Page One: Where New and Noteworthy Books Begin

by
Staff
From the September/October 2013 issue of
Poets & Writers Magazine

“Most men in my family make widows of their wives and orphans of their children.” Enon (Random House, September 2013) by Paul Harding. Second book, novel. Agent: Ellen Levine. Editor: Susan Kamil. Publicist: Karen Fink.

“The mountain that remains when the universe is destroyed / is not big and is not small.” 3 Sections (Graywolf Press, September 2013) by Vijay Seshadri. Third book, poetry collection. Agent: None. Editor: Jeffrey Shotts. Publicist: Erin Kottke.

“I once knew a girl who wouldn’t eat apples.” The Color Master (Doubleday, August 2013) by Aimee Bender. Fifth book, third story collection. Agent: Henry Dunow. Editor: William Thomas. Publicist: Alison Rich.

“Soon after we learned that our mother was dead, my brother and I went to a bar.” Son of a Gun (Random House, August 2013) by Justin St. Germain. First book, memoir. Agent: Julie Barer. Editor: Noah Eaker. Publicist: Michelle Jasmine.

“The first hippopotamus, a male the color of black pearls, weighing a ton and a half, was shot dead in the middle of 2009.” The Sound of Things Falling (Riverhead Books, August 2013) by Juan Gabriel Vásquez, translated from the Spanish by Anne McLean. Third book, novel. Agent: Maria Lynch. Editor: Laura Perciasepe. Publicist: Glory Plata.

“Public telephones were a specific genre, a public genre, lacking the cool control of environment of the private phone.” Occasional Desire (University of Nebraska Press, September 2013) by David Lazar. Fourth book, third essay collection. Agent: None. Editor: Kristen Elias Rowley. Publicist: Rosemary Vestal.

“Highway 16, the main route into my rural hometown of Emmett, Idaho, winds through a high desert country of sand and sagebrush before the road narrows and suddenly descends into the valley through a steep grade known as Freezeout Hill.” Weeds: A Farm Daughter’s Lament (Bison Books, September 2013) by Evelyn I. Funda. First book, memoir. Agent: None. Editor: Kristen Elias Rowley. Publicist: Acacia Gentrup. 

“East of the Tolly Club, after Deshapran Sashmal Road splits in two, there is a small mosque.” The Lowland (Knopf, September 2013) by Jhumpa Lahiri. Fourth book, second novel. Agent: Eric Simonoff. Editor: Robin Desser. Publicist: Josefine Kals. 

“The winter the bus drivers went on strike I was twenty-three years old and living on the edge of the city in a neighborhood that was on the verge of becoming a ghetto.” Brief Encounters With the Enemy (Dial Press, August 2013) by Saïd Sayrafiezadeh. Second book, first story collection. Agent: Zoë Pagnamenta. Editor: Noah Eaker. Publicist: Maria Braeckel.

“When they found Emeline, a nail / held her sack dress together / at the neck.” The Forage House (Red Hen Press, August 2013) by Tess Taylor. First book, poetry collection. Agent: None. Editor: Kate Gale. Publicist: William Goldstein.

“From inside all this hair I can see you.” Her book (Milkweed Editions, August 2013) by Éireann Lorsung. Second book, poetry collection. Agent: None. Editor: Daniel Slager. Publicist: Rebecca Schultz.

“Dust like powder blanketing the air, making a reddish apparition of the day.” Goat Mountain (Harper, September 2013) by David Vann. Sixth book, third novel. Agent: Kim Witherspoon. Editor: Gail Winston. Publicist: Jane Beirn.