Page One: Where New and Noteworthy Books Begin

by
Staff
From the September/October 2010 issue of
Poets & Writers Magazine

Skippy and Ruprecht are having a doughnut-eating race one evening when Skippy turns purple and falls off his chair." Skippy Dies (Faber and Faber, September 2010) by Paul Murray. Second book, novel. Agent: Peter Straus. Editor: Mitzi Angel. Publicist: Brian Gittis.

"It was the year my uncle got arrested for killing his wife, and our family was the subject of all the town gossip." Vida (Black Cat, September 2010) by Patricia Engel. First book, story collection. Agent: Ayesha Pande. Editor: Lauren Wein. Publicist: Martin Wilson.

"In prison / without being accused // or reach your family / or have a family." Break the Glass (Copper Canyon Press, September 2010) by Jean Valentine. Twelfth book, poetry collection. Agent: None. Editor: Michael Wiegers. Publicist: Janna Rademacher.

"The photograph is small, printed on shiny black stock, black and white and curled at the edges." Book of Days (Spiegel & Grau, August 2010) by Emily Fox Gordon. Fourth book, first essay collection. Agent: Elyse Cheney. Editor: Julie Grau. Publicist: Jynne Martin.

"We were so happy." Half Empty (Doubleday, September 2010) by David Rakoff. Third book, essay collection. Agent: Irene Skolnick. Editor: William Thomas. Publicist: Rachel Lapal.

"Saturday morning in Saint Paul, church bells ringing the hour." Vestments (Milkweed Editions, September 2010) by John Reimringer. First book, novel. Agent: None. Editor: Daniel Slager. Publicist: Jennifer Harmening.

"There was a squirrel trapped in the wall behind my stove in October." The Physics of Imaginary Objects (University of Pittsburgh Press, September 2010) by Tina May Hall. First book, story collection. Agent: None. Editor: Deborah Meade. Publicist: Maria Sticco.

"Dear Saint Patrick, this is Peggy, / Or maybe it's Pegeen to you, / Well, I'm really Stella Mae." No Surrender (Norton, September 2010) by Ai. Eighth book, poetry collection. Agent: None. Editor: Jill Bialosky. Publicist: Melissa Whitley.

"The best way to remember people after they've passed is to remember the good about them." Salvation City (Riverhead Books, September 2010) by Sigrid Nunez. Sixth book, novel. Agent: Joy Harris. Editor: Sarah McGrath. Publicist: Kimberly Burns.

"Everything is supposedly ‘like' something else, or forced into skin, / has already been taken advantage of / by an Aesthetic (Affirmative) Action." Skin, Inc. (Graywolf Press, September 2010) by Thomas Sayers Ellis. Second book, poetry collection. Agent: None. Editor: Jeffrey Shotts. Publicist: Erin Kottke.

"This place is as large as any other town." Sprawl (Siglio Press, August 2010) by Danielle Dutton. Second book, first novel. Agent: None. Editor: Lisa Pearson. Publicist: Lisa Pearson.

"On my own head be it if, after the years of elocution and pianoforte, / the idea that I may have veered // away from the straight / and narrow of Brooklyn or Baltimore for a Baltic state // is one at which, all things being equal, I would demur." Maggot (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, September 2010) by Paul Muldoon. Eleventh book, poetry collection. Agent: None. Editor: Jonathan Galassi. Publicist: Alyson Sinclair.