PEACEKEEPING by Mischa Berlinski
Library Journal praises Berlinski's depiction of place in his novel about a UN worker sent to train Haitian police, calling Berlinski a writer with "the eye of an anthropologist and the heart of a novelist."
Publications and Productions
DAD ART by Damien Wilkins
In Wilkins's newest novel, acoustic engineer Michael Stirling grapples with online dating, his father's dementia, and a daughter's new boyfriend. New Zealand newspaper The Spinoff praises the characters' vulnerability and deems Wilkins "a keen observer of human behaviour."
The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle
BuzzFeed dubs LaValle's novel about sorcery in Jazz Age New York "wonderfully creepy and impossible to put down."
Bed by Sheila Callaghan
Ten years, five cities, and one relationship: Callaghan's latest, premiering at LA's Echo Theater, is a story of love, abandonment, and betrayal told from one bed.
My Father the Pornographer by Chris Offutt
Writer Elizabeth McCracken dubs Offutt's memoir of a father who made a living writing erotica "an astonishing house of mysteries."
The Lost Time Accidents by John Wray
Marlon James praises Wray's novel of scientific mystery and family drama as "literature as high wire act without the net; epic in scale, even bigger in heart.”
Black Deutschland by Darryl Pinckney
Black Deutschland tells the story of Jed: young, gay, black, and trapped between a painful past and a tenebrous future in Berlin. Publishers Weekly declares Pinckney's latest is "a beautifully written story of survival by intellect."
Queen of the Night by Alexander Chee
In Chee's latest, Lilliet Berne, diva and soprano extraordinaire at the Paris Opera, has been offered a libretto based on a hidden piece of her past. Who could have betrayed her, and what secrets will she be forced to reveal? BBC dubs Chee's novel "a mystery, a meditation, a lyrical jewel."
The Way West by Mona Mansour
Mothers, daughters, and debt: Mansour’s new offbeat comedy explores the strange threads that hold us together. The play opens February 25 at New York’s Labyrinth Theater.
Some Brighter Distance by Keith Reddin
Reddin’s latest explores the true story of “Operation Paperclip,” a U.S. covert initiative to develop space technology during the Cold War. The play premiers in Pittsburgh on January 23.