studied English at Cambridge and now lives in County Cork. The debut is a spellbinding novel that follows three generations of women from New York to rural Ireland and back again. It is now available for purchase in bookstores everywhere.

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writing

Read an excerpt from Swift River by Essie Chambers

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Read an excerpt from Swift River by Essie Chambers

We are proud to feature an excerpt from Swift River by Essie Chambers.

In her debut novel, Chambers introduces readers to Diamond Newberry who is a teenager in 1987 learning how to drive, how to love her body, and how to be the only Black girl in an all-white community. Diamond’s coming-of-age story is equally heartbreaking as it is uplifting. Chambers breathes live into intimate scenes with characters that will warm your heart.

We asked the author to set up the excerpt with a short Q&A below, followed by an excerpt from the book’s first chapter.

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writing

Read an excerpt from Emet North’s In Universes

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Read an excerpt from Emet North’s In Universes

Emet North has done it all. They received a grant from NASA, taught snowboarding, translated Spanish into English, and received an MFA from Johns Hopkins. Their debut book, In Universes,  is a surreal sci-fi-tinged book about parallel worlds and trying to find a place to fit in.

Below is an excerpt from the second chapter, titled “A Universe Where I Said Hello.”

North’s debut book is available for purchase now.

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writing

Read an excerpt from Wrong Is Not My Name: Notes on (Black) Art by Erica N. Cardwell

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Read an excerpt from Wrong Is Not My Name: Notes on (Black) Art by Erica N. Cardwell

Erica N. Cardwell‘s debut book is more than a memoir. It’s a meditative essay collection that includes cultural criticism. In Wrong Is Not My Name: Notes on (Black) Art, Cardwell balances introspective musings with larger, eye-opening explorations into our society.

Today, we have a brief Q&A with the author and an excerpt from “Thunder,” an essay in Wrong is Note My Name.

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writing

Read an Excerpt from Green Dot by Madeleine Gray

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Read an Excerpt from Green Dot by Madeleine Gray

Madeleine Gray‘s debut novel Green Dot is a millennial romp that astutely observes romance, work, and failure to live up to expectations. Anyone of a certain age has lived through countless recessions, wars, and turmoil. They know how exhausting life can be. Gray turns the minutia on its head to spark hilarious moment after moment as an affair unfolds and breaks the main character out of the exhaustive cycle she’s found herself in.

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writing

Read an excerpt from Ways and Means by Daniel Lefferts

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Read an excerpt from Ways and Means by Daniel Lefferts

In his debut novel Ways and Means, Daniel Lefferts follows Alistair McCabe, a determined finance student aiming to escape Rust Belt poverty. By spring 2016, his dreams crumble amidst challenging job prospects, mounting student debt, and an unforeseen involvement with a malevolent billionaire. The novel is a dynamic exploration of class, ambition, relationships, and the complex interplay of sex, art, and politics in contemporary society.

Below is a short Q&A with Daniel Lefferts about Ways and Means, followed by an excerpt from the book.

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writing

Read an excerpt from I Sing to Use the Waiting by Zachary Pace

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Read an excerpt from I Sing to Use the Waiting by Zachary Pace

In I Sing to Use the Waiting, Zachary Pace writes about how women singers shaped their coming-of-age and discovering their queerness. Throughout the collection, the writer explores a variety of topics, including an essay about how Disney’s Pocahontas reinforces racist, misogynistic, and homophobic views.

Below is a short Q&A with Zachary Pace about I Sing to Use the Waiting and the essay “Colors of the Wind.” An excerpt of the essay follows.

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writing

Read an excerpt from Lookout by Christine Byl

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Read an excerpt from Lookout by Christine Byl

Christine Byl‘s first novel, Lookout, was a finalist for the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize. It follows a working class family across four decades of heartbreak, struggle, fire, and hope. Claire Boyles, author of Site Fidelity, said “each character’s struggle to live authentically is as rich and clearly rendered as the Montana landscape that sustains them.”

The following excerpt is from the first chapter, “Start Small,” which is set in July 1986. Readers find The Kinzler family – parents Josiah and Margaret and their children Cody and Louisa – in their small homestead in Northwest Montana.

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Read an excerpt from A Haunting in Hialeah Gardens by Raul Palma

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Read an excerpt from A Haunting in Hialeah Gardens by Raul Palma

Raul Palma‘s debut novel A Haunting in Hialeah Gardens is a genre-bending take on immigration, capitalism, and society through a lens of a magical realism ghost story. Palma follows a man named Hugo whose wife has died and a debt collector is hounding him. He uses his connection with spirits – one he doesn’t believe in – to pull some quick moves to get ahead in life. It all seems to be okay until… it isn’t.

Hialeah Gardens is an originally imaginative and sometimes quite hilarious book that will give readers something fresh that they haven’t really encountered before.

A Haunting in Hialeah Gardens is available now. You can read an excerpt from the novel below.

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