Page One: Where New and Noteworthy Books Begin

by
Staff
From the November/December 2008 issue of
Poets & Writers Magazine

The wedding cake of Elizabeth Hart (Colt since / noon) was trimmed with sugar pistols" Revolver (University of Iowa Press, October 2008) by Robyn Schiff. Second book, poetry collection. Agent: None. Editor: Holly Carver. Publicist: Allison Thomas.

"You sell everything you own." Tinderbox Lawn (Rose Metal Press, October 2008) by Carol Guess. Fifth book, second poetry collection. Agent: None. Editors: Abigail Beckel and Kathleen Rooney. Publicist: Kathleen Rooney.

"The dog had nearly hanged herself, in her maniacal aggression, from a stout oak tree." Fight Scenes (Counterpoint, October 2008) by Greg Bottoms. Fourth book, second memoir. Agent: Jenny Bent. Editor: Roxanna Aliaga. Publicist: Abbye Simkowitz.

"Arched trees flare against the early leaf." Strange Flesh (Penguin, October 2008) by William Logan. Twelfth book, eighth poetry collection. Agent: None. Editor: Paul Slovak. Publicist: Abigail Dalton.

"The first time that Jean-Claude Pelletier read Benno von Archimboldi was Christmas 1980, in Paris, when he was nineteen years old and studying German literature." 2666 (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, November 2008) by Roberto Bolaño. Twenty-first book, tenth novel. Translator: Natasha Wimmer. Agent: Andrew Wylie. Editor: Lorin Stein. Publicist: Jeff Seroy.

"We are dealing here with a logic which includes its own failures in advance." Legible Heavens (Etruscan Press, November 2008) by H. L. Hix. Thirteenth book, seventh poetry collection. Agent: None. Editor: Phil Brady. Publicist: None.

"When I was a little girl of six or seven I was always scared when we passed the lions on our way out of town." To Siberia (Graywolf Press, October 2008) by Per Petterson. Eighth book, sixth novel. Translator: Anne Born. Agent: Jane Kirby. Editor: Fiona McCrae. Publicist: Mary Matze.

"Some facts." November 22, 1963 (Tin House Books, November 2008) by Adam Braver. Fourth book, novel. Agent: Nat Sobel. Editor: Lee Montgomery. Publicist: Deborah Jayne.

"July, 2005." Songs for the Missing (Viking, November 2008) by Stewart O'Nan. Fifteenth book, twelfth novel. Agent: David Gernert. Editor: Joshua Kendall. Publicist: Holly Watson.

"Plague took us and the land from under us, / Rose like a boil, enclosing us within." My Vocabulary Did This to Me: The Collected Poetry of Jack Spicer (Wesleyan University Press, November 2008) by Jack Spicer. Twentieth book, nineteenth poetry collection. Agent: None. Editor: Suzanna Tamminen. Publicist: Stephanie Elliott.

"He arrived in winter on a sleeper from Prague and the sound of the train went boogedy boogedy—what do you want, Darcy Bright?" Stray Dog Winter (MacAdam/Cage, October 2008) by David Francis. Second book, novel. Agent: Elaine Markson. Editor: Khristina Wenzinger. Publicist: Julie Burton.

"They were both working their final shift at Blackjack Pizza that night, although nobody but the two of them realized it was that." The Hour I First Believed (Harper, November 2008) by Wally Lamb. Third book, novel. Agent: Kassie Evashevski. Editor: Terry Karten. Publicist: Leslie Cohen.