Elliott Turner's Blog - Posts Tagged "excited-and-stuff"
Looking Ahead to 2019
Hey y'all,
I'm a bit late to the "monster new books preview game", but I would like to highlight some books coming out this year that I'm excited about. I cannot name each and every single title, so please don't take any omissions as a low key diss.
Here goes:
Tears of the Trufflepig
This novel, kinda spec fic-y, is set in the RGV and is written by LatinX author Fernando Flores who is a bookslinger at the lovely Malvern indie shop in Austin. For my event there last year, Fernando tried to tactfully warn me about the nearby burrito place and I summarized up: "yeah it's like Chipotle burritos for white people, I'm fine with that."
I then ate a burrito there.
The World Doesn't Require You
Award-winning African American author Rion Amilcar Scott has another story collection coming out, and I'm very excited. His debut, Insurrections, showed the many facets of life in a fictional town that mirrors the black experience in the Washington, DC metro area (VA and MD included).
Cross River, Maryland is a place where the middle class and even a few lowlifes try to find redemption against the weight of history which still presses too hard.
They Could Have Named Her Anything
Debut novelist and Latina Stephanie Jimenez tackles race and identity in this story about privilege and snobby private schools in New York. As someone with friends that went to Stuyvesant and Bronx Science, I am eager to read a bit more about their lives and the ways NYC compartmentalizes itself based on race, nationality, ethnicity, and class.
This is another novel coup by Little A, who has done a great job of nurturing lit fic authors of color. But please note I reserve the right to diss all other aspects of Amazon at all times (even though they own GoodReads lol).
713 Books on Tap
Indie Press 713 has two debut books coming out that have pique'd my interest.
The first, Not Everyone is Special, is a story collection with plenty of flash by Josh Denslow. Expect some delightfully wry humor.
The second, Portrait of Sebastian Khan, by Aatif Rashid, is about a young Muslim-American man who is about to finish college, but not quite ready to settle down.
A Lot to be excited about
Houston writer Bryan Washington's debut story collection has everybody super excited in bayou city. Just check out this tale in The New Yorker. Bryan's best work chronicles the intersection of black and Latinx lives in the US's third largest city, while also blending queer bildungsroman goodness.
The over/under on some bicurious Rice Undergrads popping up at House of Pies (aka "of Guys") at 2am in at least one tale is, like 4/10, but I expect reviews for this collection to be in the 9/10 territory.
Sabrina, not the teenage witch
Latinx writer Kali Fajardo-Anstine has a debut collection, Sabrina and Corina, coming out that sheds a new light on the American West's illusory promises and exasperating realities. Latina women face upheaval in the forms of gentrification, relocation, and a sense that "renewal" does not include them.
You have probably read a few of these stories in a top literary mag. They are soooo worth a second, third, and fourth read.
I'm a bit late to the "monster new books preview game", but I would like to highlight some books coming out this year that I'm excited about. I cannot name each and every single title, so please don't take any omissions as a low key diss.
Here goes:
Tears of the Trufflepig
This novel, kinda spec fic-y, is set in the RGV and is written by LatinX author Fernando Flores who is a bookslinger at the lovely Malvern indie shop in Austin. For my event there last year, Fernando tried to tactfully warn me about the nearby burrito place and I summarized up: "yeah it's like Chipotle burritos for white people, I'm fine with that."
I then ate a burrito there.
The World Doesn't Require You
Award-winning African American author Rion Amilcar Scott has another story collection coming out, and I'm very excited. His debut, Insurrections, showed the many facets of life in a fictional town that mirrors the black experience in the Washington, DC metro area (VA and MD included).
Cross River, Maryland is a place where the middle class and even a few lowlifes try to find redemption against the weight of history which still presses too hard.
They Could Have Named Her Anything
Debut novelist and Latina Stephanie Jimenez tackles race and identity in this story about privilege and snobby private schools in New York. As someone with friends that went to Stuyvesant and Bronx Science, I am eager to read a bit more about their lives and the ways NYC compartmentalizes itself based on race, nationality, ethnicity, and class.
This is another novel coup by Little A, who has done a great job of nurturing lit fic authors of color. But please note I reserve the right to diss all other aspects of Amazon at all times (even though they own GoodReads lol).
713 Books on Tap
Indie Press 713 has two debut books coming out that have pique'd my interest.
The first, Not Everyone is Special, is a story collection with plenty of flash by Josh Denslow. Expect some delightfully wry humor.
The second, Portrait of Sebastian Khan, by Aatif Rashid, is about a young Muslim-American man who is about to finish college, but not quite ready to settle down.
A Lot to be excited about
Houston writer Bryan Washington's debut story collection has everybody super excited in bayou city. Just check out this tale in The New Yorker. Bryan's best work chronicles the intersection of black and Latinx lives in the US's third largest city, while also blending queer bildungsroman goodness.
The over/under on some bicurious Rice Undergrads popping up at House of Pies (aka "of Guys") at 2am in at least one tale is, like 4/10, but I expect reviews for this collection to be in the 9/10 territory.
Sabrina, not the teenage witch
Latinx writer Kali Fajardo-Anstine has a debut collection, Sabrina and Corina, coming out that sheds a new light on the American West's illusory promises and exasperating realities. Latina women face upheaval in the forms of gentrification, relocation, and a sense that "renewal" does not include them.
You have probably read a few of these stories in a top literary mag. They are soooo worth a second, third, and fourth read.
