How High You Go Depends on You

Sequoia Nagamatsu’s How High We Go in the Dark has made the bestseller lists and received serious praise. The author reportedly started working on the book in its earliest form in 2011, however, the novel about a deadly virus revealed by climate change became more urgent with the COVID-19 pandemic. Quarantines? Yup, they’re here. NPR…

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Fearnside Collection Offers Insight Into a Different Culture

Jeff Fearnside’s new collection A Husband and Wife Are One Satan provides interesting and thoughtful insights into everyday people in Kazakhstan. The cultural setting is a nice change of pace from the usual literary fiction locales and Fearnside is adept at depicting people who must balance the old and the new, tradition and evolution. In…

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2022 Pen America Finalists Announced

Publisher’s Weekly has a complete rundown of the 65 authors and translators competing in 11 awards for 2022. The winners will be announced on Monday, February 28.

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Artistic Photos Capture Locations That Inspired Southern Fiction

The New Yorker’s website recently published a book review of Tema Stauffer’s photography collection Southern Fictions. Stauffer explores some of the places that influenced and shaped the work of William Faulkner, Eudora Welty, and more. The article also shares one of the more memorable – if horrible – Faulkner legends. Suffice it to say that…

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I write a monthly newsletter about the books I’m reading. Please check it out if you like books. During the pandemic, like everyone else, I took up baking. I’ve never been good at it – I follow recipes as inspiration and not guides and, as I discovered, baking is a science. So for months, I…

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