Annette Lapointe

Nnedi Okorafor has an established reputation as a science fiction novelist and as a leading Africanfuturist.

Maggie Smith’s poetry collection Goldenrod emerges from a place of stillness.

In her 11th poetry collection, Bestiary Dark, Marianne Boruch goes back to Pliny the Elder, who asked, “The world, is it finite?” The answer is both no and yes.

“eminently readable, and its emotional effects linger beyond the last page.”

“wonderful and deeply engaging. The Membranes is a marvelous book.”

Cate Doty’s memoir Mergers and Acquisitions, Or, Everything I Know About Love I Learned on the Wedding Pages is a book written to appeal to those who love wedding culture, not to convert d

“Helen Oyeyemi’s craft improves with each successive novel.

“When Mezzanine anchors itself, when its persona raises her head and shows the way, it’s a marvellous and startling collection.”

The question of land—how we understand it, who controls it, how it’s been distributed/claimed/seized historically, and how climate change will alter it—is a crucial one.

“Seuss has created a technically exquisite, beautifully painful book.”

Tim Fielder’s book Infinitum tells the story of Aja Oba, an ancient African king who steals the son of his concubine and is cursed with immortality in revenge.

What is the foundation of civilization? The longtime answer has been the wheel. Other scholars claim that agriculture marks the beginning of civilization, or the domestication of animals.

“an entrancing family story and a surprising adventure. Gregory’s female characters are, as always, clearly human, deeply thoughtful, and driven by their own desires and agency.

“Mother for Dinner is a deeply uncomfortable novel. At times, it’s funny. At others, it’s a too-accurate examination of family ties. It’s also. . . about eating human flesh . . .

Debora L. Spar’s new book, Work Mate Marry Love, appears urgent and timely.

“deeply evocative, eminently readable . . .”

“This Town Sleeps is genuinely enjoyable. It has threads of mystery and romance. It combines humor and horror. It’s a good book . . .”

“And I Do Not Forgive You is uneven, but where it shines, it’s wonderful.”

“Okorafor’s future world, built out of real cultures and fully realized characters, should establish a new standard for science fiction in the 21st century.”

Sin eaters are historically marginal figures, outcasts of Britain who ate bread from coffins to absolve the sins of the dead.

The world of fantasy is alive with short fiction, and those wild-growing stories are bundled together by a league of anthologists who carefully arrange tales by theme.

“Read slowly to keep from flailing. Ortberg’s writing will wait for you to catch up.”

Matt Ruff’s novels are an eclectic tour through contemporary speculative fiction and horror. Ruff has a real affinity for identifying crucial culture influences and shaping stories around them.

“Meta-textual, self-reflexive, obscurely funny, and playful beyond easy articulation, it’s the perfect book for readers who delight in ‘the materiality of . . .

“Rusty Brown is a masterful study of ordinary American humanity.

Patrick Kyle’s graphic novels are enigmatic. His artwork is abstract and deeply resistant to simple representation, and his stories are surreal.

Emma Donoghue is a magnificent writer, but Akin is not her best novel. Still, it’s a high bar.

“thoughtfully rendered, carried through a harrowing, often funny, engaging personal story.”

“Ta-Nehisi Coates has long been among America’s most clear-eyed scholars of race and racism. The Water Dancer is a masterpiece built within that clarity.

“While The Testaments drops some of its political threads, it’s a wonderfully-written, absorbing novel.

“For the writers of this anthology, personal essays are political acts. . . . it’s an accessible, engaging book . . .”

“Fully Automated Luxury Communism is an accessible, intelligent, and profoundly optimistic text with the potential to spark a revolution.”

Poetic culture still grapples with the question, what is the proper subject for poetry?

Semicolon is a charming book. Cecelia Watson takes on “the most feared punctuation mark on earth” (cf.

Ma Jian’s China Dream is a dissident novel in all senses of the term. It’s a novel written by a dissident: “every novel [Ma has] written has been banned in the mainland.

“Orange World and Other Stories exposes the difficulties of wanting. . . . Characters long for things that have no name. They live on the edge of terror.

Post-apocalyptic novels featuring orphaned teenage girl protagonists proliferate. They fill their own shelves in bookstores, and their adaptations feed film studios and crowd streaming services.

“The range of Rollins’ poetic skill is remarkable. The result is a collection of poetry which is magnificently crafted, readable, and crucially important.”

“a narrative that reminds its readers of the extent to which everyone who came after the LSD experiments, and the psychedelic sixties, is drawn to that story, but forever remains outside it

“Too Fat to Go to the Moon mainly distinguishes itself by its lack of charm, insight, plot, humanity, or willingness to engage on any real intellectual level.

Caroline Knox’s poetry collection Hear Trains seems to arrive from another era. Its strong early poems are rural, sensory affairs.

“New terrors are what Kiernan offers, for worse, but for transformative worse.”

“Guestbook is best appreciated as a portable art installation. The book is enigmatic at every turn, but gorgeously realized.

“Hempel’s stripped-down prose carries enormous emotional weight. Her writing is devoid of all clichés.

“The Handsome Monk and Other Stories is engaging, charming, and often dark. It offers a rare and apparently honest view of modern Tibet . . .”

“Real discussions about race are complex, and so is good art. Savage Conversations breaks apart the myth of the Lincolns as white saviors.

“Graham’s poems are dense with meter and immersed in sound. They are living things that only surrender their technical cleverness to the human voice.

“Art of Feminism isn’t a book for art students, and it’s not a book for engaged feminists.

“Evening in Paradise encompasses two continents, three countries, and a comfortable complexity in human relationships.

“far-reaching, ambitious, and urgently queer. . . . it contains magnificent work worth diving into, even at the risk of drowning or being devoured.”

“The result is an art book: an exploration of an artist’s work with an eye to comprehensive coverage.”

“It’s rare to find a genre novel so satisfying in its commitment to political realism . . .”

Zahhak: The Legend of the Serpent King straddles the line between book and art object.

A. E. Stallings’ reputation as a poet is already established. She has the distinction of being a McArthur Fellow (2011), that peculiar laurel that bestows “genius” on the recipient.

“Never saccharine, often wry, always charming, this book seduces its readers and infects them with the desire for whimsical dishes and intimate connection.”

“Deforge has created a little book that’s both funny and disturbing.”

This is a golden age of independent comics. Artists develop singular approaches, cultivate followings online, and burst into the print scene with fully developed universes and styles.

“The Grand Medieval Bestiary feels magical, valuable, and important.”

Megan Mullally and Nick Offerman are often cited as “couple goals” for their 18-year relationship.

“To Survive on This Shore radically widens the range of visible trans experiences.

Nick Thorburn is best known as the lead singer of the indie-pop band The Unicorns, and his work carries with it that deliberately whimsical approach to art and creation.

“The Silence of the Girls is magnificent. It is a novel that lays open all the human experiences that the Iliad buries.”

“Chambers’ thoughtful, measured work is offers space opera the depth and complexity it so often lacks. Her work is profound, engaging, and beautifully written.”