Page One: Where New and Noteworthy Books Begin

by
Staff
From the March/April 2013 issue of
Poets & Writers Magazine

He was the sort of man you’ve seen: big and fat in an overcoat beaded with rain, cigar poking from between his jowls, staring at some vision beyond the neon and noise and commuter frenzy of Times Square.” Siege 13 (Milkweed Editions, March 2013) by Tamas Dobozy. Third book, story collection. Agent: None. Editor: Daniel Slager. Publicist: Meredith Kessler. 

“Here are my bees, / brazen, blurs on paper, / besotted; buzzwords, dancing / their flawless, airy maps.” The Bees (Faber and Faber, March 2013) by Carol Ann Duffy. Eighth book, poetry collection. Agent: Peter Straus. Editor: Mitzi Angel. Publicist: Gregory Wazowicz. 

“Because a picture is a sort of dream, the big moon circles the whirling earth that follows our little burning star, and my father hasn’t entered the third state.” A Long Day at the End of the World: A Story of Desecration and Revelation in the Deep South (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, March 2013) by Brent Hendricks. Second book, first memoir. Agent: Zoë Pagnamenta. Editor: Emily Bell. Publicist: Stephen Weil. 

“It was intensely hot.” The Silence and the Roar (Other Press, March 2013) by Nihad Sirees, translated from the Arabic by Max Weiss. Sixth book, novel. Agent: Benita Edzard. Editor: Sulay Hernandez. Publicist: Jessica Greer. 

“We’re walking on the boardwalk / but stop when we see a lifeguard and his girlfriend /  fighting. We can’t hear what they’re saying, / but it is as good as a movie. We sit on a bench to find out / how it will end.” Blowout (University of Pittsburgh Press, February 2013) by Denise Duhamel. Twelfth book, poetry collection. Agent: None. Editor: Ed Ochester. Publicist: Maria Sticco. 

“In the cold and windy days after I was born, I was deposited into an old canoe on the big lake.” Lake People (Knopf, February 2013) by Abi Maxwell. First book, novel. Agent: Eleanor Jackson. Editor: Jennifer Jackson. Publicist: Erica Hinsley.

“What is important to an adult and what matters to a child are so often at variance that it is a wonder the two ever find themselves on the same page.” Portrait Inside My Head (Free Press, February 2013) by Phillip Lopate. Sixteenth book, fourth essay collection. Agent: Wendy Weil Agency. Editor: Millicent Bennett. Publicist: Leah Johanson.

“Something about New York City makes a lot of people understand you should try to look your best.” This Close (Graywolf Press, March 2013) by Jessica Francis Kane. Second book, first story collection. Agent: Liz Darhansoff. Editor: Katie Dublinski. Publicist: Marisa Atkinson. 

“What day is today, I hear him ask, my father, who is called Bill: the dreaded question.” The Mythical Bill: A Neurological Memoir (University of Iowa Press, March 2013) by Jody McAuliffe. Third book, first memoir. Agent: None. Editor: Catherine Cocks. Publicist:
Allison Means.

“The Romans had a hard time killing Polycarp of Smyrna.” Middle Men (Simon & Schuster, February 2013) by Jim Gavin. First book, story collection. Agent: PJ Mark. Editor: Anjali Singh. Publicist: Anne Tate. 

“Fresno is the inexhaustible nerve / in the twitching leg of a dog / three hours after being smashed / beneath the retread wheel / of a tomato truck” Natural Takeover of Small Things (University of Arizona Press, February 2013) by Tim Z. Hernandez. Third book, second poetry collection. Agent: Adriana Dominguez. Editor: Kristen Buckles. Publicist: Holly Schaffer. 

“In the apartment where we used to live, the front door opened to a long hall. At the end of that hall was a window, a fire escape, and beyond that the view opened up like a painted fan.” An Enlarged Heart: A Personal History (Knopf, February 2013) by Cynthia Zarin. Fifth book, first memoir. Agent: Peter Matson. Editor: Deborah Garrison. Publicist: Josefine Kals.